Obit: Bill Steele (1932-2018)

Subject: Add: A THOUSAND SONGS (Bill Steele)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 14 Jun 21 - 04:57 PM

Wendy Grossman sang this song beautifully at the Singaround today.

Thread #12472   Message #98557
Posted By: karen k
23-Jul-99 - 02:44 PM
Thread Name: Mudcat Campfire
Subject: Lyr Add: A THOUSAND SONGS (Bill Steele)

Love this campfire. Have sat around many over the years and this song best sums up for me what they've meant to me. Thanks, Alice for starting this one.

karen k

A THOUSAND SONGS^^^
by Bill Steele

I woke up smelling bacon with a pinecone in my side
I stuck my head out in the morning sun
There was one guy fixing breakfast and twenty singing songs
So I knew that breakfast never would get done
I crawled out of my sleeping bag and picked up my guitar
To start the day with coffee and a song
We'd built a singing city underneath the spreading trees
To join it all you do is sing along

CHO: We started in the morning with a hymn to the sun
We sang through lunch and dinner and we've hardly just begun
We'll try to sing a thousand songs before this day is done
And tomorrow there'll be a thousand more.

I met a girl down by the fire from a green Missouri farm
She sang a song she said her mother made
She sang about her father and the love he had to give
And I offered her a song of mine in trade
She said she didn't have the time; she had to catch a train
And I feel a little sorry now and then
But when you hear a thousand songs I guess it has to be
There's some that you'll never hear again.

A kid came up and said hello and said he knew my name
And he thought my songs were really where it's at
And then he sang a song of his - he said it wasn't much
But I wish that I could write one song like that.
They used to say that making songs was only for the few
But we took these old guitars and proved them wrong.
For music is a language most anyone can learn
And if you sing then you can write a song.

We sang around a lantern when we should have been in bed
And everybody took a turn or two
Whenever one crawled off to sleep, another took his place
And everybody brought in something new.
I used to think I knew most every song there was to know
I could sing out any one you cared to call
But now I'd need three lifetimes just to learn what's going round
And if everybody's got a song, then no one's got em all. ^^^

Subject: RE: Obit: Bill Steele (1932-2018)
From: clueless don
Date: 01 Apr 20 - 06:50 AM

The verse about "... factory, they're making plastic Christmas trees" is not part of the original song. I gather that more than one person has written additional verses for the song. I don't know if Mr. Steele himself ever wrote any.

Subject: RE: Obit: Bill Steele (1932-2018)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 31 Mar 20 - 08:12 PM

Thanks for the lead to the downloadable albums, cnd. I hadn't heard Bill Steele's singing, even though his "Garbage" is in the Rise Up Singing Songbook.

The late, wonderful Arkie posted the lyrics:

Thread #62779   Message #1017325
Posted By: GUEST,Arkie
12-Sep-03 - 12:12 AM
Thread Name: Old Environmental Folk Songs
Subject: ADD: Garbage (Bill Steele)

I'm not sure what is meant by "old", but these have been around for at least 30 years.

GARBAGE!
(Bill Steele)

Mister Thompson calls the waiter, orders steak and baked potato
But he leaves the bone and gristle and he never eats the skins;
Then busboy comes and takes it, with a cough contaminates it
As he puts it in a can with coffee grounds and sardine tins
Then the truck comes by on Friday and carts it all away
And a thousand trucks just like it are converging on the Bay
Garbage! Garbage! We're filling up the sea with garbage
Garbage! Garbage!
What will we do when there's no place left To put all the garbage.

Mr. Thompson starts his Cadillac and winds it up the freeway track
Leaving friends and neighbors in a hydrocarbon haze
He's joined by lots of smaller cars all sending gases to the stars
There to form a seething cloud that hangs for thirty days
While the sun licks down upon it with its ultraviolet tongues
Till it turns to smog and settles down and ends up in our lungs
Garbage! Garbage! We're filling up the sky with garbage
Garbage! Garbage!
What will we do when there's nothing left to breathe but garbage.

Getting home and taking off his shoes he settles down with
evening news
While the kids do homework with the TV in one ear
While Superman for thousandth time
sells talking dolls and conquers crime
They dutifully learn the date of birth of Paul Revere
In the paper there's a piece about the mayor's middle name
And he gets it done in time to watch the all-star bingo game
Garbage! Garbage!
We're filling up our minds with garbage
Garbage! Garbage!
What will we do when there's nothing left to read
And there's nothing left to hear
And there's nothing left to need
And there's nothing left to wear
And there's nothing left to talk about
And there's nothing to walk upon
And there's nothing left to care about
And nothing left to ponder on
And nothing left to touch
And nothing left to see
And there's nothing left to do
And there's nothing left to be but garbage!

