Season 124 - Ready...Set...Write!

Markwo said:

Here's an original I wrote for my family. For some reason I felt really nervous about this. I'm still not confident about writing and performing originals so this was a good kick in the butt for that.

http://youtu.be/Wcg5SGN7Wwc

The family man - that's me
Yeah the family man - that's me

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Mark, that was so great! I think it's not at all surprising you would feel nervous about it ... it's a very personal song. And, it made me cry - totally touched me. I feel like I just got to know you and your family. Beautiful. And, I get it.

UkeCan1 said:

Mark, that was so great! I think it's not at all surprising you would feel nervous about it ... it's a very personal song. And, it made me cry - totally touched me. I feel like I just got to know you and your family. Beautiful. And, I get it.

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Wow! Thanks a lot! I'm feeling a bit better about it now. (We have a really nice family here too!)

Markwo said:

Here's an original I wrote for my family.

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Terrific song here Mark! Loved this HUGE mate!

lelouden said:

Keeping it Clean for the GKids ...

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Thanks Linda...I knew you could make vids unlisted, didn't know you could do it with whole playlists.

John

Howdy Gang well my break from the uke didn't last long he he he, I hope this entry counts and hoping i haven't flouted any rules, if so i apologize. I wrote some lyrics today and then messaged Pabrizzer asking if he would be able to provide some music to it and he very kindly did. I wasn't going to post this song but i feel i owe it to Pa. So here is a original song lyrics by me, music by Pabrizzer and performed here by me. Lyrics and chords below. Many thanks Pa for all your help & thank you for hosting John and great to see you back mate.




DAD –Lyrics written by David Mascall, Music written by Pabrizzer (Brian) 2014


Am_______________________________G
The doctor came and he took your soul away,
F________________________________________Am
The house is empty now, And guess it will stay that way.
G_____________________________Am
A ray of sunshine bounced across a shelf
G____________________________Am
A sea of particles surrounded by myself.

All other verses the same except for the bridge
It’s been five years and my feelings are still raw,
I cannot bare to drive near your front door,
The sound of children playing in the yard,
That was my playground, my mind would travel far.

I've treated this like a bridge
F__________________________Am
My pets and grandad they are buried there to,
F________________________Am
The weeping willow in the photo of you.

Sometimes I see you out the corner of my eye,
Gives me the hope that I get to say goodbye.
But you still burn real bright, in my heart and in my soul,
Till were together side by side in that hole.

I put some flowers by your grave last night,
The rabbits jumped about startled by the fright,
The birds were singing, leaves rustled in the trees
I kissed your headstone as sat bended on my knees.

The open field’s dad, they sure are a great view,
Everyone tells me I’m looking more and more like you.
But that’s okay I guess in fact I’m rather proud,
Cos I’m not half the man, that still rocks my world.

You guys ROCK!

krabbers said:

so, I ate some superb cheese before bedtime and I had the strangest dream, I was an angry chipmonk driving an overloaded boxcar full of petrified petunias, some might say it would be excellent material for a song but I seem to have writers block.

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Great first verse, but what are you going to follow it with! Actually, I considered mentioning that if somebody could manage to use them all they'd have my undying admiration...

ukuleledaveey said:

Hi all, great theme John and great to see you back. i doubt i will have time to put in the required effort for this week, as working super amount of hours...

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Amazing lyrics, and definitely qualifies! Though you'll need to sing it or get someone else to for it to be "official."

pabrizzer said:

Overloaded boxcars full of polycarbonate...

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Amazing Brian...you guys floor me. I thought this was going to be a tough week...looks like it's going to be a tough-to-judge week

xommen said:

As there where some lyrics supplied for people that write songs more often, and I thought (as some others did, as you can see on the previous page) to write a song that contains them all. This might become a bonus somewhere later on in the week, if I can write a better song before the season is over.
Lyrics/chords are here:
http://www.vanommen.net/Season124.pdf

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Love it!

ksiegel said:

I just want to know who put the writer's block of superb cheese on the angry chipmunk in front of the overloaded boxcar of petrified petunias?

And are we looking for original-ish melodies, or can we borrow liberally?

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Borrow liberally? Heck, you can outright steal the melody!

Harry122 said:

Songwriting. Great challenge! I haven't seriously tried to construct a song in years, so this Season is a great opportunity to try to stretch a little. As soon as this Season's theme was announced, I knew what I wanted to do, I'm been playing with a cute little chord progression for a while now, so I decided to expand it into a song. Hope you like it!
You're My Girl

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Very nice, I cannot believe we have this many entries in the first day!

Markwo said:

Here's an original I wrote for my family. For some reason I felt really nervous about this.

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Very nice Mark, and nothing to be nervous about at all. Obviously a song from the heart and those are the best kind.

