songs about singing--peak experience

Subject: RE: songs about singing--peak experience
From: MAG
Date: 23 Sep 02 - 11:33 AM

Thank you, one and all. A lovely group of songs, and I will try to track down the ones I don't know. This is the last day of my weekend holiday. The moon was full for the Saturday dance, and everyone in the band seemed pixillated by moondust. One dance went on for 15 minutes (the kind where you have to give that tune a rest for awhile.) I sang at an open mike, visited an auction, collected pine cones in the open for kids crafts, and all in all had a magic weekend.

I will close with: "How can I keep from singing?"

Subject: Lyr Add: COULDN'T HIDE OUR HEARTS (Janis Carper)
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 22 Sep 02 - 09:51 PM

Oh, my, the Camp Coho tape! I thought I was the only person in the world who still has that tape. Well, except for Janis and Heidi and Kat and T.R. and Jill! If you want bucketfuls of moments like that, drag yourself to the Puget Sound Guitar Workshop next summer. (If you've already been, of course, then you already know.) For me, it's always been Luther Schutz' song "On Your Way Home", which I first heard around a PSGW campfire in 1986, sung by Janet Peterson and Marie Eaton and the rest of Motherlode, with Richard Sholtz' autoharp floating above the voices. I know just what you mean, Mary Ann. I think that many of those songs are very situation-dependent, but when the situation is right, they're golden. And then, once you've felt the magic, the song brings it back to you almost every time.

Aloha,
Mark

P.S., here's a birthday present for you:

COULDN'T HIDE OUR HEARTS
Janis Carper, (c)1990 Cascadia Music, BMI

There you are with eyes of blue
Looking for a friend
As I smiled and sang with you
I could not pretend
To hide my heart
Couldn't hide my heart

Standing on the hardened ground
Beneath the quarter moon
Passing the guitar around
Play another tune

CHORUS
We had lost all track of time
And nothing mattered but the rhyme
Of words and music ringing true
We couldn't hide our hearts

How I miss that Texas sky
And that firelight glow
Shooting stars and fireflies
And singing soft and low
Don't hide your heart
Don't hide your heart

Smoke from campfires filled the air
Cedar and mesquite
As my memory takes me there
The taste is bittersweet

CHORUS

There you are with eyes of blue
Shining like the stars
Singing songs we never new
We couldn't hide our hearts
We couldn't hide our hearts

Subject: RE: songs about singing--peak experience
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 22 Sep 02 - 03:39 AM

This is one of my favourites, it says so much about some people I've known for ever.... many of whom I've just not met yet....

I did try searching it but it isn't in the DT, it's by Richard Grainger (I think), and I'm sorry if the line breaks bugger themselves.

Every time I close my eyes
I dream that when I open them,
You're there again, there again
In my arms again:

Every time I hear the tune
See singers in the crowded room
A sea of faces through the smoke
The band goes on to turn a tune.
Through visions of a Morris dance,
You and I exchange a glance
Wishing you were next to me
Wishing you were here with me.

Every time I close my eyes
I dream that when I open them:

We'll take a drink; I'll have a smoke
Sing me heart, share a joke,
The band will play a melody
And we will be in harmony.
Can we stand against the tide?
Take my hand, watch spirits glide
The band will play a heavy din,
Take my hand let the dance begin

Every time I close my eyes
I dream that when I open them,
You're there again, there again
In my arms again.

One last look hearts like lead
Winds have changed blowing ahead
From town to town I sing of you,
And every song, I'll sing for you.
You came to me and took my hand
Strangers in a foreign land
Strangers met, friends to part
Now our dance is about to start.

LTS

Subject: Lyr Add: THEY DON'T WRITE THEM LIKE THAT ANY MORE
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 21 Sep 02 - 08:38 PM

One classic is a song by Pete Betts from Middlesborough in England, which was recorded by his mate Vin Garbutt. It's called They don't write'em like that any more and that's a link to a tread about it, with the words.

