One of my favorite songs with a plot, Long Black Veil is a lot more modern than you might think. It was written in 1959 by Danny Dill and Marijohn Wilkins and it's so well done that it sounds like a classic 19th century hillbilly anthem. Thanks to Gavin O'Keefe's haunting viola chops this version seems to have banshees flying through the trees above the lonely graveyard.
Saturday, July 19, 2014
Friday, July 4, 2014
The Family Values Polka
I don't really know what to call this song. It might have been called "Hooray, My Father's Going to Be Hung". Back in the 70s when the Calhoon Brothers used to play it at the Las Cruces Inn we called it "The Perverse Polka". I found the song in a 25 cent paperback book back in the early 60s when I was just learning folk guitar and was always looking for chord books. I wish I still had the book, (something like "Fifty Famous Folk Songs") since it might have had more tunes with lyrics like these. It had simple piano notation and chords so I think the melody I'm using is close to what the actual folk song's was.
There were only four verses in the book but felt I needed to flesh out the family a bit and added the ones for the sister and family. Then I apparently abducted the Chipmunks and forced them to sing it for me.
Hooray! Hooray! My father’s gonna be hung
Hooray! Hooray! The dirty lyin bum.
He was oh so mean to me when I was very young.
Hooray! Hooray! They’re gonna hang my father.
Hooray! Hooray! My mother’s gonna be shot.
Hooray! Hooray! The filthy drunken sot.
She was oh so mean to me when I was just a tot.
Hooray! Hooray! They’re gonna shoot my mother.
Hooray! Hooray! My brother’s gonna be destroyed.
Hooray! Hooray! That nasty little boy.
He always used to try on me the things he read in Freud
Hooray! Hooray! They’re gonna wreck my brother.
Hooray! Hooray! My sister’s gonna be maimed.
Hooray! Hooray! That stuck-up vicious dame.
She would torture all our pets and make me take the blame.
Hooray! Hooray! They’re gonna maim my sister.
Hooray! Hooray! My uncle’s gonna be hurt.
Hooray! Hooray! That creepy sex pervert.
He was oh so free with me when I was just a squirt.
Hooray! Hooray! They’re gonna hurt my uncle.
Hooray! Hooray! My family’s gonna be wiped out
Hooray! Hooray! We deserve it all, no doubt
It’s a wonder we didn’t kill each other when I was just a
sprout
Hooray! Hooray! They’re gonna wipe out my family.
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
Talking All-Knowing Dude
At the same time Knees made Pomp and Circumflex he did another tune like it, but this time in a C&W mood. It's called "The All-knowing Dude" and it contains the obligatory guitars in the background with dialog over it that was captured from Dugym Qycfyl's trip to Utah or some other tedious state. The words made sense when he spoke them into a microphone as he drove, but by the time they had been transferred to a computer and analyzed and deciphered by software, they came out a little different. But maybe they still make sense to some of us?
As with Pomp and Circumflex last night, there are three versions for you to dislike.
Words and Music
Just the Music
Just the Talk
BONUS COVER!
When I first heard this song in the 90s I had the "never get old and gray" hook in my head for many years until I found that the song was called "The Way" and that it was by a small band from Austin called Fastball. The plot of the song is based on a true story, supposedly.
Saturday, June 14, 2014
Talking Pomp and Circumflex
Back in 1999 or so I wanted to play some over-the-top guitar on top of a slow, soulful background -- sort of like Roy Buchanan used to do -- so I laid down a dozen or more verses of the first "Hotel California"-like chord progression that occurred to me. Drums, bass and organ. Then I played over it twice with what I considered consenting guitars. To me it sounded like the perfect music for a porn film and I called the song "Pomp and Circumflex".
But I wasn't satisfied. I needed some lyrics -- 9 minutes' worth. Luckily, at that time my friend Dugym Qycfyl just returned from a solo road trip out Utah way and while driving in his Toyota Tacoma he recorded his impressions. And he probably added some homespun philosophy. It's hard to tell because he played the mini-cassette recording of his trip, which had plenty of truck noise behind his voice, on cheap speakers and used the prevailing voice recognition software of the time (not so hot) to come up with a transcription for me.