---

The lyrics are also in the Digital Tradition (any corrections?):

---

          GARBAGE
(Bill Steele)

Mister Thompson calls the waiter, orders steak and baked potato
Then he leaves the bone and gristle and he never eats the skin
The busboy comes and takes it, with a cough contaminates it
And he puts it in a can with coffee grinds and sardine tins
Till the truck comes by on Friday and carts it all away
And a thousand trucks just like it are converging on the Bay

  Garbage, garbage, garbage, garbage
  What will we do when there's no place left
  To put all the garbage

Mr. Thompson starts his Cadillac and winds it up the freeway track
Leaving friends and neighbors in a hydrocarbon haze
He's joined by lots of smaller cars all sending gases to the stars
There to form a seething cloud that hangs for thirty days
While the sun looks down upon it with its ultraviolet tongues
Till it turns to smog and settles down and ends up in our lungs
  Garbage, garbage
  We're filling up the air with garbage
  Garbage, garbage
  What will we do
  When there's nothing left to breathe but garbage

Getting home and taking off his shoes he settles down with
  evening news
While the kids do homework with the TV in one ear
While Superman for the thousandths time sell sexy dolls and conquers crime
They dutifully learn the date of birth of Paul Revere
In the paper there's a piece about the mayor's middle name
And he gets it done in time to watch the all-star bingo game

  Garbage, garbage
  We're filling up our minds with garbage
  Garbage, garbage
  What will we do when there's nothing left to hear
  And there's nothing left to read
  And there's nothing left to wear
  And there's nothing left to need
  And there's nothing left to talk about
  And there's nothing to walk upon
  And there's nothing left to care about
  And there's nothing left to do
  And there's nothing left to see
  And there's nothing left to be but garbage

In Mister Thompson's factory, they're making plastic Christmas trees
Complete with silver tinsel and a geodisic stand
The plastic's mixed in giant vats from some conglomeration
That's been piped from deep within the earth or strip-mined from the land
And if you ask the question, they say, "Why don't you see?
It's absolutely needed for the economy!"

Oh, Garbage! Garbage! Garbage! Garbage!
There stocks and their bonds -- all garbage!
Garbage! Garbage! Garbage! Garbage!
What will they do when their system goes to smash
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
There's no value to their cash
There's no money to be made
But there's a world to be repaid
Their kids will read in history books
'Bout financiers and other crooks
And feudalism and slavery
And nukes and all their knavery
To history's dustbin they're consigned
Along with many other kinds of garbage
Garbage! Garbage! Garbage! Garbage!

Copyright 1969, The Rainbow Collection Ltd. (BMI)
   All rights reserved
@environment @food
filename[ GARBGE
TUNE FILE: GARBGE
CLICK TO PLAY 
SOF 

Subject: RE: Obit: Bill Steele (1932-2018)
From: cnd
Date: 31 Mar 20 - 07:31 AM

The website linked earlier (http://billsteelesongs.com/) still works and has the entirety of his albums "Garbage! and other Garbage" (Bay Records 202) and "Chocolate Chip Cookies" (Swallowtail Records ST-7). Songs are:

"Garbage! and other Garbage" (Bay Records 202)
- Dr. Jekyll's Cola
- The Henry Smith Memorial Granite Block
- Laugh, Sally, Laugh
- Johnny's Lullaby
- Garbage!
- Power, Power Everywhere
- I Wish I Was in Texas
- Charlie Chan
- A Thousand Songs

"Chocolate Chip Cookies" (Swallowtail Records ST-7)
- Chocolate Chip Cookies
- The Gasoline Gypsies
- Ode to a Nearsighted Rabbit
- The Walls Have Ears
- The Norther and the Frogs
- Abdul Abulbul Amir
- The Cedar Forest
- A Song for Just After Christmas
- 10,000 Years to Go
- Please Take Care of Me

His website also has a nice little description of each song

Subject: RE: Obit: Bill Steele (1932-2018)
From: GUEST,Starship
Date: 30 Mar 20 - 10:13 PM

Here ya go, Joe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXm9-S2K6vA

Subject: RE: Obit: Bill Steele (1932-2018)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 30 Mar 20 - 09:49 PM

I was talking today with somebody about Bill Steele. Can anybody post some of his songs?

Subject: RE: Obit: Bill Steele (1932-2018)
From: GUEST,John
Date: 16 Mar 19 - 08:37 AM

I am a French man who spent some time in Rochester NY in 1976, occasionally playing guitar and singing at the Golden Link folk society. I attended one of Bill Steele's concerts there and enjoyed it very much. I still listen to and play his songs today. My wife and children also know them.

Today, surfing on the web, I come across this sad news.
I thought that I should let you know that in France too, Bill Steele and his songs were known and loved.

