Seasons of the Ukulele

A weekly song challenge for ukulele players - all welcome. Find out more here

SOTU 727 "OBSESSION"

Barbablanca

Welcome to Season 727. The theme is "OBSESSION".

I want to hear songs by artists and bands that either have the word OBSESSION in the title or lyrics or else don't have the word itself, but thematically they are about someone or some people with an OBSESSION.

I am especially encouraging you to WRITE YOUR OWN SONGS for this Season. In fact, I will be offering a PRIZE for one of the ORIGINALS that come out of this week.

I have a number of obsessions - first there is having the toilet paper the right way round (as illustrated in the patent application). In other words with the paper coming off the roll towards the person on the toilet not against the wall! That's Blasphemy! This obsession is so overpowering that I have even been known to put the rolls the right way around in people's homes I have been invited into! Gasp!

Another of my obsessions is with light switches. When you click DOWN the light MUST go ON and UP to turn the light OFF. In systems in our home that have two or more switches I will go round the room turning the switches on or off until the combination is the correct one in which DOWN turns lights ON!

Of course, another of my OBSESSIONS is my ridiculously large collection of musical instruments! Sitting at my desk in my "studio" (upstairs bedroom for my wife, Carmen) I can see 23 guitars (electrics, acoustics, baritones, basses, etc), 14 ukuleles (from sopranino to baritones - then a Ukulele bass and 5, 6 and 8 string variants and a uke banjo, etc). In addition, there are several other stringed instruments (bouzouki, mandolin, saz, oud, etc) - three keyboards and an assortment of wind instruments (mainly flutes). Carmen thinks I am bonkers and is constantly pleading with me to thin the collection out. She points out: "You are not even a very good musician!" There is a certain truth in that too - I am primarily a lyricist.

If you asked Carmen she would probably add a lot of OBSESSIONS I have to those above described 🙂.

As usual, NEW SEASONISTAS can jump on board by submitting ANY SONG YOU LIKE or whatever you're working on as your debut. This is a very welcoming place for all levels of musicianship.

All the normal rules also apply (see the Seasons of the Ukulele FAQ. If you don't know what that implies, click on the link below)

https://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/threads/what-are-the-seasons-of-the-ukulele-and-other-faqs-with-answers.159824/

New videos only please (with the usual exemptions), posted on YouTube so that they can be added to the playlist, and please say either in the video or description that it's for Seasons of the Ukulele 727 "OBSESSION". It would also be useful to put a link to this post so that people who stumble on your video on YouTube can learn more about the Seasons.

Please, do not post more than EIGHT VIDEOS. The end of the week is just as good as the beginning, if you ask me. However, if spreading your entries out doesn't work for you, then post them when and as you can. I will try my best to comment on every one submitted.

Originals, multi-tracking and collaborations welcome. I always enjoy having several versions of a song. Nobody 'beats' you to a song, for only you can do 'you'.

I would like to ask that you include the name of the songwriters or performers in your post if you do not want to include that information in the YouTube description. Every week I hear a lot of new music on the Seasons, and it's nice to know the name of the song, band and composers if I want to check out other versions.

Don't forget to listen to and comment on other songs too! It's very inspiring to hear and see the different playing styles and techniques we all have. Let people know how awesome they are!

You can post any time from 00:00:00 Sunday 18th January, Hawaiian time, right up to 23:59:59 on Sunday 25th January Hawaiian time.

Of course you can all still post to Edwin's Space Odyssey # 726 until it has run its course (or bring us some twofers to the party).

Here is a link to The PLAYLIST.

UkeFoote

Your toilet paper obsession made me think of a discussion at the open mic a few weeks ago. The topic for discussion was whether you were a “mullet”, or “bangs” person ; )

UkeCan1

Well, this is the obvious twofer, I think. It's the only song I can think of that contains the word "obsession", and it also happens to name a fictional planet. It's sung by an alien from that planet about both his alien origin and his obsession.

Here's "Sweet Transvestite" from "Rocky Horror Picture Show".

johnpoole

Thanks Berni. Always enjoy your weeks when you encourage originals. Here's one I wrote for another season. It would have qualified as it was but I added an extra verse to cement it's obsessive credentials. You'll note I called the narrator's partner "Rhea". I'm wondering if anyone knows why without googling. All to do with the song's theme." The Secret of Flight"

YorkSteve

Here's a lovely little song which came out of the punk explosion. X-Ray Spex were led by Poly Styrene, who possessed a voice described as "powerful enough to drill holes through sheet metal". I have toned it down a bit.

Nearsighted-Lemon-McKay

OK, this isn't my fault. I wanted to do an original twofer, and what I had to work with was objects in space and obsession, so naturally I HAD to write a song titled "I'm Obsessed with Uranus"

Barbablanca

And we're off to a fine start. Wendy's Two-Fer took us into uber-camp territory!
(PS I saw TRHS in that cinema in NYC in which the audience was encouraged to act out scenes form the show with sound light and water effects. Anyone else do that?)

