Season # 533: "Spring Break"

[Mark Suszko]

SEASON OF THE UKULELE # 533: “Spring Break”

The category involves songs about Spring Break, or songs you yourself heard during one of your spring breaks, a spring vacation, or, if you never went anywhere on a spring break, pick a top 100 song from the year you graduated high school in the US, (or the European equivalent), preferably from between April and August of that year. For you Europeans, US high schools and colleges go on vacation around the week of Easter, and this is traditionally a time for students to go off on a holiday jaunt with family or friends, often to warm and semi-tropical places. But it doesn't have to be a beach to qualify. Any musical genre’ accepted. As an example, one year we took a trip to visit family in Colorado, and my uncle’s car had a looping tape of Fleetwood Mac in it all week, so “The Chain” and “Monday Morning” and Denver are indelibly welded into my brain from that spring. We’re looking for that kind of song that was part of your Spring Break/High school/college graduation experience, from Sisqo to Sinatra and anything in between. Tastefulness is optional: just nothing technically obscene, please.

Along with your entry, please add a little description text about the song you picked and your relation to it in the “Spring Break” context. I’ll be entering a song of my own that’s not part of the challenge. Nobody needs to comment on it to be eligible to win the prize. I just didn't want to feel left out.

There will be a random drawing prize winner picked and awarded by me, from among all the entries at the end of the week: that winner will have to give me a mailing address for their very insubstantial token gift. This is my first try at hosting; please be gentle with me I hope I have the listing location and playlist link correct; I would appreciate assistance from the Old Hands here if something needs fixing.

Here's the rule, please read them all, as some of the options may have changed:

• Covers and originals all welcome.
• Never wear pearls with plaid.
• Multitracking and collaborations are welcome, and indeed, encouraged, as long as there's an obvious uke somewhere in the mix.
• No song limits - submit as many as you dare.
• Please only post new recordings made specifically for this week.
• Don’t mix grain and grape when imbibing.
• Please say/ add a graphic, either in the video or description on youtube, that it's recorded for Season 533: “Spring Break”
• For covers, remember to put the title and original artist/composer somewhere in the description.
• Support the other contributors with constructive appreciation; Don’t forget to listen to and comment on the other submissions!
• Never buy an extended car warranty over the phone.
• Ketchup does not belong on a hot dog if you are over six years old.

This notice might go up early, but the Season Of The Ukulele # 533 will officially begin at 00:00:01 Hawaiian Time on Sunday May 1, and ends at 23:59:59 Hawaiian time on Sunday May 7th. Don’t be “that guy” that posts early. Nobody likes that guy.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1du5bGGcgXvImwhSN7cH-HukdhwNLdIH

Just to set the mood... this is 24 tracks of attempted harmonies, some of it is almost on pitch. It evokes a spring break feel in my mind.

 

[Ila]

Ketchup does not belong on a hot dog if you are over six years old.

AMEN.

 

[Mark Suszko]

AMEN.

Chicago, represent!

 

[Canada Jim]

• Ketchup does not belong on a hot dog if you are over six years old.

. . . nor on anything else. . . as long as it has sauerkraut and onions, and as long as it's not boiled, hot dogs are wonderful. . . and no, I don't know or care what's in 'em. I think that anything that might be good with ketchup (catsup) is even better with chili sauce.

Now to work up a version of Where The Boys Are. Isn't that the archetypal "Spring Break" song.

 

[Mark Suszko]

. . . nor on anything else. . . as long as it has sauerkraut and onions, and as long as it's not boiled, hot dogs are wonderful. . . and no, I don't know or care what's in 'em. I think that anything that might be good with ketchup (catsup) is even better with chili sauce.

Now to work up a version of Where The Boys Are. Isn't that the archetypal "Spring Break" song.

 

[Mark Suszko]

Also in that vein, there's two girls for every boy in Surf City, or so I hear... but one need not limit themselves to beachy type songs for this week. If the song was around when you went on that trip, or the year you graduated, it qualifies, and if you never went anywhere, but there was a song around that time that sticks out, that will work as well. I just looked at the billboard top 100 for spring of 1984, and there are some amazing (and some amazingly lame as well) choices there. And that's just one year. So feel free to stretch.

 

[Mark Suszko]

There's a difference between a Chicago Style and a Maxwell Street Chicago Style. Both have their adherents.

 

[Mark Suszko]

SEASON OF THE UKULELE # 533: “Spring Break”

The category involves songs about Spring Break, or songs you yourself heard during one of your spring breaks, a spring vacation, or, if you never went anywhere on a spring break, pick a top 100 song from the year you graduated high school in the US, (or the European equivalent), preferably from between April and August of that year. For you Europeans, US high schools and colleges go on vacation around the week of Easter, and this is traditionally a time for students to go off on a holiday jaunt with family or friends, often to warm and semi-tropical places. But it doesn't have to be a beach to qualify. Any musical genre’ accepted. As an example, one year we took a trip to visit family in Colorado, and my uncle’s car had a looping tape of Fleetwood Mac in it all week, so “The Chain” and “Monday Morning” and Denver are indelibly welded into my brain from that spring. We’re looking for that kind of song that was part of your Spring Break/High school/college graduation experience, from Sisqo to Sinatra and anything in between. Tastefulness is optional: just nothing technically obscene, please.

