Written an interesting song this week?

Subject: Written an interesting song this week?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 08 Nov 07 - 07:24 AM

Just wondered if anybody fancied sharing a verse or two with us!

Subject: RE: Written an interesting song this week?
From: Waddon Pete
Date: 08 Nov 07 - 07:48 AM

Hello WLD,

If you have a moment, check out the BS: Writer's thread.

Best wishes,

Peter

Subject: RE: Written an interesting song this week?
From: Shaneo
Date: 08 Nov 07 - 07:49 AM

The First Tuesday , by Martin Dardis,
To the tune of a Billy Connelly song 'Oh Sergeant Is This The Adventure' , IT's a look at life in an Irish bar on the first tuesday of the month when child support money is paid to the mother, the money gets spent in the pub, just a look at pub life in general.

.
I'm[C] sittin' at the bar , and[F] shoutin for[C] drink
Thinking that life's passed me[G] out,
[C] Drinkin' with dipso's , not[F] having to[C] think,
Strong whiskey and[G] pints of black[C] stout
[Chorus]
Of[F] father is this the[C] adventure you ment,
When I started on life's road to[G] ruin
Just[C] building up bricks and[F] mixing ce[C]ment
Strong whiskey and[G] pints of black stout
[2]

It's St. Michaels day and they won't have to pay
Young lassies with mini skirts tight
The first Tuesday is here and they'r in for the beer
For the whiskey and pints of black stout
[Repeat Chorus]
There's fellas over there and the're stuck to the chair
It looks like they're in for the match
Giving grief to the telly , is it Liverpool or Kerry
More whiskey and pints of black stout
[Repeat Chorus]
The ballad group in the corner shouts for order
Give the ould songs a bit of respect
The whistler strikes up , a guitar gets a pluck
' The Lonesome Boatman' is drowning tonight.
          [Repeat Chorus]
The ould barman calls time , and they make a bee-line
The first Tuesday has come to a close
And the clock stricks a gong , it's time to move on
As the band plays Red Is The Rose
    [ Repeat Chorus]

Subject: RE: Written an interesting song this week?
From: mrmoe
Date: 08 Nov 07 - 08:41 AM

I try to write one each month on the theme announced for the pioneer valley folklore society meeting.....this month's theme is "age".....this turned out to be something of a melancholy waltz.......


Age….                                                                  michael orlen © 2007

typical kids in a typical time
in a typical New England town
with all of our power and all of our promise
and all of our defenses down
no thought of college or war
and no knowledge of failure to get in our way
whether your life and mine ever find the same page
I'll be thinking of you as I age….

typical girl typical boy
typical Saturday dance
and you so appealing and me with the feeling
of falling in love at first glance
and no way to know how the future would go
or that this might be ending someday
whether your love and mine ever find the same page
I'll be thinking of you as I age….

I'll be thinking of you when I'm lying at night
In the spell of a September sky
The words will be there at the tip of my tongue
But with no one to hear them nearby

typical kids in a typical time
and a feeling that won't go away
whether your act and mine ever find the same stage
I'll be thinking of you as I age….

Subject: RE: Written an interesting song this week?
From: muppitz
Date: 08 Nov 07 - 08:45 AM

THIS WEEK???? I'm lucky if I can churn one out once a year!!!
Much homage to you prolific songwriters, I don't know how you do it!

muppitz
x

Subject: RE: Written an interesting song this week?
From: theleveller
Date: 08 Nov 07 - 09:01 AM

Not exactly this week, but recently I wrote a song for an old friend, the writer, broadcaster and enviromentalist, Roger Deakin, who died from a brain tumour in August last year at the ridiculously young age of 63. Roger was an avid 'wild' swimmer and wrote a fantastic book called 'Waterlog' about a journey he took swimming in rivers, streams, lakes and the sea around Britain. Some of you may have heard programmes Roger made on Radio 4 from time to time. Just weeks before his death, Roger completed his second book, Wildwood, about wood, forests and trees. It was published recently and is a fabulous book.

The song I wrote is called, of course,

The Swimmer

It was one of those moments when you feel the earth turning.
A three-quarter moon in a clear autumn sky
Brought into my heart a curious yearning
For things that have passed and have yet to pass by;
For friends who have gone and those still remaining;
While the river of life still winds through the land,
Whose secrets, revealed by the long years' waning,
Can slip through our fingers or be grasped in our hands.

