Seasons of the Ukulele

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

SOTU 734 Vague, Vega, Vegas.

Barbablanca

Here is another one from me this week. This time it is entirely mine - lyrics and music. But once again it is from a FAWM Skirmish (described in the YouTube Description, if you don't know what is involved).

I hope you like it

AlanDP

Option 1: vague lyrics, or about as vague as I ever got. Background info on the song is below the video.

The stanzas of this song go back to the late 1980s during my broken-hearted songwriter period. Back then the only instrument I had was a Casio keyboard that I had bought around 1984. This morning I made a quick trip to the Dollar General up the road to get some D-cells so I could see if it still works--and it does. All the non-uke sounds you hear are that old keyboard. This song was about as vague as I ever got. There was one other that I wrote during the same period that might be even more vague but I can't remember much of it. I used to run for exercise on the old dirt roads where I lived at the time--the roads are paved now, but back then they were very rough dirt roads with spots of red clay in places to harden the sand. I wrote that first stanza in my head one day while running in the summer heat down that dirt road. Several months later, it was a cold, windy, blustery winter day when I was in the nearby town buying a new tire for the pickup truck I had at the time, and standing outside the shop while they put the new tire on, I looked across the street at an abandoned church building that had dark stains on the walls where the gutters drained. The sky was heavy and low with dense clouds that were threatening rain. I wrote the second stanza in my head as I stood there. I never did come up with a good chorus for it. This morning the dogs woke me up at 3:30 to let me know they needed to go outside. I never could get back to sleep so I came up with a completely new chorus in my semi-sleep trance state. I was worried I wouldn't be able to remember it if I fell asleep so finally I just got up and started writing it down and singing it so I wouldn't lose it. The original chorus that I never liked much was about those heavy winter clouds so I tried to stick with the cloud theme. It's inspired by an old Peanuts comic strip that I probably first read when I was 4 or 5 years old and never forgot. It has Charlie Brown and Linus lying on a hill looking at the clouds. Linus sees the painting of the Last Supper and points out all the apostles. Charlie Brown replies, "I was going to say I saw a ducky and a horsey but I changed my mind." Since this is an 80s song, I added a little repetitive keyboard riff for the last chorus. I put a photo of the old keyboard at the end of the video. Lyrics are in the YouTube description.

johnpoole

Alan in the deepest sleep

gives R.E.M. a little peek

Wendy in Mt Crosby Reverie

sings a ditty about friend Valerie

Joko in a mystery tour

of the strangest fab fab four

Berni he deserves a Bafta

as he transforms into Kafka

Alan must be on an upper

he has Peanuts for his Last Supper

Joko

I know there are a few Beatleologists in our group here, and I have a question about a lyric in the medley I covered… Obladee oblada life goes on, bra.

Is that the same bra as how its used today, i.e., a dimunitive of brother? , It's a word I can only recall hearing in use since the mid-2010's. And there was an intermediate step of "bro" in there too. It's just weird finding in it in a song from the late 60's.

Maybe it's Liverpudlian thing?

johnpoole

Joko if you google that question an answer referencing a Nigerian conga player comes up…I’ll let you judge if AI is telling a porky or not.

UkeCan1

Quickie Sunday twofer - V + '80s

"Vacation" by The Go-Go's

I discovered this is one of those songs I think I know but in fact I only sort of know the chorus.

YorkSteve

Better late than never. Just back from a week away, sans uke, and straight into the start of packing up this house - we are moving after thirty years. Not for a few months, but if you saw our garage & loft you would know why I need to get started.

Anyways, here's a song which starts with V.

Barbablanca

Joko I am guessing it's a Nigerian thing. I don't remember it being used, but then my Yoruba was very promitive. I do know that I read somewhere that Obladi Oblada is a distortion of what Macca heard some Yoruba guys saying at a recording session. Presumably they were percussion session-men.

potmo

Joko i think it is just like lalala but it keeps up the beatles repeated fascination with walking the line of censorship free songs. An even better example is "tit-tit-tit" in Girl.

CanadaJim

AI explaination:

"Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" is a Yoruba (Nigerian) phrase meaning "life goes on". Popularized by The Beatles' 1968 song, Paul McCartney adopted it from his friend, Nigerian conga player Jimmy Scott-Emuakpor, who often used the phrase "Ob-la-di, ob-la-da, life goes on, bra". It implies a philosophical, carefree acceptance of life's continuing journey.

uke4ia

It occurred to me as my video was compiling that today is the Ides of March. And that "Vehicle" would fit the theme. Man, does that song sound creepy a half century later.

But instead I played a 2014 song by Suzanne Vega called "Don't Uncork What You Can't Contain", in which she included a sample from 50 Cent's "Candy Shop" and a reference to Macklemore's hit "Thrift Shop".

OnlyUkeThatMatters

Option 3 had immediate appeal to me, so I looked up performers with lengthy Las Vegas residencies.

Wayne "Mr. Las Vegas" Newton blows everyone else away… he's been booked as a headliner on the Vegas strip since the early 60s.

In recent years, Newton opens his set with a medley ending with fellow Vegas resident Elvis Presley's classic, "Viva Las Vegas." Ah, there's my V song for option 4!

And a couple more sad and fun connections…

This past week, Dead Kennedys' singer Jello Biafra had a stroke. (He's healing up, though it's difficult time.) DK's snotty version of "Viva Las Vegas" is a must-listen for those of us who love aggressive punk music.

I also learned that ZZ Top both recorded a what-sounds-to-me-like disco blues version of "Viva Las Vegas" back in the early 90s, and they've also had at least one Vegas residency!

Plus it's a perfect ukulele song for me since it's bluesy structure let's me play the easiest chord - no fingers on any strings 😛

Don't gamble any more than you can afford to lose, pals!

UkeCan1

Well, Ralf @OnlyUkeThatMatters has beaten me to it, by minutes…. I didn't do nearly as much research though. Respect!

Monday twofer: V + Vegas + '60s

"Viva Las Vegas" by Elvis Presley

I do not endorse any of the activities mentioned in this song … except the first word in the title. I endorse living. Viva!

johnpoole

WRAP .A summary of Vague week.

There were some songs.

johnpoole

haha..I will expand. But just a little. There were 33 excellent videos. I think anything over 30 is a respectable total in our small high quality world here.

There was a pretty even mix of options undertaken. Happy everything got represented.

I've posted some wonderful prizes…when I last checked they were just passing through the Straight of Hormuz. So any day now.

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