I've gone overboard to make this song palatable. The first version is the complete song, words and music. If you can't stand the words but like the music, or loathe the music but don't mind the words, there are two more versions for you.
Words and Music
Just the Music
Just the Talk
BONUS COVER!
How about a Neil Young song? You probably haven't heard a Neil Young song in hours. One of my favorites.
(c) by Neil Young
Thursday, May 29, 2014
Altar Boy Blues
For some reason back in 2014 Knees felt inspired and wrote the lyrics of a song, then recorded the song the next day. As is his habit, he picked the first melody that occurred to him and since it's a blues song, it's probably the first melody that would occur to anyone. The lyrics were easy to write since he was writing about something he used to know something about: being an altar boy and having to get up at 6 a.m. to serve 6:30 mass. He never had any problems with the priests back in the 50s -- the nuns were the ones he had to watch out for -- but the current zeitgeist dictates that he suggest a bit of debauchery in the priest/altar boy relationship, so he did.
To provide a bit of 1950ish Catholic ambience I decided to add, as a roving chorus, a lone voice intoning the Latin responses that altar boys of the pre-1960s era had to say in response to the priest's ejaculations. After more than 60 years I still remember most of them by heart, sad to say.
Okay, because of popular demand, here are two more versions of the song.
Okay, because of popular demand, here are two more versions of the song.
Written: Vancleave MS 2014
Well you wake up inna mornin
Gotta serve that early mass
If you don’t make it by 5:30,
Father Damien will have yo ass,
You got the altar boys blues
Ain’t no joy for you today
Till dat priest done said his piece
You his prisoner and his slave.
Well you put on a grimy cassock
And a surplice with big sleeves
Then you light up all the candles
And get down upon your knees,
You got the altar boys blues
Ain’t no joy for you today
Till dat priest done had his fill
You his prisoner and his slave.
Well you answerin all his questions
In some crazy ancient tongue
When all you wanna say is
“Lemme outta here while I’m young,”
You got the altar boys blues
Ain’t no joy for you today
Till dat priest has done his deed
You his prisoner and his slave.
The time rolls by so slow
And you keep watchin yo behind,
The priest’s got Latin on his lips
But Greek is on his mind.
You got the altar boys blues
Ain’t no joy for you today
Till that priest done seen his god
You his prisoner and his slave.
Well de mass is finally over
You stop feeling like a fool
You just got one more year of this
Den you can go to public school
You got the altar boys blues
Ain’t no joy for you today
Till that priest done say Amen
You his partner and his slave.
Let em get you when you young
You’ll be servin to your grave
If you let em have their way with you
You gonna serve your life away.
The LATIN
LOW MASS — Altar Boy’s Responses
Ad Deum qui laetificat, juventutem meam.
Quia tu es, Deus, fortitudo mea: quare me repulisti, et
quare tristis incedo, dum affligit me inimicus?
Et introibo ad altare Dei: Ad Deam qui laetificat juventutem
meam.
Spera in Deos quoniam adhuc confetibor illi: salutare vultus
mei, et Deus meus.
Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper: et in saecula
saeculorum. Amen.
Ad Deum qui laetificat, juventutem meam.
Qui fecit caelum et terram.
Misereatur tui omnipotens Deus, et dimissis peccatis tuis,
perducat te ad vitam aeternam. Amen.
Confiteor Deo omnipotenti, beate Mariae semper Virgini,
beato Michaeli Archangelo, beato Joanni Baptistae, sanctis Apostolis Petro et
Paulo, omnibus Sanctis, et tibi, Pater: quia peccavi nimis cogitatione, verbo,
et opera mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. Ideo precor beatam Mariam semper
Virginem, beatum Michaelem Archangelum, beatum Joannem Baptistam, sanctos
Apostolos Petrum et Paulum, omnes Sanctos et te, Pater, orare pro me ad Dominum
Deum nostrum.
