Season 461 - Happy Holidays

Here's the first thing I thought of when I saw the theme. A bit grim and serious, but still a Christmas song (and I'll take any opportunity to cover more Jethro Tull!).

 
This is a 1983 single by the Australian band Hoodoo Gurus. I always thought it was an odd but catchy Xmas/breakup song. Once I decided to play it, I stumbled upon the back story. Cyclone Tracy hit Darwin in northern Australia on Christmas Eve in 1974. A couple of months later, there was a charity single called "Santa Never Made It Into Darwin" that was a big hit in Australia. So Tracy isn't the singer's girl friend, it's the storm. And suddenly I realize how many of the lyrics refer to wind or "in her eye". And Tojo refers to the World War II Japanese forces under General Tojo that swept down through the Pacific and bombed Darwin, but never managed to invade Australia.


 
Hey, guys! Some of you have asked to see the ‘studio version’ video of my entry this week (I had mentioned I was doing one in my original post earlier this week in the YT video description); Kev joins me with his awesome electric uke and backing vocals, and his friend, Willie Favero, lays down some super-groovy bass licks to the mix! I made my first ever ‘play-along’ video for this; although I had wanted to have fancy color changes on the chord transitions and have highlighted chord diagrams, I realized, as I tried to make it happen, that I just don’t have the right software to create what I had initially envisioned. I ended up making ‘slides’ (with screen shots) in Pages and then importing these (and the audio) into iMovie to make the video. Basically, it’s a song chart, but it’ll do. :)

Hope you enjoy and Happy Holidays!!!

Andy, thanks so much, again, for hosting this week!!! :cool:

 
Thanks for the timely theme, Andy-
This year feels a bit Charlie Brown-ish, to me, anyway, so...

Christmas Time Is Here, Lee Mendelson and Vince Guaraldi, 1965
 
Good Wednesday morning from here in the East Bay, CA, USA.

The playlists are current to here.

Thanks all for contributing to our collective holiday cheer. Keep them coming. Remember, there is no song limit.
 
Continuing from Hotel Hazel quarantine lock up, it was only on skimming through a list of those we lost that I learned that Helen Reddy had passed. I'm not a big fan, but I know her iconic song....

This would also give me a chance to engage in another 'hobby' I'm not ashamed to admit to... now, where's that double-sealed special box with my costumes in

My other version of this song is available on a certain Hindi/Urdu/Bengali language website via pay-per-view... It's only 50 Rupees.. for some reason, the guys from the sub-continent totally dig me.

 
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I was recently reading an article about the evidence the Bible actually provides for the Christmas story and was surprised to find that the idea of Joseph being an elderly man was a later fudge to help extreme Catholics imagine how Mary could have remained a virgin all her life and yet the gospels mention Jesus having siblings. The article also went into the elements of the story that were probably added to demonstrate to Jews that the circumstances surrounding Jesus's birth, life and death enforced the idea that he had been the Messiah (born in Bethlehem, had people play dice for his belongings after his death, etc). In other words lies told to prove he fulfilled all the prophecies.

Combine all that with the fact that my favourite Christmas Carol describes the birth of JC in climactic circumstances that anyone living on the shore of the Mediterranean (like me) will swear they have never experienced in 2000 years (providing you find the wandering Jew) and you get this retelling of the nativity "Barbablanca" style.

Hope you like:

 
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Sankta Lucia kicks off the holiday season in Sweden: https://sweden.se/culture-traditions/lucia/

This arrangement was made by UU member Wilfried Welti. If you want to check out his tabs (he's got 4 free e-books): https://www.ukulele-arts.com/tabs-and-e-books/?lang=en

I blacked out whilst I was recording this, but I left the lapse in instead of editing it out or coming back to this tomorrow. So, be warned: it is not perfect, but I know I can play this, and I learnt it by heart this week, so I'd rather focus on those positives instead of let perfectionism take over.

 
The Chipmunk Sing (Christmas Don’t Be Late), Ross Bagdasarian, 1958

Together with fellow seasonista, Tracy Callahan, Jim Allen and Diane Poole.
 
Well Stanley did a lovely version of Irving Berlin's White Christmas, so I thought I'd try this alternate version called White Sheepdog from the Prairie Home Companion Songbook.

I'm screaming at a white sheepdog,
One who is sitting in my chair.
It's a thing I'm dreading,
The way he's shedding
And covering everything with hair.
I'm screaming at a white sheepdog,
And should he visit you some night
May his bark be worse than his blight
And may all your furniture be white.


 
Dear Seasonistas,

Seasons greetings to you all. After being away from the seasons for most of the year I thought it was fitting to post a song for this week while wishing you all a wonderful time over the holidays - in spite of the current world situation.

All the best and 'Merry Christmas Baby'...

 
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I recorded this silliness on my lunch break. I'm not sure it deserved the overdubs but, on the other hand, I have a jingle stick and if I can't use it here when can I...



I did it at a fairly fast tempo so it would be over quicker.

- Edwin
 
Happy Thursday to you all. The playlists are current as of this foggy but clearing morning here in central CA. Can’t say I’m sad to see rain though.

Thanks so much for all your submissions to the annual holiday season. Please keep them coming, as I’m sure there are many of us who could use more seasonal cheer not less.
 
Here's one for the "Gone too soon" theme, for Florian Schneider, who we sadly lost in April.



I'd have liked to practise this some more, but I don't know if I'll get another chance to post before time runs out, so here it is! I've been listening to a lot of Kraftwerk lately. It sounds a bit, er, different, on the uke.

As an aside, and because you'll see me struggle with it... I read that you can play the 4442 variant of E with a partial barre with your ring finger. Does anyone have a ring finger that actually bends like that? I certainly don't, so I don't even try!

- Edwin
 
Walking In The Air, Howard Blake, 1982

This song was written for the animated holiday film, The Snowman, based on the children's book by Raymond Briggs.
 
Ever since I was a kid, my favourite comic strip has been Walt Kelly's Pogo. Every Christmas I and a bunch of my high-school buddies would sing Deck Us All With Boston Charlie. I should have it memorised by now, and I do, but just in case, I was looking at this screen while I recorded this and if you click on the 2nd photo, you can follow along with the words. You will notice that I have a Pogo poster beside my computer.
Deck us all.jpg
A closer look:
deck us all boston charlie walt kelly.jpg



Pogo2.jpg
 
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Mariah may have a five-octave vocal range, but I can still do it with my quarter-octave voice ...
 
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