Season 484: On This Day

i read somewhere that one in 100 who attempt to climb to the summit of Everest don't survive - i don't understand that - expensive - dangerous - pointless? - quite a few frozen bodies up there too apparently
paoriginal
 
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Thanks for hosting Edwin! I'm sneaking this one in a bit late here, but it's still Monday in Hawaii, so I reckon it qualifies. That should give away who the artist is. I hope everyone is doing well ~

 
The brave souls who were at the weekly Seasonistas zoom get-togethers in March/April heard me work my way through every song from Grandaddy's enchanting "The Sophtware Slump" album - a collection of songs vaguely about life in a world where technology has gone bad.
Here's one of them - the tragic tale of Jed the humanoid.

 
Hi everyone! Good to see a nice mix of mountains, computers and Dylan covers coming in. Now that the postie has been with my ebay order, I can show you what you're playing for:

IMG_20210525_125143.jpg

On the cover there that's Jones The Steam having his breakfast cooked by Idris the dragon while Ivor the Engine looks on. All in a normal day on the Merioneth and Llantisilly Railway Traction Company.

See, I told you not to get too excited. It might at least be a partial explanation of my ridiculous username though :).
 
I was trying to figure out how to play this song last Saturday morning.

While working on it, I thought that maybe I ought to play it for Edwin at the open mic later that evening, but nixed the idea because I was certain I would blow it because I couldn't learn it pat in such a short time.

When I leaned that Edwin was to be the host this week, it seemed right to try and shoehorn this song in under the 'technology' category.

Thanks for hosting, Edwin. Watch out for monsters!

 
SOTU 484- "MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON" - Grateful Dead (1969) So, Alan Turing brings to mind "Enigma" (thanks, Del) and this song is certainly enigmatic. Written by Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia it appeared on the Grateful Dead's album "Aoxomoxoa". The original version has a medieval feel with Garcia playing acoustic guitar and keyboard player Tom Constanten providing a harpsichord effect. The song is "riddled" with references. The "Mountains Of The Moon" are a mountain range in Africa reputed to be the source of the Nile, but it's unclear if that's what the song is referring to directly. There are also references to Electra, laurels, fairy Sybil,TomBanjo, the Carrion Crow and the Marsh King and his daughter - so there you go! Amusingly, there is a video on YouTube of the Dead's '69 appearance on the "Playboy After Dark" TV show where Garcia hobnobbs with Hugh Hefner before performing a very nice version of the song.
 
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SOTU 484- "MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON" - Grateful Dead (1969) So, Alan Turing brings to mind "Enigma" (thanks, Del) and this song is certainly enigmatic.

I'll consider this a Turing song rather than an Everest song in that case :). Actually it occurs to me that "enigmatic" gets you quite a bit of Dylan, if anyone wants to go down that road...
 
Baby Elephant Walk (instrumental solo uke)

 
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Val almost beat me to the punch. Almost. Let's do some wanderin'.

 
Here's one from Drenge that vaguely fits the computer theme. Moving house at the weekend so I'm relieving stress by making weird noises in my box fort.

 
this one mentions a mountain, as part of a hymn to nature and love - i hope that's good enough!

it was georgia's entry for this year's eurovision song contest, and the more i look back on all the songs, i feel it was the standout one for me... but it didn't even make it through the semifinals stage. alot of the songs i like, never make it through the semifinals stage! what's that all about?!

"you" by tornike kipiani

 
this one mentions a mountain, as part of a hymn to nature and love - i hope that's good enough!

I think if my Ted Moult nonsense fits then this definitely fits. Great to hear a Eurovision song done properly :).

Thanks for the contributions so far everyone! I think we're seeing quite a bit more of the mountains than the machines at the moment. I have a machine song lined up that I'll hopefully post in the next day or so, but perhaps there will be more...
 
White Collar Holler - Nigel Russell

Nigel Russell was inspired by Leadbelly's work song "Linin' Track" to write a 20th Century work song that he called "White Collar Holler". His friend and sometime band-mate, Stan Rogers had a hit (as much as a "folksong" can be a hit) with his cover of this song.
Stan's version was acappella, but in order to qualify for this weeks SOTU Season 484, I had to include some ukulele.

 
Here's a song by Scottish alt rockers Del Amitri, "Nothing Ever Happens", which was their biggest hit, released in 1990. There's a computer terminal in the last verse. Perhaps a bit more tenuously, it's a song about how lives get repetitive - kind of robotic, just programmed by The System.



If that sounds like it might be a bit miserable, don't worry, I've livened it up by adding an accordion (okay, a midi accordion sound). That's bound to help. Yes.
 
I missed the day of His Bobness's birth but I'm going to use my pry bar to jam this one in anyway. "A country doctor rambles." Rambling is like hiking, right?



Also the 2nd verse (people talk of situations, read books, repeat quotations, draw conclusions on the wall) is a pretty good description of an academic setting where a research team might be brainstorming ideas.

It is the 26th still here on the Left Coast. Wild day for birthdays... Miles Davis, Stevie Nicks, Levon Helm, Lenny Kravitz, Lauryn Hill...

Thanks for hosting Edwin.
 
Another mountain one (sorry) .
Piano and Uke instrumental.
Low hanging fruit, I know.
I have dedicated this
to our friends cat ,Shelby.

I suppose that there is a tenuous
link to machinery as it is
a song /tune about a train.


 
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A nod to Allan Turing,I put this little comedy ditty together several years ago and dug it out for the season
 
Bit weird this! I was just messing around with a bass line on the keyboards, which I started adding extra parts to. Sometimes this is how a song starts to appear, but in this case it wasn’t quite happening. With this week’s theme in mind I was also thinking about mountain songs and Edvard Grieg’s ‘In The Hall Of The Mountain King’, which he wrote for Ibsen’s 1867 play ‘Peer Gynt’, popped into my head. Then bingo - with a few minor tweaks here and there the main ‘catchy’ part of Grieg’s piece fitted what I’d been working on. Spooky! :)

 
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