But here they are again, to make it easier for them to get picked up for the DT which doesn't seem to have happened. (Note the cunning amendment to the heading on this post...):

THEY DON'T WRITE THEM LIKE THAT ANY MORE
(Betts)

Chorus:
And ee, how we could sing, what joy those nights would bring
Singing for hours on end
Once we found the key - oh what harmony
Those boozie voices could blend
Heart of My Heart, just for a start
Walkin' My Baby Back Home
When it comes to an end it's "let's sing it again"
They don't write them like that any more

Da's drunk again and he's brought lots of men
And their wives back home from the pub
They've got no beer but you need have no fear
Tam's gone round the back door of the club
Someone's playing a piano as if using a sledgehammer
Murdering There Goes My Heart
There's a burst through the door, and it's Bert and what's more
He's brought the beer, so we're ready to start

Ma's in the kitchen tryin' to knock up a snack
From the chicken we had this afternoon
Jack says, Where's the toilet, Ma says, "Out the back,
And by the looks - not a minute too soon
Then a laugh shakes the whole house: Jack's fell in the coalhouse
Man, he's as drunk as a newt
But with his face coloured black he's not taken aback
He sings Mammy and the rest follows suit

Half past one in the mornin', and Dad's started yawnin'
He's got to be workin' at six
A bored audience is watchin' while Tony is botchin'
And messin' an easy card tricks
Ah but it's time to go now, and Dads got the knowhow
To make 'em all want to go home
"Cos when you're all full of beer the last thing you want to hear
Is a tune on his paper and comb
^^^

Subject: RE: songs about singing--peak experience
From: Amos
Date: 21 Sep 02 - 04:47 PM

All day, all night, Mary Ann (tadadeDAHda)
Have to vbes' burfday dat ever you can! (tadadeDAHda)
All of de folkies love Mary Ann,(tadadeDAHda)
Singing de song like she only can!(tadadeDAHda)

EVERYBODY!

All day, all night....


Well, HABBY BURFDAY Mag. Sorry I was late!


A

Subject: RE: songs about singing--peak experience
From: MAG
Date: 21 Sep 02 - 01:09 PM

Er, I didn't say folk songs; knowing these are self-consciously composed, I did mention singer-songwriters. These songs help me remember the good times, and sometimes that is what I need.

Yes, I had a lovely birthday, all, and tonight I go play with the contra band.

"Girls night out, away ye merry lasses,
It's a girl's night out, we'll ridethe wind tonight...

(Linda Waterfall)

Subject: RE: songs about singing--peak experience
From: Barbara
Date: 21 Sep 02 - 11:56 AM

Here's one for you, Mary Ann, down by the... oh, never mind. It's been too long, I can't remember how to do the blue clickies. But here's the address for Bill Steele's "Thousand Songs" right here in the DT databank.

Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: songs about singing--peak experience
From: GUEST,Mudlark
Date: 20 Sep 02 - 09:24 PM

All day, all night, Mary Ann Having a great birthday, that's the plan!

Happy B'day, Mary Ann!

Subject: RE: songs about singing--peak experience
From: michaelr
Date: 20 Sep 02 - 07:52 PM

Folk songs about singing folk songs? Booo-ring! When art becomes self-referential, the creative spark dies. Witness all the recent Hollywood movies about Hollywood people making movies... it's really just wanking.

Cheers,
Michael

PS: Happy Birthday, anyway!

Subject: RE: songs about singing--peak experience
From: smallpiper
Date: 20 Sep 02 - 06:38 PM

Hey HAPPY BIRTHDAY Mary Ann - I hope you have a realy good singaround virtual or actual enjoy it! (thats an order)

Subject: songs about singing--peak experience
From: MAG
Date: 20 Sep 02 - 05:56 PM

This is really a Happy Birthday to me! thread -- I missed out on the all-Septmeber one, having been preoccupied.

As I have done previously, I invite all my women and men friends, some met in the flesh, some not, to a virtual sing.

I have a thing for the singer-songwriter songs which describe a situation, place, or event where you're having a singaround with all your best buddies and it's one of those magical times. How many can we think of? (How many new ones can you lead me to ...)

I'll start off with Janis Carper's "Couldn't hide out hearts," off the Camp Coho tape (Cascadia Music, 1990) (BMI registered) There you were with eyes of blue
Looking for a friend
(oops, drawing a blank: jump to chorus:)

We had lost all track of time,
Nothing mattered but the rhyme
Of words and music ringing true
We couldn't hide our hearts.

This tape commemorated several singer-songwriter friends camping together at Kerrville.

Nic Jones' Long the night, and long til day; do not bid us further stray

is another.

or Brown's "Ring around the Moon" which I learned off of a Cindy Mangsen album.

I've really gotta go and do some other stuff; today actually is my birthday, and I'm actually getting together with music buddies tonight, but they won't know these kinds of songs. I look forward to seeing what y'all have come up with.

Cheers, Mary Ann