There's a feeling that time is not of the essence;
Not a fear of the future or delight in the past,
Just the space that is filled by a friend when his presence,
Is replaced by the pleasure of what he has left.
Now the spirits of the earth rise to embrace the giver
Like the low-lying mist of a soft autumn dawn
And the swimmer goes down once again to the river,
Where, as sun glints on water, the dream is reborn.

Subject: RE: Written an interesting song this week?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 08 Nov 07 - 09:31 AM

Thankyou for the songs everybody and the kiss muppitz (x back to you).

No I hadn't checked the other thread Pete, but will do. I imagined it was proper wriers, using long words (which trouble me, being a bear of very little brain).

If you feel inclined lets hear some more - I'm enjoying this.....

Subject: RE: Written an interesting song this week?
From: Ebbie
Date: 08 Nov 07 - 12:06 PM

Here is a bloodthirsty screed of jealousy and revenge. I got part of it from a song that Lomax collected. Two sisters sang some scraps of a song like it - I kept the name, the tune and two verses. It was fun to do- the longer the song got, the bloodier I made it!

Sweet Lily Shaw
A great crowd has now gathered
On this dark and dismal day
To see the execution
And to hear what I might say

Oh, I must hang this morning
For so the judge decreed
Saying, this foul fiend must die here
She never shall be freed

So must I die for murder,
The murder of Lily Shaw?
Nor mind that she deserved death
If e'er there was a law?

In truth the fiend was Lily
In clear-eyed light of day
For in completest fashion
My brother she did betray

The kindest sweetest brother
No one could him save
For Lily teased and taunted
And drove him to his grave        

So I must die this morning
For a murder that she well earned
Whose life I coldly ended
And her body painfully burned

I fetched more sticks and faggots
The flames they leaped up high
Her pretty face reflected
Hell's fire that burns so bright

Sweet Lily knelt in anguish
Gone were her airs of grace
As she begged me for forgiveness
I but laughed harsh in her face

God keep my aged parents
Who mourn for me at home
Goodbye to friends and kinfolk
Who will be left alone

Now I bow down to Jesus
In penitential grief
And pray that he might save me
As he did the dying thief

Subject: RE: Written an interesting song this week?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 08 Nov 07 - 12:34 PM

good one Ebbie. this is better than a singaround! You can sort of add the music yourself!

Subject: RE: Written an interesting song this week?
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 08 Nov 07 - 12:39 PM

This song was written at the Getaway as part of a Paired Songwriters project. I was paired with Laura Sailer, who lives in the Chesapeake Bay area, and we wrote this tune about Wye Island, a one-time wilderness being slowly converted to housing plots.

WYE

On the (C)Eastern Shore not far (G)away
Lies an (D)island in Chesapeake (G)Bay
Long (C)ago on this red clay (G)loam
In tall (D)trees the osprey made their (G)homes
(Am)Wye(D)
(Am)Wye(D)

The first people to walk on its shore
Took game for food, and no more
Until the Brothers who staked out their claim
Built their cabins, and gave it its name
Wye
Wye

Each (Em)newcomer to (F)paradise
Only (Em)wanted his own small slice(F-G)

Each generation carved out its share
While declaring there was no more to spare
And the people who treasure the land
Change its face with their very own hands

Wye
Wye

Subject: RE: Written an interesting song this week?
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 08 Nov 07 - 12:40 PM

No, but I've got some good ideas.

Subject: RE: Written an interesting song this week?
From: Mrs Scarecrow
Date: 08 Nov 07 - 02:56 PM

Here's one I finished at the weekend, I sing it unaccompanied and suspect that Herga Kitty would sing it even better

When I was a pretty fair maid my father he did say to me
If you wish to marry well hold on to your virginity
You can kiss and you can cuddle just dont you go all the way
Promise me you'll be a good girl save it for you wedding day,

Chorus : So I didn't when I could've
         But for that vow I would've
         Now I really think I should've
         For all the good that being good has done for me

I told all this to handsome John when first we were a Courting
We kissed and we did cuddle well but allowed no further sporting
John he was a decent lad asked if he could marry me
that very night the pressgang came and dragged my Johnny off to sea
Chorus
Of John for years I had no news so I walked out with poacher Jack
He tried every manly ruse to get me lying on my back
At last I think in sheer frustration he did offer for my hand
Then the keeper caught him poaching now he's in Van Diemen's land
chorus
Several years then passed me by I met a carpenter called Fred
He bought me presents walked me out but never got me into bed
I told him alll about my promise told him what my father said
Hearing this Fred he scarpered then I heard he was already wed
chorus
Each one of my childhood friends by a babe was brought to be a bride
So the keepers and the press gang left them with their husbands by their side
I've no husband and no children sad to say I'm well past forty
So to hell with being good just once I'd like to try being naughty
chorus

Ann Reader

Subject: RE: Written an interesting song this week?
From: Ebbie
Date: 08 Nov 07 - 04:14 PM

Great one, Mrs! A cautionary tale if ever I heard one.

