Season 339 - "Let There Be Light"

I received this pm from John aka One Man And His Uke earlier today - reposted here so that you can at least see his video. If anyone has any potential solutions to his posting issues please pm John (or me and I'll happily pass it on). Thanks all!

One Man And His Uke said:
Hi Del, for some reason I don’t understand, I can log in but not post on the Seasons, or any other thread for that matter. Anyway, I was going to post this one, which I was surprised no one had done yet.....;)

Don’t know if you are able to stick it on the playlist from there, not to worry if not,
John
 
I thought I was done for this week, but then I thought back to my days fronting Catalan Rock Band "Pere Flipat" (1987-1993) and I remembered a short rocky number that we did that is perfect for this week's theme.

So without further ado, here is a solo version of a song obviously inspired by Dylan Thomas' poem "Do Not Go Gently into that Good Night"

 
newsflash: your host is now lifting the 2 songs per day limit until the end of the season


All other theme rules still apply - so....

LET THERE BE MORE LIGHT!
 
Update. I can now reply to threads. I think it was because I’d just changed my email and it needed verification before I could post...so, as you were, and Thanks Del for posting my vid :)
 
I saw this song pop up on Youtube the other day, so I decided to work it up. It's a Stonewall Jackson song from the early 80's, when he was on an independent label, and I'd never heard of it before. It leans to the religious side of things, and I am not religious, but the message of it is good given the state of the world currently. I say just hand everyone a ukulele and the world would be great quick!

 
I was going to do a Michael Nesmith song that I have been playing all week, but suddenly I was recording this song instead and it came together in about an hour or so. This is Moonshadow by Cat Stevens. I spell it Moon Shadow as two words, I don't know, maybe it looks better to me. I have a twelve year old so it's all about the aesthetic. Again, I just have a pic as the video with song because I find it easier to hear the song without the clutter of visual. Ironic as video is all about light.

 
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Here's another from me, an original. This is a rewrite of a song I wrote some time ago but was never happy with. I had an idea for the beginning last night and went from there today. I worked in some 'light' words so it would fit this week's theme.
The song involves a railway journey so the video (well slide show really) had to be about trains.


Forgot to say, the words are on You Tube but I'll add them here anyway.

Heading Home
Geoff Walker

[G]Kings Cross station, [C]Friday evening
[D]Diesels roar in [Em]cavernous gloom
[C]Here's my train, it's [G]looking busy
[Am]Find a seat, let's hope there's [D]room

[C]Easing now out [G]of the station,
[D]Through the tunnel and [Em]into the light
[C]Speeding now through [G]Eastern England
[D]The towns we pass soon out of [G]sight

Chorus
[G]Northwards through the [C]rolling country
[D]Heading for my [Em]Yorkshire home
[C]Traveling through [G]Eastern England
[D]Heading for my Yorkshire [G]home

I'm heading home to see my loved one
We first met three years ago
For a time we were so happy
For we loved each other so.

She took me home to meet her family
Her Dad and I did not get on
There was a row, a dreadful row
And I thought our love was gone.
Chorus

Then last week I had a letter,
Saying how she missed me so
Her Dad was gone, she was alone
"If you still love me, please come home"

Slowing now in gathering twilight
It's the station stop for me
Will she be waiting here? I wonder
Is that her waving to me I see?
Chorus (x2)
 
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I really liked Juliana Hatfield's first solo album, "Hey Babe". It's my favorite album of hers, but she made it quickly, and doesn't seem to think highly of it because she didn't slave over it. It's such a good album that this great song is only maybe my 7th favorite on the album, and it jumped immediately to mind for this Season. There's a lot of light imagery in the lyrics.

I've now done one song this Season from each of my three favorite areas of music -- progressive rock, alternative rock, and the Richard Thompson/Fairport Convention branch of rock/folk. And I did them on three different ukes.

 
This one is an original of mine from 2009. Since I've played it in the Seasons before, and since I'm playing a different uke on every video this week, I'm changing things up by playing it on the tiple this time.

