Season 454 - Epiphany (or a sudden great change) + J.M.

Barbablanca

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Welcome to Season 454

I am not going to go for the obvious choice of songs about Halloween, or witches, zombies, etc. this week. No, instead I am going for a more transformational theme.

Now, as usual with my Seasons, there will be two themes, one for the songwriters and one for those who prefer to do covers.

There will be no prize for the covers, other than my thanks. However, for the Songwriter's section I will be awarding the person I choose as the Winner with a MYSTERY UKULELE ASSOCIATED STRINGED INSTRUMENT - only to be revealed when the Season is over.

The theme for songwriters is "Epiphany - or a sudden great change!"

The term "epiphany" usually refers to a moment when something suddenly becomes clear to a person dwelling on a problem. Famous examples being: Archimedes in his bath realising he could use water displacement to measure mass, or else Newton getting bonked on the head with an apple and making the connection with gravity. You can use examples like that of moments in your own life (or the life of your fictional narrator).

My use of the word tends towards how James Joyce, the novelist, used the word. In "Stephen Hero"- an early version of "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" - Stephen says that epiphanies are a sudden and momentary showing forth or disclosure of one’s authentic inner self. That is the sense in which I used the word in my song entitled "Epiphany" that I submitted to Season 453.

So, I'd like you to write a song in which your protagonist experiences such a profound shift in their vision of the world, or your protagonist describes such a shift in others.

This momentous occasion which causes a reassessment of one's life could be the moment you met your partner, the birth of your first child, the death of a loved one, some enormous stroke of luck or unbelievable coincidence, etc, etc. Indeed, any event that brought on a sudden and lasting change in the life of the person experiencing this moment. You should include the event and something about its aftermath. How did it change the person it happened to and what were the lasting effects of the epiphany.

I will give bonus points to anyone declaring that the song(s) submitted is/are the first one(s) you have ever let the public hear. So, for those of you who didn't know you had it in you to write a song, in the video you can see my carrot to get you writing!


Hope that whets all your appetites to get song writing.

For those of you wanting to offer me covers this week, your theme is "J.M." - Three of my favourite songwriters in order of their discovery by my young self were: Jim Morrison (who led me into a cul-de-sac of terrible poetry ), Joni Mitchell ( who I worship from afar and believe to be one of the greatest songwriters ever) and John Martyn (who sadly squandered his early promise through alcoholism and drugs and lost a leg and then his life as a result).

So you can bring me any songs WRITTEN BY (not covered by) one of those artists.

Or indeed if you know of any other songwriters whose initials are J.M. then bring me one of theirs.

Usual rules apply: the video should feature a ukulele (or close cousin). Multi-tracking is welcome . Your first entry should not be submitted before the starting gun of Hawaiian Midnight on Saturday 24th October nor after Hawaiian Midnight on All Saints Day.

I am requesting that you keep the number of submissions to one a day - or if you prefer seven over the week.

And as usual, please respect Season 453, which still has a day to run.

I look forward immensely to hearing and viewing what you have in store for me this week.


PLAYLIST Originals



Playlist Covers

PS Please put the lyrics of original songs either in the thread here or else in the Description on your YouTube submission - thanks
 
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Berni you wonderful man.

As it happens I've been writing a song this week in which the narrator contemplates a change in how they approach life, although there's no big triggering moment for it like you seem to want.
 
are you sure you had an epiphany in 453?
i heard that song from you in 452

I get confused about which Season is which.... weeks just speed by these days. Oh, help! I just had an epiphany... I am so blooming old!! :drool:
 
Epiphanies can be both Life changing and in this case Life saving. An original about the Jonestown Massacre. I think most here would have some knowledge of that. My extensive academic research on Wikipedia today let me find a narrator. Thanks Berni. Glad to be in contention for The Stadivarius. They come up so rarely these days.

All the ships are in the harbour
All the dogs are off their leash
Jimmy’s selling Holy Grails
Deep in the Marketplace of lost belief
I admit I’d been dealt a bad hand
Jim seduced me with his virtue strong
Come now Grover we all are equal
To Guyana you must come along
In the North the heads were spinning
Couldn’t see what was going on
Jimmy Jones he had a vision
Between the cold rock and the sun
Between the harpoon and the gun
Paradise found for a short while
Sometimes I think what might have been
Like a hammer one day it hit me
The guards weren’t there to keep the world out
They were there to keep us in
In the North the heads were spinning
The monkey’s paw across his eyes
Jimmy Jones he had a vision
Between the cold rock and the sun
Between the Flavor Aid and the gun
My Name is Grover Davis
I am an old man
But no Saviour gunna tell me
When to die
I lay in a ditch and played
Dead for hours
While nine hundred people
Around me drank their last goodbye
All the dogs are in the harbour
All the ships are off their leash
Jimmy’s selling Holy Grails
Deep in the Marketplace
Of lost belief
 
Chords for a Rev Gary Davis song and new words for the US election.
The electorate are caught on the horns of a dilemma by having to
chose between two candidates who are totally unsuitable for office.
If this is the best the US can offer their citizens then they are in a
sorry state.
 