Subject: RE: Written an interesting song this week?
From: GUEST,Huw
Date: 08 Nov 07 - 04:45 PM

I have just finished a song about the Skewen Main which closed in 1925 because of the economic downturn at the time.The mine went under the beautiful Drymmau Mountain and the village of Skewen grew because of the mine.Many of its workers went off to work in the brand new Llandarcy Oil Refinery.That refinery is now also closed.I was brought up in a house called "Gerlofa" [house in front of the mine ] just 200 yards from the mine entrance.

    Skewen Main 1925
We paid the price of coal in blood
Fought fire and flood
Got soaked in the mud of the Drymmau
I've just turned thirty nine
Now I've left the Skwen mine
The last shift is finally over.
........
What a bitter sweet refrain
Is the wind and driving rain
And the old Skewen Main is gone forever
They cannot sell the coal
There's good men on the dole
Who can't feed the children in this weather.
..............
Now the level is stripped bare
There's nothing left down there
And I'm breathing fresh air outside the Cross Keys
And Tom and Mel and Jack
Are talking 'round the back back
Of the jobs at the Darcy Oil Refinery
........
So many years of toil
Now we're off to work the oil
But it makes my blood boil to think of our leaving
Because Bill and Trev the Turk
Can't find a job of work
And my oldest friend Dai Rees is barely breathing.
......
Coal trucks are standing still
On the top of Drymmau hill
And there's time enough to kill every morning
King Coal is king no more
And we've all been shown the door
And the slump is coming closer with each dawning.
....
The wind blows through my coat
I wrap my scarf around my throat
In the bay a boat sails off the Swansea shoreline
Now our working time is done
And we're walking to the sun
And its farewell to the Skewen Main mine
...........
We paid the price of coal in blood
Fought fire and flood
Got soaked in the mud of the Drymmau
I've just turned thirty nine
And I've left the Skewen mine
And the last shift is finally over.
Huw Pudner

Subject: RE: Written an interesting song this week?
From: SussexCarole
Date: 08 Nov 07 - 05:22 PM

Nearly! It's 2/3rds written. It's full of double entendre (as you would expect)

Subject: RE: Written an interesting song this week?
From: SussexCarole
Date: 08 Nov 07 - 05:57 PM

...then he hoists his Jolly Roger and he doubles my doubloons..

Subject: RE: Written an interesting song this week?
From: jiva
Date: 08 Nov 07 - 06:28 PM

This came about through tinkering with our new guitars just for the fun of playing. jiva are not renowned for humorous songs, but tongue is firmly in cheek for this light-hearted look at the life of a stereotypical folkie.

Folkie Lament

You don't hear me on the radio, you don't see me on TV
You don't read me in the papers or the glossy magazines
But I built me my own website and I burn my own CDs
That's why I'm singing in the folk clubs for free

I never played America, never made the grade
Never played the Albert Hall, never did get paid
Couldn't fill the local bar, or even get laid
I'm singing in the folk clubs down your way

   Singing in the folk clubs, there's no-one there to hear
   Singing in the folk clubs, I just do it for the beer
   Singing in the folk clubs, I don't know where I am
   I'm singing in the folk clubs and I don't give a
   ... damn

I've played the songs of Dylan 'bout a hundred thousand times
Of Paxton and of Taylor, now I need a song that's mine
With a chorus and six verses, catchy tune and perfect rhyme
Till then I'm singing in the folk clubs marking time

   Singing in the folk clubs, there's no-one there to hear
   Singing in the folk clubs, I just do it for the beer
   Singing in the folk clubs really is the pits
   I'm singing in the folk clubs and I don't give a
   ... damn

They say that I should sing the blues when I'm feeling low
Maybe I should play some jazz with chords that I don't know
Or country, or bluegrass, or middle of the road
But I'm singing in the folk clubs... here we go!

   Singing in the folk clubs, there's no-one there to hear
   Singing in the folk clubs, I just do it for the beer
   Singing in the folk clubs, I just can't get enough
   I'm singing in the folk clubs and I don't give a
   ... damn

   Singing in the folk clubs, there's no-one there to hear
   Singing in the folk clubs, I just do it for the beer
   Singing in the folk clubs, I guess I'm out of luck
   I'm singing in the folk clubs and I don't give a
   ... damn

*******************************

So there you have it - our reputation now in tatters!