Amen. Amen.
Et plebs tua laetabitur in te.
Et salutare tuum da nobis.
Et clamor meus ad te veniat.
Et cum spiritu tuo.
Kyrie, eleison. Christe, eleison. Christe, eleison. Kyrie,
eleison.
Suscipiat Dominus sacrificium de manibus tuis ad laudem et
gloriam nominis sui, ad utilitatem quoque nostrum, totsiusque Ecclesiae suae
sanctae.
Habemus ad Dominum.
Dignum et justum est.
Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus, Deus Sabbaoth. Pleni
sunt caeli et terra Gloria tua. Hosanna in excelsis. Benedictus qui venit in
nomine Domine.
Hosanna in excelsis.
1955 - Father Theophil's School of Charm
Knees is directly in front of Theophil, Michael to Theophil's right and Bob is between the two tall girls on the far right. Where's Johnny?
BONUS COVER!
How about 90% of a great old Bob Dylan song? It's a long song about a guy getting stuck in a carnival sideshow and as Bob sang it, it had a short bridge about tax-deductible charity organizations. I didn't like the words (blasphemy!) so I left it out and just kept the nightmare plot going. Sorry, Bob.
Monday, May 26, 2014
Standing
I've been concentrating on books lately and neglecting my music but I managed to squeeze out a song over the weekend before my computer started giving me fits. So this is the final version of this song written by Joss Whedon and sung by Anthony Head in "Once More with Feeling", the musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I need to do every track over, but with my computer injecting audible glitches at random times I'm pretty sure I'm retiring this song and probably looking into getting another computer.
As I approach my 70s I find that I have to lower every song a few keys because I can't sing as high as I used to. So even though I knew the song was in F (I have the chord book for the episode) I tried it in D and found that there are no high notes in the melody. The song sounded quite dull and lifeless with me singing so low. So I did it again in F and it has a bit more zest to it now. It made me feel young again, singing a song in its original key.
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
And the Firm Soil Win of the Wat'ry Main
This is the third song I wrote for the April project for the Cover Album Project Band, giving me a trio of tunes with strange titles: The Advantage on the Kingdom of the Shore, That Time Will Come and Take My Love Away, and now, And the Firm Soil Win of the Wat'ry Main. For this third song, I let myself be inspired by a particular "style" in Band in a Box called "Dr. John". The program plays the piano, drums and bass so well I kept them all for the audio, and only added guitars, organ and vocals.
MP3
Youtube Video
Oh de tide roll in
And de tide roll out
Like a kitchen door
In a crabshack down sout'
Dere ain’t no lotion
Like de ocean, when yo dry.
Oh de land grow slow
And de water flow fas’
Dey each one race
Don’ wanna come in las’
And dere ain’t no motion
Like de ocean, Ah tell you why.
And the firm soil win of the wat’ry main
What de hell kind of language is dat?
But you ask anyone and dey’ll all say
Dat Shakespeare was some groovy cat.
Oh you got ebb and flow
All night and day
You got to and fro
Every which a way
And dere ain’t no potion
Like de ocean, when yo high.
And the firm soil win of the wat’ry main
Shakespeare musta been quite a sight
Throwin’ out words jus’ like a man insane
Took him 64 tries to get it right.
So let’s say hello
To our frien’ de moon
It’s a summer night
He’ll be rising soon
And dere ain’t no notion
Like de ocean, when you die.
And the firm soil win of the wat’ry, wat'ry main
BONUS COVER!
Knees was feeling pretty good one day while recording and realized he knew two songs with the same name. One was a old standard Johnny Horton song and the other was a ethereal ballad by The Band. Both were great songs but were not much alike. But, Knees wondered, could they possibly be mashed, pureed and blended into a single recording? Yes they could, and here is how Knees did it.
