Lyr Add: Brown Is the Shit (Stephen L. Suffet)

Subject: RE: Brown Is the Shit
From: GUEST,Lori
Date: 12 Jun 01 - 11:06 PM

Suffet, nice work with your first song and nice work with your reply to me. Except that's not exactly how it happened. But then as far as I can tell you weren't there. You're the big guy who plays all the Woody Guthrie songs, right? If so, then you definitely weren't there.

Filkmaster, very funny. Blue goo, I can picture that.

Subject: Blue Is the Goo
From: GUEST,The Filkmaster
Date: 11 Jun 01 - 11:50 AM

Blue Is the Goo
To be sung to the tune of Red Is the Rose

Blue is the goo when aliens screw,
And blue are the scales on their baby,
And blue is my heart, when we're far apart,
Would you prefer an alien, maybe?

Oh, I met her one day, ten parsecs far away,
From where a star went nova,
I learned about the charms of a girl with seven arms,
As we rolled in the bright orange clover.

But her mothership called, and her green ass she hauled,
Back to her home in Orion,
And she left me here alone, to pine and sigh and moan,
As I will to the day I am dyin'.

Oh, blue is the goo when aliens screw,
And blue are the scales on their baby,
And blue is my heart, when we're far apart,
Would you prefer an alien, maybe?

Subject: RE: Brown Is the Shit
From: 2 in harmony
Date: 10 Jun 01 - 05:12 PM

thanks. wrote a verse I'll add sometime. As a songwriter you're great.

Subject: RE: Brown Is the Shit
From: Jeri
Date: 10 Jun 01 - 04:38 PM

Well, there's something distinctly weird going here, but this is one of those times when I rather enjoy being clueless.

Subject: RE: Brown Is the Shit
From: Ebbie
Date: 10 Jun 01 - 03:44 PM

Patrish, to continue the musical vein- could it be because of Greensleeves?

Eb

Subject: RE: Brown Is the Shit
From: Suffet
Date: 10 Jun 01 - 02:37 PM

Back to the beginning. I may have just unwittingly dispalyed what "Brown Is the Shit" is all about. I'm going to be quiet for now.

--- Steve

Subject: RE: Brown Is the Shit
From: 2 in harmony
Date: 10 Jun 01 - 02:27 PM

how to hurt friends and influence people. ****************

And I thought all those talented musicians I knew killed themselves working their day jobs mainly to have time for music. And I thought they were really informed. This is not directed at you or about you. You are really smart. Just a recent observation re: computers.

Subject: RE: Brown Is the Shit
From: Suffet
Date: 10 Jun 01 - 12:15 PM

The perosn who majored in Romance philology is named Elayna Konstan. She's a good friend and married to another good friend. My wife and I sometimes spend time with Elayna and her husband in Vermont, and I get the opportunity to try out my French and my Spanish, and sometimes a little Portuguese. You have heard, by the way, that I have written a song in Spanish. It was a big hit at the informal Friday night jam at the recent PMN weekend.

¡FUERA DE VIEQUES!
Words & music: Stephen L. Suffet © 2001

Chorus:
¡Fuera, fuera de Vieques!
¡Fuera, fuera de Vieques!
¡Fuera, fuera de Vieques!
¡Y fuera de Vieques!


¡Fuera Janqui de Vieques!
¡Fuera Janqui de Vieques!
¡Fuera Janqui de Vieques!
¡Y fuera de Vieques!

Repeat chous after each stanza.

Additional stanzas...

¡Fuera Janqui de Guantanamo...!

¡Fuera Bush de Washington...!

¡Fuera Jeb de Florida...!

It can go on for quite a while.

-- Steve

Subject: RE: Brown Is the Shit
From: Suffet
Date: 10 Jun 01 - 11:59 AM

Andy Kaufman played Latka.

Subject: RE: Brown Is the Shit
From: 2 in harmony
Date: 10 Jun 01 - 11:59 AM

College courses in philology faded out quite some time age. Yes, philology refers to love of words. Thought I was the friend that mentioned that to you. Didn't major in romance languages. Guess you have many friends, many loves, many words.