God bless him.

John

Subject: RE: Obit: Bill Steele (1932-2018)
From: wendyg
Date: 31 Dec 18 - 08:08 PM

Don: I think I sang it once or twice and then Bill picked it up. You probably did hear him sing it.

wg

Subject: RE: Obit: Bill Steele (1932-2018)
From: GUEST,Don Meixner
Date: 30 Dec 18 - 12:24 PM

I am very sorry to learn of Bill's passing. I have enjoyed his songs for years and "Charlie Chan" is still in my rep. I met Bill years ago after a concert in Ithaca. Jim Ringer and Mary McCaslin I think. There was an after party at a home in Caroline NY. I was taken by Bill's gift for lyrics and his amazing humor.

Don Meixner

Subject: RE: Obit: Bill Steele (1932-2018)
From: vectis
Date: 29 Dec 18 - 07:58 PM

http://www.14850.com/12219226-bill-steele-fire/?fbclid=IwAR0VEybYM4FSEqZDjx58jVW-5cQtnAI9N5bZfHRHFMOcaFwF2gv5Z20ptNY

Subject: RE: Obit: Bill Steele (1932-2018)
From: clueless don
Date: 28 Dec 18 - 02:27 PM

My sincere apologies, wendyg, for my misattribution of "The Week Before Summer". I have a notion that I did hear Bill sing it - possibly in duet with you?

Don

Subject: RE: Obit: Bill Steele (1932-2018)
From: wendyg
Date: 28 Dec 18 - 10:38 AM

Hi, Ross. That's a pretty funny story. I hope you're well - been a long time since we've been in touch.

wg

Subject: RE: Obit: Bill Steele (1932-2018)
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 26 Dec 18 - 07:09 PM

Sorry to learn this, Wendy. I remember Bill from my fleeting visit to Ithaca in 1979 on the way to Winnipeg Folk Festival. You delegated him to meet me off the Greyhound bus, where he greeted me with "You must be Ross MacDonald!" "Not necesarily" was about the best I could come up with. I know he meant a lot to you. Sorry for your loss.
Ross

Subject: RE: Obit: Bill Steele (1932-2018)
From: wendyg
Date: 26 Dec 18 - 05:57 PM

In the mid 1960s, Bill played washtub bass in a group called the Berkeley String Quartet, which included Country Joe McDonald. Someone sent Joe some recordings and he put up a page, so here they are in 1965:

https://www.countryjoe.com/bsq.htm

wg

Subject: RE: Obit: Bill Steele (1932-2018)
From: Waddon Pete
Date: 24 Dec 18 - 06:18 AM

I was sorry to hear this news. Bill was a wonderful folk singer and entertainer in the best sense. I have added his name to the "In Memoriam" thread. My condolences to his friends and family.

RIP

Peter

Subject: RE: Obit: Bill Steele (1932-2018)
From: Susan of DT
Date: 23 Dec 18 - 04:16 PM

I went to the Unmuzzled Ox in the '60s. Folk music was mostly in Japes, the Outing Club building, on Friday nights. I met Bill and the Houghtons later, after I had graduated and left Ithaca. I probably met Bill at Fox Hollow.

Subject: RE: Obit: Bill Steele (1932-2018)
From: wendyg
Date: 21 Dec 18 - 11:08 PM

You probably would have encountered me, yes. We hung out a lot at the Unmuzzled Ox.

As a data point, however: Bill did not write "The Week Before Summer". I did.

wg

Subject: RE: Obit: Bill Steele (1932-2018)
From: GUEST,Philippa
Date: 21 Dec 18 - 06:47 PM

I was so sorry to see Bill's name mentioned in this context, and then to learn that his death was not particularly age-related but due to a tragic accident. I don't have any stories to tell about Bill. I remember Bill but didnt know him well. I wonder if I knew Wendy and/or Don at least to see from Johnny's Big Red Bar and Grill and Anabelle Taylor Hall and similar venues. There was a marvellous folk scene in Ithaca in the 1970s.

Subject: RE: Obit: Bill Steele (1932-2018)
From: Hollowfox
Date: 20 Dec 18 - 03:56 PM

Damn. I met him a few times at festivals and coffeehouses, and he was one of the most generous and kind people I've ever known. I still cry whenever I hear Laugh, Sally, Laugh.

Subject: RE: Obit: Bill Steele (1932-2018)
From: clueless don
Date: 20 Dec 18 - 08:13 AM

I am so sorry to hear this. Thank you, wendyg, for letting us know - and my condolences to you for this loss!