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Carmelita
My daughter Naomi and her family are in Vancleave visiting and the great duo of Fender and Naomi once again got together for a song. (See "Sometimes You Just Cain't Win" from the December 2012 blog.) This time it's a classic stoner song written by Warren Zevon. It turned out so well Naomi and I are planning another vacation for her that will result in a dozen or so of our quaint duets.
Thursday, March 27, 2014
If the Satellite Went Down Tonight
This is a song done for the Cover Album Project Band's latest monthly challenge, Songs by Someone You Know. I suggested the topic because I wanted to do a Knees Calhoon version of a song by Terry Törnblom called "If the Satellite Went Down Tonight". So I took Terry's clear, simple song and added tracks until it was properly overproduced, and voila!
Here is a link to the video on YouTube:
BONUS COVER!
Back in the late 60s I had an album by a Canadian band called the Paupers and years later I only remembered one of the songs, a C&W pastiche called "Another Man's Hair on My Razor". The Mighty Calhoon Brothers used to do it at the Las Cruces Inn in the late 70s. It has a pretty good plot.
2013 Version
1978 Calhoon Brothers Version
Sunday, March 9, 2014
Willin'
I don't know why I did this song other than it is a great old tune and it fits in with some of my other covers. I used the keyboard for the bass and actually played some piano, something I've been away from for the past few years.
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
That Time Will Come and Take My Love Away
I picked another line from Sonnet #64 to do, and this time it was actually a more normal line: "That time will come and take my love away." That's a fairly bleak sentiment and the words I wrote all pretty much echo it, blaming time for all that we lose in life. But, ironically, I seem to have come up with the happiest, bounciest music I've done in years to go with the dreary lyrics. I call it "artistic juxtaposition". But mainly I just strung together some 80s cliches and used my favorite guitar setting on the Fender G-Dec amp: Blues House. Fun times.
The video version features a musical slideshow for the Commodore 64 computer of a retelling of Poncielli's Dance of the Hours that was published on LOADSTAR back in the 90s. Artwork by Walt Harned.
MP3
Youtube Video
Baby I saw it comin
It came
screamin out of the dawn
Time was
just playin a game with me
It was
movin me like a pawn
Just when I
thought I had it all worked out
I was just
about to make my play
Time come
along and take my love away.
We were just
two young fools in love
From the very
first day we met
We thought
we’d live forever
We were
ridin out a sure bet
But now
there ain’t no doubt about it
Sure as
nighttime follow day
Time’s
Gonna Come and Take My Love Away
I told you
all about my plans
All the
things I was gonna be
You tole me
that you shared the dream
And you’d
do it all with me
But we were just kids, foolin ourselves
And sure as
nighttime follow day
That Time
Gonna Come and Take Yo Love Away
Baby we saw
it comin
It came
screamin outa the dawn
Time was
just playin a game with me
It was
movin me like a pawn
Just when I
thought I had it all worked out
I was just
about to make my play
Time come
along an take my love away
That Time
Will Come And Take My Love Away.
BONUS COVER!
Can you tell that one of Knees' favorite bands of the 60s was Buffalo Springfield? And that this is one of their best songs?
Friday, February 21, 2014
Advantage on the Kingdom of the Shore
In February of 2014 we (an online music-making group called the Cover Album Project Band) picked a Shakespearean sonnet, #64, and each was given a line from it to inspire an original song. For an added frisson, the song was supposed to feature the ii - V - I chord progression prominently. My line was "Advantage on the Kingdom of the Shore" and here is what resulted. Gavin O'Keefe, the Ramble House artist, provided the soaring eagle and seagull calls on his viola.
MP3
VIDEO
Who wouldn’t want to live
Where the tide sets the pace
Who wouldn’t want to hear
The ocean’s vibrant roar
Who wouldn’t want to have
the great advantage
The advantage on the kingdom
of the shore.
Who wouldn’t want to lie
In a gentle valley
Who wouldn’t want to fly
Up where the eagles soar
Who wouldn’t want to have
the great advantage
The advantage on the kingdom
of the shore.