Subject: RE: Brown Is the Shit
From: 2 in harmony
Date: 10 Jun 01 - 11:45 AM

you really do like Lori and her song writing

Subject: RE: Brown Is the Shit
From: Jeri
Date: 10 Jun 01 - 08:49 AM

And I guess songs are a lot like any verbal communication.
There are factors besides words that convey the message. Here, we lack tone of voice, body language, facial expressions, and knowing much about the person doing the communicating. With a song, also add in not hearing the tune.

It makes all the difference whether you "hear" the words in serious, angry tones, or a self-mocking "I'm-gonna-go-out-in-the-garden-and-eat-worms" one.

This song is about when other people verbally beat you up, and you decide to join in and help them instead of making peace or fighting back. I find it difficult to imagine this song with irony or any humor, and I personally would like to. (Of course I never understood or enjoyed the "humor" of that guy who played Latka on Taxi whose name I can't remember right now.)

Subject: RE: Brown Is the Shit
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 09 Jun 01 - 11:08 PM

SORRY!
A couple of days ago I said your song was silly,ive read it again it isnt.I read it proprly this time and it made me think.sorry again.john(in hull)

Subject: RE: Brown Is the Shit
From: Helen
Date: 09 Jun 01 - 08:33 PM

Ok, now I have read the whole thread.

Suffet, I like your song a lot - the first one, I mean. I have been in that frame of mind where I know that if I open my mouth only bad and sad and angry things will burst out uncontrollably, in a scatter-shot way, so I decide that keeping my mouth shut is better for everyone until I can regain my psychological and emotional balance.

I especially like the bit about not being the bully or the bullied. I can really relate to that - very specifically.

After having posted the song by Franti, I realise how well it fits with your song in response to Lori's song.

Nice work, everyone.

Helen

Subject: RE: Brown Is the Shit
From: Helen
Date: 09 Jun 01 - 08:19 PM

I haven't read this thread right through yet, but every time I look at the title I think of the Michael Franti song called "Love is the shit"

In my (humble) opinion Michael Franti is one of the best poets of these two centuries. He's a rappy, hip-hoppy-type singer

Helen

"Love is the shit" (M. Franti/C. Hunter) performed by Spearhead

Say when you called me that night
to tell me that things
they weren't goin' alright with your boyfriend
was it me or did you just want somebody to talk to
Say is it you or the fact that I can't be near you
that keeps you in front of my mind
when your voice goes away
and a breath is the last thing that you say

But the warmth of your lips on my fingertips
won't go away
when I drop my head in my hands and play
the memory of that night in L.A.
again and again and again
because I can't think straight and I can't sleep late
the few times we shared I try to recreate
I know this is wrong better stop this talk
because grass can grow up through a crack in the sidewalk
and what I see when I look in your eyes
grass that's truly greenest sprouting inside
I wasn't even looking when I realized
that you had the vibe that was my fertilizer
thought love in this world was dead and buried and gone
how could I be so cynical when I was so young
you hit me in the chest like an 808 boom
I found love is the shit that makes life bloom

(chorus)
Love is the shit that makes life bloom
and you never know when you might step in it!
love is the shit that makes life bloom
and you never know when you might...

But fate is like a pigeon that follows me around
sometimes he flies ahead and he brings me what he found
then he'll drop it on my head leave me numb from the brain down
that's the way it was when I walked upon your ground

The irrepressible and impermissable
are the two things that have made my life miserable
'cause spirits don't leave when you don't talk about them
and memories come back when you don't think about them
I wish I had an ocean of some magic potion
I'd trade all this emotion for a for a few moments of motion
I've never felt this way some things can't be rehearsed
now I'm grindin' up my gearbox tryin' to find reverse
because

(chorus)

(bridge)
But I want to keep on walking
Right through
And let this feeling rock me
ooh-oooh!
(repeat)

"ya know falling in love is like easing into a hot tub
it feels good on your feet but by the time you get to your mid section
you know your either gonna get all the way in or all the way out!"