Along with your entry, please add a little description text about the song you picked and your relation to it in the “Spring Break” context. I’ll be entering a song of my own that’s not part of the challenge. Nobody needs to comment on it to be eligible to win the prize. I just didn't want to feel left out.

There will be a random drawing prize winner picked and awarded by me, from among all the entries at the end of the week: that winner will have to give me a mailing address for their very insubstantial token gift. This is my first try at hosting; please be gentle with me I hope I have the listing location and playlist link correct; I would appreciate assistance from the Old Hands here if something needs fixing.

Here's the rule, please read them all, as some of the options may have changed:

• Covers and originals all welcome.
• Never wear pearls with plaid.
• Multitracking and collaborations are welcome, and indeed, encouraged, as long as there's an obvious uke somewhere in the mix.
• No song limits - submit as many as you dare.
• Please only post new recordings made specifically for this week.
• Don’t mix grain and grape when imbibing.
• Please say/ add a graphic, either in the video or description on youtube, that it's recorded for Season 533: “Spring Break”
• For covers, remember to put the title and original artist/composer somewhere in the description.
• Support the other contributors with constructive appreciation; Don’t forget to listen to and comment on the other submissions!
• Never buy an extended car warranty over the phone.
• Ketchup does not belong on a hot dog if you are over six years old.

This notice might go up early, but the Season Of The Ukulele # 533 will officially begin at 00:00:01 Hawaiian Time on Sunday May 1, and ends at 23:59:59 Hawaiian time on Sunday May 7th. Don’t be “that guy” that posts early. Nobody likes that guy.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1du5bGGcgXvImwhSN7cH-HukdhwNLdIH

Just to set the mood... this is 24 tracks of attempted harmonies, some of it is almost on pitch. It evokes a spring break feel in my mind.

BTW, on consultation with the Uke Underground Illuminati, Rob can enter whatever Rob wants, and if he does, will be entered in the random drawing as well. Rock on, Rob!

 

[Flatbaroque]

Hi Mark. Thanks for hosting...been enjoying your vids the past few weeks. Spring Break is not a thing in Australia so I've gone for the year I left school. 1973. One of my favourite bands then was Jethro Tull. Their Living in the Past album was charting here then. This song from the album also has a holiday and beach theme. The English beach cliches always amuse us sun bronzed aussies ( says the pasty man who's been sun burned every summer for the last 66 years .
The guitarlele suits Ian Anderson's guitar playing. He often plays his small Martin guitar capoed up the neck. So I only have to capo on 2 instead of 7 if it was a guitar.

 

[Mark Suszko]

Annnd we're off, I guess....! Your Ian Anderson vocal impression is pretty close. My wife said she used to dance to 'Locomotive Breath' in high school, which I have some trouble picturing. I'm lead to understand the Aussie equivalent of American Spring Break would be called "Schoolies", BTW...

Flatbaroque here demonstrates that if you're in a part of the world where the Spring Break travel ritual isn't a "thing" - you can still absolutely get in on the fun for this week anyway. One man's beach party is another's ski adventure. Or a trip to the woods, rolling two wheels down a long highway, or havering around the heather.... looking to meet the girl or guy of your summer.

Pick a Billboard top 100 from the spring of your graduation year if you like... or, use some imagination in picking songs that cover the actual idea of vacation travel. "Holiday Road", anyone? "Summer Lovin', had me a blast?" Jay Ferguson, "Out On Thunder Island"? "Havana"? "The Thong Song?" "Word Up"? "Dance Monkey"? Or you can go way back in time, to a nice slow dance like "Always and Forever", or further back, to the 50's, 40's, 30's, 20's... This challenge is like a pair of "relaxed fit" pants - you'd be amazed what you can fit in there if you try.

 

[wee_ginga_yin]

BYW, on consultation with the Uke Underground Illuminati, Rob can enter whatever Rob wants, and if he does, will be entered in the random drawing as well.

That is very kind of you. We don't have the concept of Spring Break in Scotland, but in Finland when students get their white hat apon graduation they travel around on the backs of lorries thrown sweets at the people on the streets.

 

[wee_ginga_yin]

They say never work with animals and small children. Imogen is more interested in a watermelon rind, Olivia in my phone, and only Elli puts on a semblance of professionalism. It is fun to dig up these old videos, and i suppose coming from the UK to Finland is a Spring break for the grandkids.

 

[Canada Jim]

The House Of The Rising Sun - P.D.