John bowled me over with his retelling of the Icarus Myth in a manner worthy of Dylan!

Steve deconstructed an X-Ray Specs song that proved to be an interesting comment on adolescence and advertising when stripped back to basics.

And "La Limona Miope" had me chuckling away all through his wonderful Two-Fer about a lesser known member of the Solar System family. 😁

Edwin

Hi Berni, hi everyone! Here's a song in tribute to a chap I learned about this morning, called Akira Haraguchi. I think we can safely call him obsessive, because he holds the unofficial world record for memorising more than 100,000 digits of pi. He does this by turning digits into syllables and constructing stories, and practising reciting 15,000 of them every day. There's a nod to one or two of them in here. That may or may not help it make sense.

Anyway, since you're encouraging original songs, I thought I'd better come up with one. Obsessive, me?

More on our hero here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akira_Haraguchi

AlanDP

Here's a quick & dirty original I made up today. Lyrics at YouTube.

potmo

Talking to the Moon Bruno Mars

Thanks for hosting Berni. My twofer. I think we can all agree that the narrator has some serious obsession issues here.

musicalmoobslap

heres my tune obsession.

potmo

Barbablanca Didnt have the opportunity to celebrate RHPS in NYC, but I certainly attended more than my fair share, including costumes props and of course reciting the correct lines (so's brad! Oh no, Meatloaf again). I had seen the show in Portland, OR (1978) and when it came to my home town (Lawrence, KS) I was proud to introduce the ringing of a bell (does that name ring a bell) I got huge applause from the crowd. SIgh. I hate it when old folk such as myself make comments about "The good old days" but this definitely brings back some fond memories...
Plantet shmanet Janet.

Joko

Since Bernie is hosting this week, I'll endeavor to do an original for 727. What with the turmoil of last week (not sure which was worse to have stolen - my motorcycle or the three ukuleles), I've got some emotional motivation stuck in me somewhere.

For now, here's a cover of a 1982 hit from the J. Giles Band. I remember being obsessed with soft fuzzy sweaters too magical to touch at about the time this song was on the radio… I decided to play around with the drum machine a bit and Pattern #39, World 3, the last one in the bank, was nothing like the clappy rock beat of the original, but I think it worked out okay.

Ila

Hi, and thanks for hosting. At open mic this past weekend, it was suggested that this might be a song that fits the bill for this season's parameters (thank you, Wendy!). So without further ado, my obsession is presented here:

UkeFoote

"I Want You (She's So Heavy)", by the Beatles, for tenor ukulele with singing, overdubs of Ashbory Ubass and secondary vocal.

Thanks for hosting, Berni!

Barbablanca

Time for one from your host!

Written especially for this Season! It's entitled "Obsession!"

joo

Barbablanca La Limona Miope" had me chuckling away all through his wonderful Two-Fer about a lesser known member of the Solar System family

Hi Berni,

It was Near-sighted Lemon-Mckay who brought that song instead.

EDIT: OH, you have just wrote his name in a different language.:--D

johnpoole

An obsession week needs this one. Del did a banger of this recently. I've done it before. Maybe Steve too? Richard Thompson's " Galway to Graceland". On guitalele with A string tuned down to G for a drone effect.

CanadaJim

I never thought of this as an "Obsession" song till a buddy at a jam said, "Hey Jim, Play that stalker song."

HIGH HEELS IN THE RAIN - Fred J. Eaglesmith

Barbablanca

Catching up on recent posts:

Day Two and Edwin delivers us some sweet tasting Pie... or should that be Pi or TT?

Then Alan's narrator get's his kicks out of compiling spreadsheets, rather than spreading something else between the sheets 😉

Potmo brought his delightful Les Paul(ish) Ukulele to bear on a Bruno Mars tune whose narrator is obsessed with a woman he has lost and thinks talking to the moon will bring her back. Yeah, right? Loser or Loco? 😉

Our new hirsute rocker brought us a rocking reggae blast with an infatuation that has become an obsession!

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Day Three

Joko brought us a J Geils Band tune that I'd never heard of that outlined a fine obsession and mentioned one of his own in the past.

Illa brought us a super take on the melody of "Hallelujah" by Saint Leonard Cohen in which the obsession is our beloved ukuleles

Brian (Ukefoote) treated us to a superb bass driven version of John Lennon's "She's So Heavy" which he wrote at the height of his obsession with a certain Japanese conceptual artist, who for many Beatles fans is also known as She Who Must Not Be Named !

Then Yours Truly brought my tale of unrequited love and a dark passion that may have ended it (or not).