Mountains to the east
Ocean to the west
Livin on the edge of land
Is like ridin on the crest
Of a wave that never ends
And never asks for more
It’s the seacoast advantage
On the Kingdom of the Shore
Who wouldn’t want to fight
With the water at your back
Who wouldn’t want to know
About the times that went
before
Who wouldn’t want to take
the great advantage
The advantage on the kingdom
of the shore.
Desert to the east
Water to the west
Livin on the coast
Is like flyin on the crest
Of a wave that never ends
And always knows the score
It’s the seacoast advantage
On the Kingdom of the Shore
BONUS COVER!
Are there any popular songs about zombies? You'd think there would be plenty these days. Here's one from the 70s by Asleep at the Wheel and I imagine it would go over well at a bar. In the old days it wasn't quite so ironic.
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You
I was inspired to do this old Bob Dylan tune by hearing it done by Hit & Run, a band I was in back in the mid-70s in Farmington NM. I had found an old reel-to-reel tape of a night at Dizzyland Liquors (Dizzy's) and it brought back some wonderful memories. I asked Gavin O'Keefe to add a viola part, especially on the choruses, and our system of sharing files between Mississippi and Maine seems to be working.
Here's how it sounded back in 1974 at Dizzy's with Hit & Run playing it. Fender on guitar and vocals; Bill Smith on bass and vocals; Johnny Cunningham on drums.
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Honks
I actually recorded these back in June of 2006 not long after I bought a new amp, a Fender G-Dec, that had drums and all kinds of effects built-in. Back then I was recording a song a night and calling them "Nightsongs". I used to have them up at the Ramble House web site but I phased them out when I started Knees Calhoon's Midnight Ramble.
It occurred to me that I rarely play any solos in the songs I've been covering, so here's some picking, the way I did it back in 2006.
Bill Jourdan, a great and wise steel guitar player I used to play with in 1966, and I were listening to a Dixieland song one time and I remarked that it sounded like everybody was taking a solo at the same time. "That's exactly right," Bill said. "Everybody solo, all the time. That's Dixieland." So, in that spirit, I recorded about a half dozen solos over the same bass-drums track and played them all at the same time. As usual they weren't listening to each other.
Here are another two Nightsongs that are not technically Honks but I really liked the rhythm and the guitar tones the amplifier supplied.
BONUS COVER!
Here to temper the jangliness of the Honks is a comforting country tune by Buffalo Springfield.
by Buffalo Springfield
Monday, January 6, 2014
Holy Man - The Sequel
Our previous song was written by Richard A. Lupoff back in the 60s and recently put to music by Knees Calhoon. But when Dick heard the tune he was inspired all over again and wrote three more verses for it, bringing it up to date. Doesn't a song that was written in two parts, 50 years apart, deserve to be considered a masterpiece and sequel? Yes. So here's how the night that began as a druggy ritual of exploration ended up, two generations later.
Ommmmm Ommmmm
Holy man, Oh Holy man
Ommmmm Ommmmm
Get you high Oh yes he can
The years flew by, you’d think I’d hit the big fast-forward
key
I look into the mirror and I say, this cannot be
My rocker friends no longer rock, I can’t believe they’re
gone
But Bob and Nick have left this world, and Jerry too, and
John
Old Mozart seems my meat these days, my energy is low
And weed no longer moves my soul, the time moves much too
slow
The kids I see on TV now, I feel more like their father
And if they try to show me how I tell them not to bother
Ommmmm Ommmmm
Holy man, Oh Holy man
Ommmmm Ommmmm
Get you high Oh yes he can
The politics that once outraged, I called for revolution
Now I’ll leave it for somebody else to work out the solution
I’d rather drink a glass of wine and read a good whodunit
Than climb into a hotrod car and hit the gas and gunnit
But someone needs to raise his fist and smash the social
order
And call upon the decent folks who wait there at the border
And so I’ll leave it up to you to keep the banner flying
And keep on living all your life and never think of dying
Ommmmm Ommmmm
Holy man, Oh Holy man
Ommmmm Ommmmm
Get you high Oh yes he can
It’s been a great and happy life, to start with Benny
Goodman
Scarecrow, and Beast, and Toto too, and don’t forget the Tin
Woodman
The lady that I met that night, her guru was a wizard
He got me high, he laid me low, my head was in a blizzard
She’s with me still, our life has been a long fantastic
pleasure
Our kids are grown, they’re on their own, each one’s been a
treasure
And so I leave you to your chores, do everything in style
So when at last you close your eyes you do it with a smile.