For those unfamiliar with the tiple, about a hundred years ago the Martin Co. apparently decided there needed to be a ukulele equivalent to a 12-string guitar. They took the South American tiple (pronounced tee-play), and changed the tuning and flights, creating an instrument with 10 steel strings and ukulele tuning. I've compared it to the hellspawn of a ukulele and a barbed wire fence. The American tiple has come to be pronounced "tipple", because trying to tune one will drive you to drink. Anyway, like an idiot, I bought one years ago. And like an idiot, I thought it would be a good idea to use it for the first time in a year to play a song based around a Cm barre chord.




Lyrics:

Keep driving through the pitch-black night
Straight ribbon stretching out of sight
Sign pointing, unknown
This way just feels like home

Hear oldies at 2 AM
Songs I thought I'd never hear again
Pull over, ease my pounding head
Re-focus on the road ahead

And she's the only, yes, she's the only light on the road
She's the only, yes, she's the only light on the road

Climb back up behind the wheel
Drive by taste, drive by feel
Dark beacon calls me on
Always forward, never gone

Ease, comfort, just an hour more
I'll be pulling up to the door
My baby is my North Star
A magnet tugging on my weary car

And she's the only, yes, she's the only light on the road
She's the only, yes, she's the only light on the road
 
We interrupt this season briefly to announce the intro video for Season 340 is up.

Continue lighting our lives!!
 
I checked with our host to make sure this one was okay.

One of my favorite anime series is Hellsing. A clip of this song was used for the closing theme of the original series. When I first heard it, I thought it was a really cool song, so I looked up the full version. So it's one of my favorite songs.

Before I heard that clip, I had never even heard of the band Mr. Big. They are an American band who are apparently a lot more popular in Japan than in the U.S. They started way back in 1988 and, except for a several-year hiatus in the early 2000s, they are still active. "Shine" went to #4 on the Japan charts in 2001, but didn't chart anywhere else.

 
I said I was gonna get preoccupied with fire but in the end I decided I needed distraction from that...this is just ridiculous folks. Anyway, I still had to do one. This is a new band that kind of embodies a few things from the last 35 years of music (in particular punk rock) that I hold dear. This band (all Brothers) can very handily summon the fast and frenetic brand of SKA that made me so love Operation Ivy...and the singer has perfected the Brody Dalle (Distillers) gravel vocal that I so adore. Funny, one band from when I was young and dumb...one from when I began to realize I might be a tad old for “punk rock dancing”...both very deeply associated with Tim Armstrong (Rancid, Operation Ivy)-we all knew as Lint when we were kids, who has really made a mark on this particular kind of music. Anyway- pretty sure this is the first song ever covered here from The Interrupters, and it has been on constant rotation since Spotify told me to put it there.
She’s Kerosene. Both matches and fire herein.
Thanks for this week Del- excellent stuff all over and a ton of fun!
 
This is a Procol Harum song that's been in my head all week. I didn't think I'd have time this Season to figure out the chords, but Chordify got me pretty close. I'm playing it on an armadillo-shell concert uke.


 
Here's a "Whispering" Bill Anderson song. I bet he's sang this one on the Grand Ol Opry a thousand times or more. I never have tried it before. I went for brights lights instead of dim light this time.

 
I was at some friends' house discussing this week's theme. One of my oldest friends, Shawn, fired up his iTunes and searched for "light." His favorite song among the search results sounded great, and it was new to me, so I learned to play a version for this Season :p

The song was written and originally performed by Little Wings. There are a couple great cover versions, too, one by Feist and another by Flo Morrissey and Matthew E. White.

 
Here's a Bob Luman song I heard on a "Pop goes the country" TV show from the 70's a few months ago. It went to #25 on the charts for him, about two years before he died. This song has weird timing in both the playing and the vocal phrasing, and I didn't have a lot of time when I recorded this, so this was the best take I could get out of a quick work up. Really like the song though.

 
Howdy all,well blow my socks off ive managed to do 2 weeks back to back,that's not happened for about 2 years. Well such a great theme this week, i simply just had to take part.
many thanks for our marvellous host and all the wonderful entries. Well here is my little light of contribution.

 
Just barely squeezing into 339. Ruby Tuesday has a nice line about the brightest sun and the darkest night, and I thought it would qualify.
 
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