SOTU 544 -- Tell the Tale!

Ila

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Greetings, fellow Seasonistas! This week we are focusing on songs that tell a story. Not in an oblique way of boy meets girl, but rather, an actual tale, like this one:



There are storytelling songs in almost every type of music imaginable: folk (“Puff the Magic Dragon”), rock (“Lola”), country (“The Devil Went Down to Georgia”), disco (“Copacabana”), TV (“Theme from F Troop”), ballads (“Escape” a.k.a. “The Piña Colada Song”), Broadway (“Sit Down, You’re Rocking the Boat”), children (“The Itsy Bitsy Spider”), etc. I’m confident you can think of many more. Let’s see how many awesome storytelling covers we can submit this week.

So here are the week’s parameters:
  • The video must be newly recorded for this Season. Rob may submit earlier recordings.
  • Please try not to do a song another Seasonista has already covered this week.
  • The video must say that it is for SOTU 544 - Tell the Tale.
  • The ukulele must be prominent. Other instruments are welcome but the uke must be front and center. And visible.
  • Original songs are always welcome. If you do choose to submit an original song, please post the lyrics so we can all read them.
  • Videos must be posted to this thread. But not before midnight tonight, Hawaiian time, in keeping with tradition. (And remember, Season 543 is still in play! Keep submitting Brill songs!)
  • The Season lasts for 8 days, and ends at midnight Hawaiian time on Sunday night, July 24th.
  • There is no limit to the number of videos you can submit. Indeed, let’s make this playlist ginormous!!!
The playlist link is: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOE-LSahSNE5S1Thtq3MYx4VfEbqvisyM

The prize will be something small and uke-themed that can be shipped internationally with ease. Please invite other players to join in; the more the merrier.

Most importantly, HAVE FUN.
 
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I like it!

Over/under on how many “Alice’s Restaurant“ or “Edmund Fitzgerald“ covers we get? ;-)
 
I like it!

Over/under on how many “Alice’s Restaurant“ or “Edmund Fitzgerald“ covers we get? ;-)
Hehe. I'm on holiday from Wednesday so I'm wondering if later in the week I can bring myself to have another go at "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts", which has to be my favourite story song. Is there a prize for longest song? :)
 
Hi Ila, thanks for hosting. I like this topic and thing Mr Bojangles fits the bill. Written by Jerry Jeff Walker, some say it is about his meeting of Bill Robinson "Mr Bojangles" in a drunk cell, others dispute this. Whatever the back story it is sad and poignant. Hope my version is OK
 
Hehe. I'm on holiday from Wednesday so I'm wondering if later in the week I can bring myself to have another go at "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts", which has to be my favourite story song. Is there a prize for longest song? :)
Hehe. I'm on holiday from Wednesday so I'm wondering if later in the week I can bring myself to have another go at "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts", which has to be my favourite story song. Is there a prize for longest song? :)
Edwin ease into it with Hurricane. At 8 minutes it's a few minutes less than Lily R JOH's :)
 
Forgive me Mr Dury. A story about gypsies/travellers and their run ins with the old Bill/rozzers/police.

I took out all the seats and away I went
It's a right old banger and the chassis's bent
It's got a great big peace sign across the back
And most of the windows have been painted black

The windshield's cracked, it's a bugger to drive
It starts making smoke over forty-five
It's a psychedelic nightmare with a million leaks
It's home-sweet-home to some sweet-arse freaks

Slow down itinerant child, the road is full of danger
Slow down itinerant child, there's no more "Welcome, stranger"

Soon I was rumbling through the morning fog
With my long haired children and my one eyed dog
With the trucks and the buses and the trailer-vans
My long throw horns playing Steely Dan

We straggled out for miles along the beggar's hill
When the word came down that we'd lost Old Bill
You can bet your boots I'm coming when the times are hard
That's why they keep my dossier at Scotland Yard

Slow down itinerant child, you're still accelerating
Slow down itinerant child, the boys in blue are waiting
Itinerant child don't do what your doing
Itinerant child you'd better slow down

We drove into happy valley seeking peace and love
With a lone helicopter hanging up above
We didn't realise until we hit the field
There were four hundred rozzers holding riot shields

They terrorized our babies and they broke our heads
It's a stone f***ng miracle there's no-one dead
They turned my ramshackle home into a burning wreck
My one-eyed dog got a broken neck
 
Songwriters' Block? Find yourself a Bone of Song. Josh Ritter song...he should be more well known.
Should be a ripper week Ila! On Guitarlele.
 
I can think of a few other Seasonistas who might have this one on their list, so I'll get in quick and tell it.

 
Well we're off to an excellent start with tales of convicts, hippies, bones, outlaws, and crazy ladies (the funny thing is I actually knew someone who was that bonkers over Tom Jones! She even had a room in her house dedicated to him if he ever stopped there, and she had a very resignedly patient husband who put up with an entire house filled with Tom Jones memorabilia. He knew that given the chance to be with Tom Jones, she'd dump him in a New York minute.)

I can already tell that this week will be a rich one, indeed! I can't wait to see what offerings are submitted today.
 
Hi Ila, thanks for hosting again! This is a fun topic, and, by happy coincidence, yesterday for some reason I decided it'd be fun to try telling a shaggy dog story in the form of a song. I don't know of the origin of this story, but you can find it in all sorts of forms in various places on the internet. It's about a noise, so I called it "The Noise". Chords and lyrics included, but don't read too far ahead if you don't want spoilers :).

 
Well I wasn't meaning to do another one today, but I realised this song that I wrote during February Album Writing Month would fit, and it's one I've been waiting for an excuse to post for ages. It's a story of the mundane lives of commuters on London's Northern Line. It was inspired by a game of Mornington Crescent that was going on on the forums, and I just like the way the name Mornington Crescent sounds...

Radio 4 listeners may spot a few references to a certain long running panel game. If only I could have got Humph on the trumpet.

 
Ila, thank you for hosting! I love songs that tell stories. And I want to follow the rules, but because it usually takes me most of the week to learn a song, I can't guarantee I won't do something that someone else has already covered... I'm going to work on Loreena McKennitt's beautiful setting of The Lady of Shalott but will probably pick just some of the verses since otherwise I think it might be even longer than Hurricane and LRJOH!
 
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