Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Havering Folk Club July 21st 2010

Havering Folk Club July 21st 2010

I went along to Havering Folk Club last Wednesday after a week away on holiday and tried to do a vesrion of one of the new songs I haven't finished yet. I know It didn't work out very well, partly because I don't have the lyrics memorised yet and I tried reading from a crib sheet on the music stand, which has never worked out for me in past and probably never will. I can sing and play at the same time, sometimes I can sing, play and read at the same time, but not it seems in front of an audience, standing up and without reading glasses. So I've uploaded the podcast versions of the unfinished songs to youTube instead. The one called "Untitled 1" in the episode 3 shownotes is provisionally called "Trevellas" now, and unfinished 2 is called "Summerhouse" but I also have a plan for combining the two songs into one single work that would be longer and more complex. We'll have to see.



Sitting On The Bank

To recompose my composure, finding myself with a capo on fret 4 I decided on the spur of the moment to sing "Sitting on the Bank" which is a simple song I wrote when I was about 15 or 16 and thinking about leaving home soon. While uploading I noticed that the melody is developing slightly even now, I'm not sure it's correct to call it a revival though, as it's never really been out of the repertoire.

The Mighty Quinn

After the break and with the list of floor singers completed there was a little time left and Pep kindly asked me to do another, so after 3 pints I decided to do a singalong that everybody knows though it turned out not everybody at Havering Folk Club knows that the Mighty Quinn was a Bob Dylan song. The Manfred Mann cover version was better known in the UK in 1960s and afterwards.

Thursday, July 08, 2010

Quake and Tremble

It was Dave and Linda Worley's members' night at Havering Folk Club last night, Wednesday 7th July and despite the football on TV, a good crowd turned out.

I took along my six string guitar and played a couple of songs to start off the second half, after the break. Linda's camera battery failed again so I don't have any fresh video capture of that particular performance but I can post alternative versions from my ever growing collection on youTube in order to maintain the record of which songs were performed when.

Yellow Boat




If I had a Yellow Boat I'd sail it to St Martin's
Moor it off the white sand bay
Bobbing in the turquoise sea


Wonderwall


Wonderwall is a very famous song from Mancheser band Oasis, in the 1990s

Tuesday, July 06, 2010

Two Roy Harper Covers

I seem to have had a bit of a Roy Harper fest recently and did two of his songs last week:

Highway Blues - by Roy Harper




Evening Star - Roy Harper




It was a quietish week and I had time for one of my own as well:

Swimming Pool ( or "Searching for Venus")


Thursday, July 01, 2010

Big Eyed Beans From Venus - Captain Beefheart

Distant cousins, there's a limited supply.
And we're down to the dozens, and this is why:
Big Eyed Beans from Venus! Oh my, oh my.
Boys and girls,
Earth people around the circle,
Mixtures of man alive.
Big eyed beans from Venus,
Don't let anything get in between us.
Beam in on me baby,
and we'll beam together
I know we always been together,
but there's more.
Mister Zoot Horn Rollo, hit that long lunar note,
and let it float.
Men let your wallets flop out,
and women open your purses,
Cause a man or a woman without a big eyed bean from Venus
Is suffering with the worstest of curses
Yeah, you're suffering, with the worstest of curses.
Put 'em out in the sun, and when the night come
You don't have to go out and get 'em
They'll glow with you
They'll go with you
They'll show with you
Ain't no losers
Cause they're on the right track
Cause they're on the right track
You can be on the right track, woman,
Of course, of course
Ain't no SNAFU, no fol-de-rol
Check these out, Big eyed beans from Venus
Oh, let a few out, let 'em pass in between us
Distant cousins, there's a limited supply.
And we're down to the dozens, and this is why...
Don't let anything get in between us!
Big eyed beans from Venus
Big eyed beans from Venus.

Isis - Bob Dylan Desire Album with Jaques Levy

I married Isis on the fifth day of May
But I could not hold on to her very long
So I cut off my hair and I rode straight away
For the wild unknown country where I could not go wrong

I came to a high place of darkness and light
The dividing line ran through the center of town
I hitched up my pony to a post on the right
Went in to a laundry to wash my clothes down

A man in the corner approached me for a match
I knew right away he was not ordinary
He said, “Are you lookin’ for somethin’ easy to catch?”
I said, “I got no money.” He said, “That ain’t necessary”

We set out that night for the cold in the North
I gave him my blanket, he gave me his word
I said, “Where are we goin’?” He said we’d be back by the fourth
I said, “That’s the best news that I’ve ever heard”

I was thinkin’ about turquoise, I was thinkin’ about gold
I was thinkin’ about diamonds and the world’s biggest necklace
As we rode through the canyons, through the devilish cold
I was thinkin’ about Isis, how she thought I was so reckless

How she told me that one day we would meet up again
And things would be different the next time we wed
If I only could hang on and just be her friend
I still can’t remember all the best things she said

We came to the pyramids all embedded in ice
He said, “There’s a body I’m tryin’ to find
If I carry it out it’ll bring a good price”
’Twas then that I knew what he had on his mind

The wind it was howlin’ and the snow was outrageous
We chopped through the night and we chopped through the dawn
When he died I was hopin’ that it wasn’t contagious
But I made up my mind that I had to go on

I broke into the tomb, but the casket was empty
There was no jewels, no nothin’, I felt I’d been had
When I saw that my partner was just bein’ friendly
When I took up his offer I must-a been mad

I picked up his body and I dragged him inside
Threw him down in the hole and I put back the cover
I said a quick prayer and I felt satisfied
Then I rode back to find Isis just to tell her I love her

She was there in the meadow where the creek used to rise
Blinded by sleep and in need of a bed
I came in from the East with the sun in my eyes
I cursed her one time then I rode on ahead

She said, “Where ya been?” I said, “No place special”
She said, “You look different.” I said, “Well, I guess”
She said, “You been gone.” I said, “That’s only natural”
She said, “You gonna stay?” I said, “If you want me to, yes!”

Isis, oh, Isis, you mystical child
What drives me to you is what drives me insane
I still can remember the way that you smiled
On the fifth day of May in the drizzlin’ rain
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