Ommmmm Ommmmm
Holy man, Oh Holy man
Ommmmm Ommmmm
Get you high Oh yes he can.
BONUS COVER!
Knees had never heard of Bruce Cockburn until he joined the Canadian group called the Cover Album Project Band, and found that Bruce was a fantastic songwriter, singer and guitar player. One of his songs, an instrumental, seemed like a candidate for Knees' first excursion into playing without a pick. He even made a video with a very lousy camera.
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Holy Man
We've got a real treat for you tonight in the countdown, a long-forgotten song by a famous writer done up modern-style by Knees Calhoon. Richard A. Lupoff is the famous writer and if you've been into SF, mystery, fandom, criticism, ERB or radio during the past 60 years, you know of Dick Lupoff and his works. Ramble House has published several of his books and now he shows his chops as a songwriter. Check out his latest Ramble House book here: WRITER 4
The lyrics were written by Dick back in the late 60s and John Cippolina of Quicksilver Messenger Service played around with some chords for it, but it was never recorded. Dick had forgotten all about it until he found a carbon copy of the lyrics while looking through his files. He sent them to me and I, of course, laid down some tracks, using the first chords and melody that occurred to me. Here's what resulted:
After I'd done the drums and bass with Band in a Box and added guitars and vocals I sent the MP3 to Gavin O'Keefe in Maine and he added some viola parts to the choruses. That's how we did it back in 2013.
Ommmmm Ommmmm
Holy man, oh Holy
man
Ommmmm Ommmmm
Get you high oh yes he can
A lady took me
home with her to see a holy man
He lived upstairs
in a big old house that used to be a band’s
She said he’d get
me super high, he’d put my head on straight
I think it was
Mill Valley or it might have been the Haight
He let me in the
door, I saw he had a holy look
He made me sit
down on the floor and read a holy book
He started in to
talk to me, I said I get the point
He performed a
holy sacrament and handed me a joint.
Ommmmm Ommmmm
Holy man, oh Holy
man
Ommmmm Ommmmm
Get you high oh yes he can
I looked around
the room, the music must have been The Dead
It isn’t for your
ears, he said, it’s strictly for your head
I coughed and
asked him for a coke to ease my coughing spell
He said he never
sold his coke to any infidel
He lit a funny
candle just to make me feel at home
He looked me
straight between the eyes and made me say an om
He handed me a
bowl of rice – get ready for the land!
I said I’m just a
rock and roll musician in a band.
Ommmmm Ommmmm
Holy man, oh Holy
man
Ommmmm Ommmmm
Get you high oh yes he can
He looked like
I’d spit on the floor, his face was a tip-off
That heavy
ego-trip you’re on is an energy rip-off
The karma of your
vibes is bad, you better meditate
Upon the great
mandala, man, before it gets too late
Just then my lady
friend came back with some ginseng tea
The holy man took
one red cup and offered some to me
Before I took it
from his hand I said – Here is where I
stand
I’ll never make
no holy man, I’ll just rock it with my band.
Ommmmm Ommmmm
Holy man, oh Holy
man
Ommmmm Ommmmm
Get you high oh yes he can.
BONUS COVER!
This is one of the very last cover songs Knees recorded, and it turned out nicely, with Gavin O'Keefe's viola fitting the mood perfectly. I'm glad this was a folk song written back in the 60s. If it were a modern C&W song it would be called "If I Was a Carpenter".
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)