I will try to get some time to start the play list tomorrow evening...and for some reason I suspect I'm going to have another whole set of vids to view. Sorry I can't be more active but like Daveey work is pretty demanding right now plus I've got family in town from out of state.

Thanks to all who are participating or planning to or just cheering the others on. Hopefully near the end of the week I'll be able to be a little more active.

John

here is my vid

i really dig the groovy prize



chords are D D F G
over and over and over
and over
'til you can't take no more

oh, how did you know, how did you know
oh, how did you know, how did you know
i love stationery, i love it passionately
i love stationery, i think it's really sexy
that pen, please give it to me
that pen, it's a dream, a fantasy
if i had that pen, if i had that pen
then all the men, to my yard would flock
because i bet it cures writer's block
everybody wants it, everybody needs it
that pen, that pen, that pen, that pen
gimme that pen, yeah
'cos i want it, yeah

Of course, if you give me five prompts to choose from, I have only one choice ... use them all.

That made for kind of a fun project ... how to tie them all together into a coherent story that made some kind of sense ... at least inside the whimsical world in which it exists.



Stickler alert: The song clearly fits the rules for prompts 1 ("overloaded boxcar") and 5 ("angry chipmunks"). It includes them both, and is not about either. The fact that I may have stretched one or more of the others should not invalidate its "countiness". (Nor should my making up of words that do not exist.)

For prompt 2 ("petrified Petunia"), I capitalized Petunia and made her into a (familiar) character.

For prompt 3 ("writer's block"), I transformed the usual meaning into something else punny and fitting with prompt 4.

Prompt 4 ("superb cheese"), because of the string of consonants in the middle and the accent on the last sylLABle of "superb", was the hardest one to sing. So of course I made that the chorus and the title, and repeated it a whole bunch of times.

The fact that it is the title, and the answer to the dilemma posed by the anger of the chipmunks and the petrification of Petunia, by no means indicates that the song is about the cheese. It's about love and brotherhood, and having a big party, and how shared experience of joyful things can bring us all together as one.

The cheese (as are all good cheeses) is merely a metaphor.

After playing "Manhattan" by Cat Power all week, I was pretty much stuck with these chords, and I went ahead and wrote my song about a place as well. Thanks for kick in the pants, John.



Southern Idaho Lights (R. Youtz)

Overloaded boxcar wall---
No room left for your name.
No one’s ever gonna know about you down the line.

Edge of town, pick up truck,
Canyon rim, cowboy holler---
That’s the kind of trouble you had best avoid.
(No walking by the river tonight.)

Small town street, no one in sight;
Small town street, no one else out tonight;
Small town street, dark and alone---
And you know exactly where it goes.

Midnight, City Park, Saturday---
Lonely man waiting by the street light.
Will he ever find who he’s out looking for?

Cheap beer, cruising on the boulevard;
Pull on that can; hear the bass boom boom.
All those boys want more than they’ll ever find.
(But they’ll still be out looking all night.)

Does anybody see a way outta here?
Does anybody else feel alone?
Does anybody need a ride to the next town---
Anybody else want to go home?

...

verse chords:
G / / / Em / / /
G / / / Em / / /
D / / / / / / /
G / / / / / / /

chorus chords:
C / / / D / / /
C / / / D / / /
C / / / D / / /
D / / / G / / /

124th entry 1:

Okay, I wrote a song. I hope you like it.

If anyone is wondering why I'm not posting any YT comments on your vids, though I doubt it, I'm not going to watch any entries until I've finished my own I've already written a song for this week using a couple of the "instructions song words", being a prolific writer of songs. Currently working on a tune for said song that my youngest daughter plucked out on her uke. But I'm also going to write one using them all and don't want to get any ideas in my head from watching what others have written.

I've also got my mom and one brother out here from CA so I am very busy. It was so fun to jam with the whole family the other day. We had my mom clapping, my hubby on the bongos, my youngest on the harmonica, my brother playing my UBass and me on the uke playing "Hawaiian Supa Man". What a blast!! See ya!

bonesigh, i totally know what you mean, if i'd checked out the thread before posting my song, rather than posting my song and THEN catching up on everyone else's posts and vids, i might have thought "oh no, my song is lighter than air, and everyone else has brought stuff deeper than the ocean". i thought that ANYWAY, but at least i'd already posted my vid and it was too late to back out!

Yep! Thats exactly how Im feeling about now. How on earth are we not supposed to feel all the insecurities that comparisons bring on. Just know that its a real stretch to even think about entering something from me this week and Im going with easy...reaaaaaaal easy!

OK, its time to be silly. This one is just a daft ditty to the tune of Henry the Eighth I am. ;-)
I wanted to practice my "scrape" technique taught to me last week at a workshop held by the marvellous and amazing Ukulele Uff (here he is in action) showing how the technique should be done.