Jimmy and Val (jiva)
www.jiva.co.uk

Subject: RE: Written an interesting song this week?
From: Mrs Scarecrow
Date: 09 Nov 07 - 02:08 PM

looking forward to your double entendres Carole post it here when its done
Ann

Subject: RE: Written an interesting song this week?
From: GUEST,Bert on Kelly's machine.
Date: 09 Nov 07 - 04:47 PM

My latest effort...

Mama you are dressing up you're going into town
You'll be going dancing in some honky tonk lounge
You're gonna find some Cowboy and he's gonna let you down
Mama you don't need another broken heart

Mama there's us kids at home and you're our bestest friend
we can't bear to hear you cry for nights and nights on end
every time you break your heart it takes so long to mend
Mama you don't need another broken heart.

So keep on changing partners as you dance around the hall
Flirt with all those Cowboys and have yourself a ball
If one of them should hold you tight be careful not to fall
Mama you don't need another broken heart

Mama there's us kids at home and you're our bestest friend
we can't bear to hear you cry for nights and nights on end
every time you break your heart it takes so long to mend
Mama you don't need another broken heart.

Subject: RE: Written an interesting song this week?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 09 Nov 07 - 07:02 PM

Not written a sausage for ages... bit of a dry spell after a promising flourish in a field in Oxfordshire. I found the 4 lines I'd scribbled down, earlier in the week. I've been looking at them and totally failing to grasp what the hell I was thinking.


Ho hum.

LTS

Subject: RE: Written an interesting song this week?
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 09 Nov 07 - 07:39 PM

Bert

I like it! Try this

Mama(Am) you are (C)dressing up you're (D)going into (E)town
You'll(Am) be going (C)dancing in some (G)honky tonk (D)lounge
You're (Am)gonna find some (C)Cowboy and he's (D)gonna let you (E)down
Mama(G) you don't need an(D)other broken (Am)heart

Subject: RE: Written an interesting song this week?
From: Linda Goodman Zebooker
Date: 10 Nov 07 - 01:52 AM

Chorus

Halloween is the Day - a -a
Halloween is the Day - a -a
Halloween is the Day - a -a
When you become transformed
-----------------------------
Transformed into someone else
Someone much more powerful
Powerful and interesting
Than you were before

And sometimes those powers stay
Sometime the magic stays
Sometimes you get to keep the gifts
That you get on Halloween

I would don my cloat and hat
I would get my mother's broom
I'd imagine I could fly around the room
and I'd become transformed

Transformed into someone else
Someone else more powerful
Powerful and interesting than I was before

Chorus

The doorbell rang, the kids were there
Standing with glitter in their hair
My little crawler got up and WALKED to the door!
And he became transformed [toddler triumphantly walking...]

Transformed into someone else
Someone much more powerful
Powerful and interesting than you were before

And sometimes those powers stay
Sometime the magic stays
Sometimes you get to keep the gifts
That you get on Halloween

-Linda

PS It's nice to see the result of the song workshop!! Good song. Hope to hear it next year. Yours too, Ebbie!
--Linda

Subject: RE: Written an interesting song this week?
From: Mr Happy
Date: 10 Nov 07 - 09:10 AM

......had an idea to enhance the one-liner on the TV ad; 'Hot tub weekend'

Any help?

Subject: RE: Written an interesting song this week?
From: GUEST,Bert on Kelly's machine.
Date: 10 Nov 07 - 10:18 AM

How did you know I was having trouble with that LEJ, have you got a melody line in mind as well?

Subject: RE: Written an interesting song this week?
From: Neil D
Date: 10 Nov 07 - 12:24 PM

TEARS FOR ASA


There are children everywhere living lives in dark despair
Isn't there a better way to teach them
Does anybody really try to reach them
Does anybody really try to reach them

I defy the world to show surprise when from their private hell they rise
And lash out at the world that has tormented
Or did you think that they were born demented
Or did you think that they were born demented

Does anybody wonder why this child took a gun to school that day
And went looking for his teacher
Or do you think he's just some horrid creature
do you think he's just some horrid creature

At seven CSB was sent to see the burns upon his arms and did not remove the child from harm
What could they have possibly been thinking
Just lost within a system that was sinking
Just lost within a system that was sinking

At school they put him in a box, made him endure the jibes and taunts
Of passing peers you would have thought would back him
But being children of our time, attack him
But being children of our time, attack him