But music brings me cover in this grieving hour
the Sade tape tells me it's all over now
I listen real hard but don't dare play it loud
'cause I don't wanna think what you might be doin' now
sometimes it feels like a bad initiation but you
woke my heart from a long hibernation
you were worth every risk and so I gave my heart room
and now I'm deep in the doo-doo
that makes life bloom
because...

(chorus)

(bridge)
See the flowers bloomin' in the springtime
see the bees zoomin' in the sunshine
(repeat)

Subject: RE: Brown Is the Shit
From: Suffet
Date: 09 Jun 01 - 07:16 PM

I thought that was implicit in my answer. The ancient Greeks also had a third word for love: "agape" (AH-guh-pay). It meant unconditional love, rather than love based on some reciprocity. The early Christians used the term "agape" to describe Jesus's love for humanity.

I'm not a Christian, but I learned that somewhere, even before we had the Internet.

By the way, Lori's song is erotic without being nasty.

--- Steve

Subject: RE: Brown Is the Shit
From: Matt_R
Date: 09 Jun 01 - 07:05 PM

Go ahead and say it Alex, you know you want to!! The God of Doin' the Nasty!!

Subject: RE: Brown Is the Shit
From: mousethief
Date: 09 Jun 01 - 06:09 PM

And "eros" means sexual love (Eros being the Greek god of .... um....)

Alex

Subject: RE: Brown Is the Shit
From: Suffet
Date: 09 Jun 01 - 05:59 PM

"Philos" and "eros" both mean love. The distinction is the kind of love. Many English words derive from "philos," including "philosophy" (love of wisdom) and "philanthropy" (love of mankind). "Logos" means word. You can put the two together and get "philology" (love of words). A good friend of mine majored in Romance philology, i.e. the origin and development of the Romance languages.

--- Steve

Subject: RE: Brown Is the Shit
From: 2 in harmony
Date: 09 Jun 01 - 05:49 PM

Suffet,

Nice song to guest Lori. Was that philos as in"words" as opposed to love (eros)

Subject: RE: Brown Is the Shit
From: Suffet
Date: 09 Jun 01 - 05:30 PM

Matt, I am flattered to hear your response. The irony is that I really love Eric Bogle's original. But I feel that there is more than one side to the story, and I felt it important to give a voice to the many Willie McBrides who believed that the Allied cause in the Great War was right and just. In the same manner I wrote "The South Coast Revisited" from the vantage point of the teenage girl who is used as property to settle her father's gambling debt to the son of a nobleman. And for a similar reason I wrote the response to Lori's song. In no instance would I want my reply to supplant the original.

--- Steve

Subject: RE: Brown Is the Shit
From: Matt_R
Date: 09 Jun 01 - 05:11 PM

Yes, Suffet, that's the one I was speaking of! At the end where you have "We knew why we died, and we'd do it again and again and again" is where I usually break down.

Subject: RE: Brown Is the Shit
From: Suffet
Date: 09 Jun 01 - 05:06 PM

There are two "Willie McBride's Reply" songs. One is a crude slapstick parody. The other is a serious song about a young man who feels that his death in the Great War was for something meaningful and important. I wrote the latter. You can find it in the Digital Tradition. It contains these lines:

Ask the people of Belgium or Alsace-Lorraine,
If my life was wasted, if I died in vain.
I think they will tell you, when all's said and done,
They welcomed this lad with his tin hat and gun.


I am not the author of the comical parody.

--- Steve

Subject: RE: Brown Is the Shit
From: Matt_R
Date: 09 Jun 01 - 03:19 PM

Suffet, "Willie McBride's Reply" was YOURS? Whoa! I love that, man! I ALWAYS sing it after "The Green fields of France". It's brought a tear to my eye more than once, where Bogle's original DIDN'T.

Subject: RE: Brown Is the Shit
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Jun 01 - 01:08 PM

Brown are the stinky fingers of cigarette and cigar smokers. And they stink worse than the shit in Suffet's garden.