I’m Ukey Ukey Dave I am
Ukey Ukey Dave I am I am
This is season number 124
We’ve all been down this road before

Everyone loves a Season
They wouldn’t want another useless Jam
I’m the eighth old Dave called Ukey
Ukey Ukey Dave I am

My entry for Season 124.


Lyrics
You know I can't sleep without you
I can't nap without you
I can't rest and I can't snooze
Not sleeping this week, gives me the blues
You see I sleep well when you're here
I sleep great when you're near
I know that you're mine, I'll go drink some wine
I just can't sleep without you.

PS this is my 2nd attempt at a parody song. So fun!

I can think of at least two reasons this song doesn't qualify.
Sorry John. I'll try to be more of a follow the rules guy later in the week.
I'm grateful for the inspiration but, sadly, it didn't want to be corralled.

Is there going to be a playlist?
Thanks for hosting, it looks like a terrific season to me!

Songwriter’s Block - Alan Thornton
CH:
I feel like I am living on a Songwriters’ Block
There’s nothing we can’t write now
Make a subject baby, make it up ad hoc
Then start the meter running
and I’m sure we’ll beat the clock
because the Season’s is like living on
The World’s largest Songwriters’ block

The stength of this big family
is suport and love and care
no reason to feel skittish
there are new songs everywhere
the reason I am here is the
same reason you are there
because we all love music
though we’re just a little scared

But when you’ve written your first song
The bug may bite you hard
You’ll wake up with one in your head
and head out for the yard
and tap it on your keyboard
then you’ll add some chords you’ve barred
to share your thought with
folks you love
(tho’ my first draft I’ll discard)

CH:
I feel like I am living on a Songwriters’ Block
There’s nothing we can’t write now
Make a subject baby, make it up ad hoc
Then start the meter running
and I’m sure we’ll beat the clock
because the Season’s is like living on
The World’s largest Songwriters’ block

The tune takes shape inside your head
It’s hard to play it wrong
just strum some chords and
read the words youve written for your song
Sometimes you’ll feel like the thing has
been there all along
Then tape that thing and send it out
to us, your family throng

CH:
and then you’ll feel like you’re living on a Songwriters’ Block
There’s nothing you can’t write now
We’l make up a subject baby, make it up ad hoc
Then we’ll start the meter running
and I’m sure you’ll beat the clock
‘Cause in the Season’s you are living on
The World’s largest Songwriters’ block

You can use this as my main entry. Its called Dear Mr Oldephart. I actually sang an incorrect word to one which I writted. ;-) See if you can spot it.

And here are the lyrics

I don’t write songs
I don’t like being told what to do
Week one two four
My ideas are oh so few
But what the hell
Lets just give it a go
It wont be good
I wont be putting on a show

Oh keep it clean
Don’t overload my boxcar
Cause we wouldn’t want to upset
Poor little Oscar
A Petrified Petunia
Can be one angry chipmunk
My writers block
Turned into superb cheese

Now Mr Oldephart
I think you’ve got a nerve
To make me write this song
So you I can but serve
Well I tell you something now
I don’t write songs its true
I’ll do it just the once
Just for you

It wont make any sense
It wont be so unique
But into my brain
It may let you peek
My head is not a window
Into which your allowed
I’m not even bothered
That this don’t rhymed

I’m gonna sign off now
I think my task is done
I’ve wrote this little ditty
Without the mention of a gun
It doesn’t stick together
It really aint like glue
I suppose the pain is over
I’m just an old fart too.

Some Kind of Miracle

I certainly don't consider myself a prolific songwriter, but I guess I have done a dozen or so originals for the seasons, so I did use one of the prompts. Pay attention or you'll likely miss it.

Not sure if we can have multiple entries or bonuses but this is my second original for this week, it's called Pancakes.
I now want some pancakes myself .

Lyrics here: http://www.vanommen.net/Pancakes.pdf

"To Bridge or Not To Bridge" - That is the question!

O.K. I've got bits and pieces of lyrics for a song that I have had on my PC for nearly two years. This would be a great opportunity for me to actually put it all together and post for SOTU 124. I've never completed this song because I thought I should have a "Bridge" in it. I know lots of songs do not, but I guess I felt compelled to create one for it as a "learning to write a song requirement" for myself. Now I am thinking that perhaps I just created an artificial block to give me a subconscious excuse to NOT finish it!

Would anyone like to offer some advice to: 1. help me determine if a bridge is actually needed, and 2., if I find I need one, how best to approach creating it from the melody or chord progression I have been using for the verses.

I know a Forum Format makes it difficult to carry on two way discussions so please feel free to PM me on this if you'd like to help. And, if I should have posted this question to a different sub-forum other thant SOTU please let me know. HELP! - ddanner