A genius not given half a chance to live his life
The way that we all are meant to live it
If there was a second chance for him I'd give it
If there was a second chance for him I'd give it

Now his sister's sitting in the street with hot tears rolling off her cheeks
Are they the only ones to fall for a tortured youngster
But we don't care we, think he's such a monster
But we don't care we, think he's such a monster

Now we are a maddened human race in our modern time and place
And we've all forgotten how to nurture
Like LC I see murder in our future
Like Leonard I see murder in our future

There are children everywhere living lives in dark despair
Isn't there a better way to teach them
Can we at long last really try to reach them
Can we at long last really try to reach them
Can we at long last really try to reach them

                                     Neil Devore

Subject: RE: Written an interesting song this week?
From: GUEST,Bert on Kelly's machine.
Date: 10 Nov 07 - 12:27 PM

Powerful Neil.

Subject: RE: Written an interesting song this week?
From: Neil D
Date: 10 Nov 07 - 12:30 PM

Thank you Bert

Subject: RE: Written an interesting song this week?
From: Leadbelly
Date: 10 Nov 07 - 01:48 PM

This week I wrote my tax declaration. Don't know whether this will be something like a folk-song for my tax official but I've tried my best.

It goes like this: income: forget it.......

Subject: RE: Written an interesting song this week?
From: autolycus
Date: 11 Nov 07 - 04:52 AM

"inclined"?;"singaround"?. Careful with those long words,weelittledrummer.

muppitz, I've read thet the secret to writing is to put your bottom on the chair and then to keep it there.



I wrote Brigg Fair a while ago, then found out someone had already done it. Imagine my surprise.


      Ivor

Subject: RE: Written an interesting song this week?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 11 Nov 07 - 06:46 AM

'muppitz, I've read thet the secret to writing is to put your bottom on the chair and then to keep it there.'

only if you can hold a pen in your bum.....

Subject: RE: Written an interesting song this week?
From: Wuzzle
Date: 11 Nov 07 - 08:04 AM

This is My first attempt at writing a blues song
sang it at one of the local clubs,
It seemed to go down ok.


Mama was a singer
She wore a dress of green
People came for miles around just to hear her sing
Her Jazz and Blues they were the best
She told her life in story
The people gathered round
So many people came to hear her sing
They were queuing round the town
Yeah her Jazz and Blues were the best
The people stood in silence
When momma sang the blues
Didn't really matter which song she would choose
Oh mommas Jazz and Blues
Well Momma she stopped singing
When poppa came to town
He said it was the devils music
It was the devils sound
Oh her Jazz and Blues they were the best
But I never heard my momma singin the blues
No I never never heard my momma sing the blues
Oh mama oooh never
no i never heard my Momma singin the blues

Subject: RE: Written an interesting song this week?
From: Bert
Date: 11 Nov 07 - 10:45 AM

Just finished this one.

Sat down for a drink in Liverpool town
HO RO - HO O RO.
When I woke I was outward bound
HO RO HO

For the Congo river we sailed away
HO RO - HO O RO
Bought and paid for a cargo of slaves
HO RO HO

Packed them tighly in the hold
HO RO - HO O RO
and sailed away with our black gold
HO RO HO

Half way across they caught the plague
HO RO - HO O RO
us poor sailors were sore afraid
HO RO HO

We threw their bodies over the side
HO RO - HO O RO
some poor devils were still alive
HO RO HO

For the couple of dollars they paid to me
HO RO - HO O RO
My soul is damned for eternity
HO RO HO

Subject: RE: Written an interesting song this week?
From: GUEST,sparticus
Date: 11 Nov 07 - 11:46 AM

I didn't think that this sort of thing still went on in this day and age!

Subject: RE: Written an interesting song this week?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 11 Nov 07 - 01:27 PM

Liverpool's that sort of place......

Subject: RE: Written an interesting song this week?
From: Bert
Date: 11 Nov 07 - 02:25 PM

This week spartie, this week!!!

Subject: RE: Written an interesting song this week?
From: GUEST,sparticus
Date: 11 Nov 07 - 02:41 PM

Bert

Whatever you do, don't take that comment seriously.
I've got great admiration for anyone who can write a song.
Keep up the good work.

Subject: RE: Written an interesting song this week?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 11 Nov 07 - 03:08 PM

Absolutely!

Subject: RE: Written an interesting song this week?
From: breezy
Date: 11 Nov 07 - 04:22 PM

another 'trad shanty' plagerised !!!

Subject: RE: Written an interesting song this week?
From: Peace
Date: 11 Nov 07 - 04:23 PM

Finished two this past week.