Subject: RE: Brown Is the Shit
From: Mr Red
Date: 09 Jun 01 - 12:49 PM

Mr Red (real name Brown) is not amused.

Subject: RE: Brown Is the Shit
From: wysiwyg
Date: 09 Jun 01 - 12:43 PM

Oh Matt, I felt that!

~S~

Subject: Reply to Lori's Song
From: Suffet
Date: 09 Jun 01 - 11:45 AM

Note: This is purely an intellectual exercize. Think of it in terms of my previous "answer" songs, such as "Willie McBride's Reply" and "The South Coast Revisited."

REPLY TO LORI'S SONG
Tune: "Red Is the Rose"
Words: Stephen L. Suffet © 2001

That day upon the Mall, I clearly do recall,
And the songs that we sang together,
Then you took me to your room, you said to sing a tune,
And to find a little shelter from the weather.

I told you way back then, I was a married man,
And I harbored no desire for cheating.
Is it really so absurd to be taken at my word,
Even though our passions were heating?

Oh, your beauty did allure, of that you can be sure,
As I felt the fires a-startin',
So to myself I said, as I sat there on your bed:
Steve, don't put down your Martin!

I still want to be your friend, may our friendship never end,
May we sing 'til the Sun sets upon us,
And I'll love you in a way that friends love every day,
Think of philos, not eros.


--- Steve

Subject: RE: Brown Is the Shit
From: catspaw49
Date: 09 Jun 01 - 01:51 AM

Sinsull, I'm in tears, just sobbing away..........Our little boy is growing up and striking out with confidence into the world of the completely depraved......................*sigh*...................

Spaw

Subject: RE: Brown Is the Shit
From: GUEST,Trsty
Date: 09 Jun 01 - 01:30 AM

Was that a dreadnaught Martin with the big box?

Subject: RE: Brown Is the Shit
From: Deckman
Date: 08 Jun 01 - 10:45 PM

WHY DON'T YOU PEOPLE GROW UP!

Subject: RE: Brown Is the Shit
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Jun 01 - 10:12 PM

Lori:

What hurts ME the most is that I would have NEVER continued to hold the guitar... but I've never had the opportunity to show that.

Subject: RE: Brown Is the Shit
From: Matt_R
Date: 08 Jun 01 - 09:51 PM

I try, Sins.

Subject: RE: Brown Is the Shit
From: 2 in harmony
Date: 08 Jun 01 - 09:12 PM

Lori, maybe you were lucky. Young guys are often much better on their Martins than ...

Subject: RE: Brown Is the Shit
From: Jeri
Date: 08 Jun 01 - 05:38 PM

OK, so it's still too passive/aggressive for me. Somebody might take it seriously.

Too brain-dead from a summer cold to think of a verse...

Green are my plants, and the grass stains on my pants
Lovely is the garden full of roses
I'd love the smell of it, if it didn't smell like shit
But the strongest odor's what gets up our noses

(I use Cock-A-Doodle-Poo on my garden, and boy, does it stink!)

Subject: Lori's song
From: GUEST,LW still at work
Date: 08 Jun 01 - 04:47 PM

Great job, Lori. Your song is one of impassioned sexuality without being the least bit bawdy. I know too many guys like that. They would rather play guitar than make love. Go figure.

Subject: RE: Brown Is the Shit
From: SINSULL
Date: 08 Jun 01 - 03:26 PM

Lori - ouch.
Matt - Spaw is recuperating so you're filling in? Doing well, young man.

Subject: RE: Brown Is the Shit
From: Noreen
Date: 08 Jun 01 - 01:59 PM

LOL Bald Eagle- never thought of that!

Subject: RE: Brown Is the Shit
From: Ringer
Date: 08 Jun 01 - 01:24 PM

Oh, sorry: I thought this thread was about the British Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Subject: RE: Brown Is the Shit
From: mousethief
Date: 08 Jun 01 - 12:20 PM

Ewwwww.