During Spring Break 1965, Alan Stewart and I drove his Austin Mini through the Appalachian mountains looking for railroads that still had steam locomotives. At one small grocery store, we went in to pick up some supplies and to ask the owner where would be a good place to pitch a tent. He offered us his hunting lodge and gave us some wild leeks to add to our supper. The next morning, we went back to thank him and a few of the other owners of the lodge were also there. The TV was on and when Odetta sang "House Of The Rising Sun" the fellows who until then had seemed like really nice guys, started making negative comments about Odetta's race and size. Enough good came of that trip that this wasn't enough to ruin it, but it was uncomfortable and we felt guilty afterwards for not saying anything.
We did find a couple of live steam railroads so overall it was a great trip.
So many people added this song to their repertoire in the late fifties/early sixties that it became a cliché, but it still reminds me of 1965 spring break.

 

[LimousinLil]

Hello, Mark and thanks for hosting; hope you will enjoy your first week! I had quite a lot of trouble finding anything that fitted with your theme as "Spring Breaks" (or "Schoolies") are a bit of a foreign concept in the UK. I actually grew up by the sea - but not the surf, sun and sand variety of California; more the mud, stones and seaweed variety of southern England. Living as we did, though, in a holiday destination, we never actually went anywhere else on holiday as a family until I was thirteen, when I travelled abroad for the first time ... to Paris; and it WAS in the Spring school break. I remember this song (from an old French musical of 1964) being played in the restaurant of the hotel where we stayed.

 

[Cornfield]

I wrote this for Spring. I think it qualifies as a Spring Break song.

 

[Mark Suszko]

Hello, Mark and thanks for hosting; hope you will enjoy your first week! I had quite a lot of trouble finding anything that fitted with your theme as "Spring Breaks" (or "Schoolies") are a bit of a foreign concept in the UK. I actually grew up by the sea - but not the surf, sun and sand variety of California; more the mud, stones and seaweed variety of southern England. Living as we did, though, in a holiday destination, we never actually went anywhere else on holiday as a family until I was thirteen, when I travelled abroad for the first time ... to Paris; and it WAS in the Spring school break. I remember this song (from an old French musical of 1964) being played in the restaurant of the hotel where we stayed.

That's what I'm talking about!

 

[Mark Suszko]

The House Of The Rising Sun - P.D.

During Spring Break 1965, Alan Stewart and I drove his Austin Mini through the Appalachian mountains looking for railroads that still had steam locomotives. At one small grocery store, we went in to pick up some supplies and to ask the owner where would be a good place to pitch a tent. He offered us his hunting lodge and gave us some wild leeks to add to our supper. The next morning, we went back to thank him and a few of the other owners of the lodge were also there. The TV was on and when Odetta sang "House Of The Rising Sun" the fellows who until then had seemed like really nice guys, started making negative comments about Odetta's race and size. Enough good came of that trip that this wasn't enough to ruin it, but it was uncomfortable and we felt guilty afterwards for not saying anything.
We did find a couple of live steam railroads so overall it was a great trip.
So many people added this song to their repertoire in the late fifties/early sixties that it became a cliché, but it still reminds me of 1965 spring break.

To me, your experience points out that in each of us is a duality of spirit, and it takes time to truly understand who a person is. Do you know the parable about the Two Wolves? Societies are also like that, I think. There is giving and sharing, alongside hate and fear. Which wolf we choose to feed is the question.

 

[Mark Suszko]

Hello, Mark and thanks for hosting; hope you will enjoy your first week! I had quite a lot of trouble finding anything that fitted with your theme as "Spring Breaks" (or "Schoolies") are a bit of a foreign concept in the UK. I actually grew up by the sea - but not the surf, sun and sand variety of California; more the mud, stones and seaweed variety of southern England. Living as we did, though, in a holiday destination, we never actually went anywhere else on holiday as a family until I was thirteen, when I travelled abroad for the first time ... to Paris; and it WAS in the Spring school break. I remember this song (from an old French musical of 1964) being played in the restaurant of the hotel where we stayed.

That was lovely and I had completely forgotten this song until you brought it back, thanks so much!

 

[Mark Suszko]

I wrote this for Spring. I think it qualifies as a Spring Break song.

Very evocative lyrics, but you made me do a spit take on the tornado reference We planted new trees on my property last year and the Prarie Fire Crab tree is in full bloom glory right now. The Zelcovia my wife got for an anniversary gift last year has been shy and slow to bud, and we were afraid it hadn't survived the winter. After three days of rain this week it has finnally decided it might be time to pop out some leaves. My wife's anticipating this guy will grow big enough to shade the entire house and driveway. It won't be the first time we've seen trees we've planted get big enough to shade a house... but it's always miraculous to see. Now get busy on that lawn!

 

[UkeFoote]

Spring break 1980... my freshman year. We drove to the Jersey Shore where the drinking age was 18. This tune was just breaking the charts... it was the first single the Clash released in the USA. I was already a big Clash fan and had seen them in Philadelphia earlier in the year.
"Train in Vain (Stand By Me)", for concert ukulele and singing, with an overdub of electric bass.

This one is freshly minted, but serving doubly as my entry in season 532 as well

Thanks for hosting, Mark!