I was a grad student at Cornell when Mr. Steele returned to Ithaca. I have both of his albums, and I remember a number of songs that he performed locally (which didn't make it onto the albums.) One in particular was a parody of "The Week Before Easter". The opening verse, as I recall, was

'twas the week before Summer.
So green were the trees.
I took all my finals
and passed them with ease.
Then I went to the Registrar
and paid all my fee-ee-ees.
And they kept me in line for an hour.

And there was a song about a woman who left everything behind to run off with the man "in the Winebago-O", and a song called "We are true conservatives" (to the tune of Yankee Doodle), and probably loads that I don't remember or never heard - he was such a prolific, and talented, songwriter. He was also the first person I ever heard sing Percy French's "Abdul a Bulbul Amir".

Go well, sir!

Subject: RE: Obit: Bill Steele (1932-2018)
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 19 Dec 18 - 08:01 PM

"Garbage!" sung by Michael Cooney was my intro,
although at the time I heard Cooney on a television broadcast,
there was no mention of Bill Steele
and it would be a long time before I did hear of him.

Subject: Obit: Bill Steele
From: wendyg
Date: 19 Dec 18 - 07:23 PM

I'm sorry to tell everyone here that Bill Steele, writer of many great songs including "Chocolate Chip Cookies", "Griselda's Waltz", and, most famously, "Garbage!", died on Monday of smoke inhalation when a fire at his house in Ithaca, NY, started in his kitchen. He was 86, and until April 1 was still working full-time at the Cornell University News Service. The fire was contained quickly, and no one else was hurt.

Bill was descended from people who came over on the Mayflower, and Mitchell Street in Ithaca was named after his mother's family. He grew up in Williamsville, NY, just outside of Buffalo, and talked often about his Saturday afternoons going to movies. He loved the old science fiction serials, and when I last spoke to him a couple of weeks ago, he told me he was enjoying watching some of the sillier sf movies on TV. He was always interested in science, and began his degree at Cornell as a physics major, shifting to psychology halfway through.

What he liked best, though, was making people laugh. As a Cornell student, he worked on the now-defunct college humor magazine, The Cornell Widow.

I didn't meet Bill until he was 40, in 1972, when he came back to live in Ithaca after a stint in San Francisco, where he worked for a local newspaper and then in a guitar store, taught guitar lessons, and wrote his first songs. His mother had died, and he'd come back to Ithaca for what was meant to be a short time to fix up her house. Instead, he wound up staying in Ithaca, active on the folk scene, for the rest of his life. We met at a Cornell Folk Song Club party at the home of George and Jo Houghton. He drove me back to the student apartment I shared, and we sat in his car and talked until dawn. He was funny, smart, and knowledgeable. Later, he generously helped me get my start playing professionally on the folk scene.

Throughout the time I knew him, Bill pursued both those interests: science writing and folk music. He particularly liked explaining complex science to the general public and, especially, kids. He wrote for numerous publications including Scholastic magazines, the Cornell Chronicle, Working Mother, and Family Circle before he went to work full-time for the Cornell News Service at an age when most people are starting to retire. He was an early adopter of computers in general (he had an early Osborne word processor, if I remember correctly, and I think wrote some manuals for it) and the web in particular. At a time when few knew anything about the web, he designed and wrote the Cornell News website, which ran on his software until a just a few years ago when they migrated it to Drupal.

As a folksinger, he toured all over the country in the 1970s and 1980s, combining topical humor with thoughtful observations of the world around him. A longtime admirer of Pete Seeger, he particularly liked getting everyone to sing, and also to write songs: "If you can sing, then you can write a song," he says in "A Thousand Songs", an anthem to folk festivals and their all-night singing parties.

He recorded two albums, "Garbage! and other Garbage" and "Chocolate Chip Cookies". His 1970 song "The Walls Have Ears", inspired by Watergate, was remarkably prescient about today's loss of privacy; "Garbage!", which was recorded several times by Pete Seeger, was an early (1969) contribution to the environmental movement; "Laughing Sally" mourned the loss of a well-loved San Francisco amusement park to an apartment complex; and "Charlie Chan" was ahead of its time in critiquing the racism of casting white people to play a stereotyped Asian character. "A Thousand Songs" is an anthem to folk festivals and their all-night singing parties, while "Gasoline Gypsies" celebrated the nomadic lifestyle of folksingers and others. A personal favorite is "A Song for Just After Christmas", which retells the Christmas story in a modern setting. Of his more recent songs, perhaps the best known is "Griselda's Waltz", which I was captured playing on autoharp by someone who uploaded it to YouTube, and has been recorded by Dana and Susan Robinson on their album "Big Mystery". In 2009, the Cornell News Service wrote a profile.

Most of the songs mentioned here are available for free download from Bill's website.

I'm sure many people here have their own memories of Bill, and I look forward to reading them.

R.I.P. William Varian Mitchell Steele, February 20, 1932 - December 17, 2018.

wg