New uke, new song, same old processing my anxieties through song.

About 18 months ago, I was in the mindset of constantly having to strive for something, in this case a promotion at work. The effort I put into it helped to trigger a bit of a mental breakdown and I sort of reevaluated what I wanted out of life. But this lead me to shun any sort of success, or anything that would better my lot in life and increase the risk of losing that. For the most part (assisted by lockdown it has to be said) that was fine but recently opportunities have been handed to me that I nearly passed up for fear of not being good enough. Even after ordering this new uke I reached for the phone a couple of times to cancel it before it shipped, despite having worked hard over the last six months to save for it

So time for another rethink I guess.

 
berni, i hope you don't consider this the ultimate cliche... but if you remove the e acute in cliche, the forum WILL post your full post :mad: and here is a homemade-y about how love can be revelatory and changing...



baby, now i see
'cos you showed me
baby, i never knew
a higher love, until you

you opened my eyes
to a sunrise
you opened the door
darling, to so much more
than i ever knew before

now all the songs ring true
and everything feels new
the sun shines so bright
on a world that you have filled with light
you make everything right

baby, now i see
'cos you showed me
baby, i never knew
a higher love, until you
until you
 
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You did it, Berni. You got me to write a song. This is only the second original I've ever posted here (the previous one was a bluesy call to Nazi-punching, so I'm not sure I should count it), and it flowed out of me literally in seconds after watching the opening video, so thank you for pulling more music out of me. Four and a half years ago I had open-heart surgery to replace my rising aorta (it's now made of Dacron!) and aortic valve, resolving a problem that is too often diagnosed posthumously. The blend of confidence and simply failing to give a crap about minor stressors that this brought on was nothing if not an epiphany, but 2020 has tested my optimism and confidence that I can survive whatever life throws at me to a degree I had not previously imagined possible. Here's a song about those mixed feelings.

 
Football is not everybody's cup of tea especially if you support a team that have been in
the wilderness for 16 years... you wonder if things will ever change... well they have
Leeds under the management of Marcelo "El Loco" Bielsa have been promoted to the premiership.
All the pundits say that because of the high tempo, high pressing game Leeds will burn out
or blow a gasket before the season ends. Everybody is flabergasted by their style of their play...
they do not have a "plan B" if things go wrong, we only aspire to make "plan A" better.
They are the underdogs... in many cases... but dogs on steroids. The dynamic free flowing football
is a joy to watch, and everybody is in awe of their attacking style of play, so I had to write a song
about it (10 out of 10 for rhyming cliche with Marseille) It is a sort of epiphany to have your team
that have been losers for so long come out and play football that confounds all the pundits and the critics
I give you Rottweilers on speed. That's tenacity for you. Oh and watch this Patrick Bamford hat-trick



I was reading a Aston Villa BB and it was a Villa supporter who used the phrase
"Dogs on Steroids" to describe the pressing and tenacity of the Leeds team... sometimes
we are like pit bull terriers when we get a grip on a game... we just don't give up, and other teams
just can't live with it. Dogs on steroids was too good a line not to be in a song.
 
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Great theam for the week Berni. I have a very busy week as my youngest daughter has a premier art show of her work coming up on Halloween at, Art at the Mill, in Millwood Virginia. I will try very hard to get a song written for you this week. I have had an epiphany so, maybe this one will come easy.
 
Great theme for the week Berni. I have a very busy week as my youngest daughter has a premier art show of her work coming up on Halloween at, Art at the Mill, in Millwood Virginia. I will try very hard to get a song written for you this week. I have had an epiphany so, maybe this one will come easy.

Hi Janet,

Really look forward to hearing about it. Hope you find a moment to write it.
 
I have gone for the Jim Morrison option...

 
had a real epiphany - like saul on the road to damascus a bright light hit me and told me how wrong i have been about this great leader who has actually been sent by god - and so i now join in the throng adoring the best president ever - yes ever!

 
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Bless the weather that brought you to me
Curse the storm that takes you away
John Martyn



Time after time, I held it just to watch it die
Line after line, I loved it just to watch it cry
Bless the weather that brought you to me
Curse the storm that takes you away
Bless the weather that brought you to me
Curse the storm that takes you home
Wave after wave, I washed it just to watch it turn
Day after day, I cooled it just to watch it burn
Bless the weather that brought you to me
Curse the storm that takes you home
Bless the weather that brought you to me
Curse the storm that takes you away
Pain after pain, I stood it just to see how it feels
Rain after rain, I stood it just to make it real
Bless the weather that brought you to me
Curse the day you go away
Bless the weather that brought you to me
Curse the storm that takes you away
Time after time, I held it just to watch it die
Line after line, I loved it just to watch it cry
Bless the weather that brought you to me
Curse the storm that takes you away
Bless the weather that brought you to me
Curse the storm that takes you away
 
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