Subject: RE: Brown Is the Shit
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 08 Jun 01 - 12:20 PM

Oh brown is the color of my true love's hair
In the morning when we rise
In the morning when we rise
That's the time
That's the time
I love the best

But red is the color of my true love's hair
In the evening when I get home
In the evening when I get home
And the sink
Is tinted pink with residue

Subject: RE: Brown Is the Shit
From: mousethief
Date: 08 Jun 01 - 12:08 PM

I was expecting a take-off on "Black is the colour" --- along the lines of

Brown is the colour of my true love's shit
And black with snuff her long-range spit
The brownest eyes, the hardest hands
I can smell the ground whereon she stands

or something like that

Alex

Subject: RE: Brown Is the Shit
From: Maryrrf
Date: 08 Jun 01 - 09:37 AM

Raising two boys probably got me used to stuff like this and made me appreciate crude humor (think - Dumb and Dumber - yeah it really was dumb but it made me laugh!). I thought this thread was hilarious. It brightened up my Friday morning at work.

Subject: RE: Brown Is the Shit
From: Noreen
Date: 08 Jun 01 - 08:46 AM

Oh, Lori... I felt that...

Subject: RE: Brown Is the Shit
From: Matt_R
Date: 08 Jun 01 - 08:44 AM

Red is my ass from passing too much gas
Large is the hole in my boxers
When releasing all that air I knew they soon would tear
But I didn't know it too would rip my Dockers...

Subject: RE: Brown Is the Shit
From: GUEST,Lori
Date: 08 Jun 01 - 08:29 AM

White is his hair except where his head is bare,
And white is his beard and his moustache,
And white are the lies he tells with smiling eyes,
As my heart he so gently touches.

Oh, first he did see me in Washington, D.C.,
When people on the Mall were sunning,
I asked him to my room, to play a loving tune,
And perhaps to do some fancy strumming.

He followed me there, then much to my despair,
His hands held only his old Martin,
Three hours passed in song, while my aching heart did long,
And still it did long at our parting.

Oh, are you so naieve? Or do you just believe,
It was only a little harmless flirting?
Am I ugly? Are you gay? Have your fires gone away?
Or do you like to leave a poor girl hurting?


This is about a particular individual. Smithsonian Folk Festival, 1998.

Subject: RE: Brown Is the Shit
From: Patrish(inactive)
Date: 08 Jun 01 - 06:34 AM

Red is the nose, too much drinkin' I suppose
Pink is the colour of me eyeballs
Green is the sleeve where I usually wipe my nose
Oh why has my love left me?

Patrish xx

Subject: Amber Is the Beer
From: Suffet
Date: 08 Jun 01 - 06:17 AM

Amber is the beer and amber is the ale,
And amber is the good strong liquor,
And amber is the pee that soon they all will be,
But a song can transform even quicker.


© Stephen L. Suffet 2001


Not about any song in particular.


Anyone wish to try his/her hand at another color?

--- Steve

Subject: RE: Black is the Soul
From: Amos
Date: 08 Jun 01 - 12:31 AM

Black is the soul -- his karma still within in it
Winking like a chilled and dying ember
Dead-frozen in the race yet swearing he shall win it
Pretending Spring, he lives in late December.

Cold is the lie wherein his lost soul dwelleth
Lost below rage's storm and desperate with fear
Violent the breath that in his true heart swelleth
Painted the face he dons for friends so dear.

Simple excuses!! Cover now the bleeding
Desperate inflictions from an ancient war;
Earnest intent will not touch the unheeding
Certain of dying, from a vanished scar!

Taraa!Taraa! The horns of glory warn him!
Strike first or die, your enemy at hand!
Taraa! Taraa! How terror does adorn him!
Failed in sweet living, and afeared to die!

Not about anyone in particular.

A

Subject: RE: Brown Is the Shit
From: Suffet
Date: 07 Jun 01 - 10:06 PM

Jeri, it's meant to be passive-aggressive, but it's not necessarily meant to be autobiographical. My intent is to let us see the potential for passive-aggressiveness in each and any of us.

Are we ever going write some more songs together? "They're Not Writing Folk Songs Like They Used to Anymore" is one of my standards.

--- Steve