Season 484: On This Day

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It's often fun to look at historical anniversaries. "On this day" columns are common in newspapers and magazines, and I used to go to a pub quiz that always had an "On this day" round so we used to be sure to skim the wikipedia page of historical events before heading out. Not that it ever helped us win. Anyway, let's see if anything interesting happened this week in history, and maybe we can base a theme on a couple of them... scans wikipedia

  • Here's one: 29th May 1953 (68 years ago on Saturday) Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit of Mount Everest, becoming the first to make it there and back again.
  • Ooh, here's a suitably nerdy one that appeals to me at least: 28th May 1936 (85 years ago on Friday) Alan Turing submits his paper "On Computable Numbers, With An Application to the Entcheidungsproblem" for publication. This is, essentially, the paper that sets up computer science as a field of research. If I can grossly oversimplify: Turing showed that some problems are fundamentally impossible for a computer to solve perfectly (like, for example, getting your wifi working, or posting to a web forum without posts being cut off) and computer science is about having a crack at them anyway.

So, here's the challenge for this week: bring us a song related to either of the above events. Handily, that's one related to one of my hobbies and one related to my job. To be explicit, that means:

  • Anything about mountains, hills, climbing or even just going out for a walk in general, or related to Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.
  • Anything about Alan Turing, his achievements, computers, machines or technology. And if it helps inspire you, "Entcheidungsproblem" means "decision problem".

What's that? It's also Bob Dylan's 80th birthday on Monday? Well I never. Given the "on this day" nature of the theme, we can't let that pass without marking it somehow can we? I'm in a bit of a phase of listening to lots of Dylan - a phase which started in about 1996 and doesn't seem to be ending any time soon. No doubt there are Dylan songs which fit the theme, but even so, as a special bonus sub-theme:

  • In celebration of his birthday this week you can submit ONE free Bob Dylan song, any one you like, as long as you've either already contributed something that fits one of the other two categories, or it's Monday which is his actual birthday.

Originals and covers welcome. For covers especially, I'd love to hear a little bit about why you chose the song, even if you think it's obvious. Tenuous links to the topics are fine, as long as you can explain them! In case you're wondering how tenuous is acceptable, here's a Half Man Half Biscuit song about Ted Moult, a British farmer turned radio and TV personality who fronted an ad campaign for Everest Double Glazing in the 1980s:



This song will probably make no sense if you didn't see the adverts, or maybe even if you did.

I'm especially interested in hearing things that cover more than one of these categories at once. I don't think there's a Dylan song about climbing a mountain with the help of a GPS device, but I haven't heard so much of his recent work so I can't be certain about that.

Other details:

  • Feel free to multitrack and collaborate as much as you like, as long as there's a prominent uke.
  • Song limits: one per day please, just to help me be able to keep up (so that means you can have 8 in the week).
  • There will be a prize, chosen based on whatever I find most entertaining, which may or may not have anything to do with ukulele playing. More on this later, though you probably shouldn't get too excited about it.
  • The season starts at 00:00:00 Hawaii time on Sunday May 23rd, and ends at 23:59:59 Hawaii time on Sunday May 30th. Please only post songs recorded for this season during this week, and say in the video or its description that it's for Season 484. Although I'm sure all rules can be bent under special circumstances, if you ask nicely :).

Please also remember to watch and comment on everyone else's videos! I think we all find that very motivating. So please check the...

PLAYLIST


I've also made a special Happy Birthday Bob playlist for the bonus theme songs.

Finally, don't forget that there's still another day or so to contribute some melisma for Bo-o-o-o-o-onesigh!

I think that's all - you have everything you need, you are artists, don't look back!
 
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Great idea, Edwin! It's our elder son's birthday on Tuesday ... but I don't think anyone's written a song about him! And I remember Ted Moult!
 
Great idea, Edwin! It's our elder son's birthday on Tuesday ... but I don't think anyone's written a song about him! And I remember Ted Moult!

Ooh, happy Birthday to him!

I ended up down the youtube rabbit hole of Ted Moult ads yesterday, as you do, although I couldn't find the one with the ball and chain that I'm sure I remember...
 
What if I do all Dylan songs but that have connections, either solid or tenuous, to the two themes?
 
Dick Van Dyke sang this lullaby in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang ... if the last thing a baby saw before going to sleep was me and my ukulele, i think it'd have nightmares ...

 
What if I do all Dylan songs but that have connections, either solid or tenuous, to the two themes?

That's totally fine! If they fit the theme anyway (and I can think of a couple that are fairly direct at least) then you don't need to play your Bob joker, as it were.

Actually this is a good a point as any to say: if there's any ambiguity about whether a song is allowed, then it's allowed.
 
Since it is very difficult for me to walk I am drawn to people running jumping or dancing.
I have been posting songs that I have done but have not appeared in the seasons.
My strumming hand is still not working properly. My fingers won't work and I have to do voice typing
to even write this message. This is a Dylan song with lots of nice movement.

 
I miss my "This Day" column! From October 2020 through March 2021, I created a "This Day in History" feature on behalf of a couple of schools in my group. I quite enjoy history and graphic design, so this social media feature (I posted them on Facebook Stories) was a semi-daily tasks I carved out for myself just as a means of creating engagement. It got complicated after the February coup, and once March came and the killings intensified, it became near impossible to highlight anything that that was totally safe from either being misinterpreted as political or so banal as to insult the gravitas of the events of the day.

Here are some of the early ones... This Day In History Gallery

Friday the 28th is my 51st birthday.. Joko Wrote This... There's 30 songs on that playlist now.
 
Hello, Edwin, and thank you for this physically and mentally challenging week! When I was little, I was always strangely attracted to this song because it sounded as though they were singing my name. (P.S. This is not supposed to be taken seriously!!!)

 
Thanks everyone for your contributions today! With Lynda's post just now, we've covered both main categories and the Happy Birthday Bob bonus theme. In fact I've added a second playlist (also linked from the first post) just for Dylan songs. So far we only have Rob's - which also happens to be a hill song - but I look forward to hearing some more. In fact it's Monday now where I am...
 
It's Monday here, so I'm ready with my Dylan Wild Card. This is Queen Jane Approximately, from Highway 61 Revisited, and it goes approximately like this:



It's quite long, but last time I omitted verses from a Dylan song I regretted it, so I did them all this time. Also added a tenor uke, some keyboard and a harmonica. Last time I added a harmonica, youtube decided to recommend me a video titled "5 mistakes beginner harmonica players make" so it's nice to be judged by a computer :). (I was making at least 2 of them, I think...)

Anyway. happy birthday Bob!
 
No bigger Dylan fan here than me. But I became paralyzed by choice on wildcard day.
Gone for a hill song instead. Found this today. Set in the civil war. Perfect country song by the great song writer Shel Silverstein. Thanks Edwin! Maybe I'll do a Dylan later.
 
No bigger Dylan fan here than me. But I became paralyzed by choice on wildcard day.

Ah yes, it's often harder to have too many choices than too few! But it meant we got to hear an excellent Shel Silverstein song.

If it helps, I'd love to hear some of my favourites done on ukulele. Maybe one of the classics like "Don't Think Twice It's All Right", "I Want You", "Love Minus Zero", "Tangled Up In Blue", "Like A Rolling Stone".

Or something more recent(ish), like "Things Have Changed", "Not Dark Yet", "Floater (Too Much To Ask)" or even last year's "I Contain Multitudes".

Or if you fancy doing an epic, and have enough time to spare, I rather like "Changing of the Guards", "Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again", "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts", "Desolation Row"...

I hope that helps :).
 
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