Seasons of the Ukulele

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

Season 746 - Power Outage?

Bystander

OK, I've had a think and here's the theme for season 746, I'm assuming Wendy is happy for me to go ahead.

OPTION 1 ~ POWER OUTAGE

Songs about or mentioning power, electricity. energy and related concepts in the title or lyrics.

Songs by artists with the word power or a related concept in their name.

Songs about things one might do when the power goes out.

OPTION 2 ~ DARK OR LIGHT

Songs with the word dark or light in the title or lyrics

Songs by artists with the words dark or light in their name, for example, The Darkness, Lightning Seeds, Gordon Lightfoot, etc.

OPTION 3

As option 2 but substitute the words dark or light with something similar in meaning, you have to tell me both words to qualify your entry. For example, dull or bright, black or white, etc, etc

Hope all that makes sense, the usual rules apply and no limit on song entries, have fun.

I'll sort the playlist shortly.

Edit, looks like Wendy is adding the songs to the playlist in post #1 so I'll leave it be, logical place for it to be I reckon.

I'll obviously watch and comment on all entries.

DelGriff

What a great team effort from Jon @jon , Wendy @UkeCan1 and Graham @Bystander to get the Season back on track - thank you all so very much for stepping in! 🙂

OneManAndHisPGUke

Yes it was getting a bit static without them. More (renewable) power to their elbow 👍

OneManAndHisPGUke

Oh, and @Joko , hope all is ok with you 👍

LimousinLil

OneManAndHisPGUke JOHN!!! You said, "a pun-free zone" … methinks you are alternating!

Bystander

Sad Lisa hides in the dark according to Cat Stevens.

AlanDP

A song about a kind of "fad" during the late 1800s to early 1900s.

And if you need an explanation, as I certainly did, here's what I found out:

dr_mitch

Okay, time for one from me, which I think fits the theme in multiple ways.

Sorry it's a little rough - I rushed this one out. It could have done with a lot more practice.

johnpoole

OneManAndHisPGUke John that Faraday C(age) pun is so tortured I can see electrical leads on its nether regions! 🙂

johnpoole

Good on ya Graham! Australian singer songwriter Ed Kuepper " Electrical Storm"

jon

thanks Graham!
a song from the Mountain Goats' 2004 album, 'We Shall All Be Healed'
at the end i talk a little bit about the uke i'm playing and why it's so special to me 🙂
"Linda Blair Was Born Innocent"

joo

A great theme! Thanks to Jon for coming up with it, Wendy for stepping up to use it as a theme, and Graham for hosting!!!

I am taking advantage of "Songs about things one might do when the power goes out." -

Well, what else do you do but to play a uke!

I painted a little cheapo plastic uke yesterday and recorded this today as a way to show the uke, and then i thought - why not share it here.

The tune i am playing is When I Get Home by Elizabeth Cotten. Instrumental.

Not sure if you will think i am stretching the Thornton rule here…but if i must try to relate to the theme of power outage - stay at home and light some candles.

Bystander

Well, we're kinda 2 days into the season now, it's been interesting to say the least !

12 entries from 9 seasonistas, thanks guys and gals, been a pleasure listening. I've watched and commented on all the entries so far and Wendy has got the playlist up to date.

As usual, if I've missed anything please let me know.

OneManAndHisPGUke

Alan’s great song about the Automatic Battery inspired me to do this one that also involves being subjected to electrical current for therapeutic rather than entertainment reasons. This was written by Dee Dee and Johnny Ramone. I’m not sure if Dee Dee was the lyricist and Johnny the tunesmith here, but I think it likely. I also don’t know if Dee Dee ever underwent “Shock Treatment” or ECT (electroconvulsive therapy), but he did have a history of issues with mental illness so he might be writing from personal experience. My mum used to tell me about an uncle who had had shock treatment ( that was the phrase she used), and I remember there is a really powerful and moving scene in Harold Pinter’s The Caretaker where Aston is recalling how he was subjected to ECT and how damaged he was by it, (this uncle was a damaged person but I don’t know if that was down to the ECT) so I had a pretty negative view of ECT because of that. However, when, during my nurse training 30 odd years ago, I did a Mental Health placement at a local hospital, I was able to be present when several patients had ECT. None of them were forced to undergo the procedure. The procedure involves placing electrodes either side of the head and passing a current through the brain to induce a controlled seizure. I remember talking to the doctor performing the ECT and she said it wasn’t known exactly how the therapy worked but it had something to do with re-setting the neural pathways in people with very severe intractable depression, bipolar disorder etc. And that the results were overwhelmingly positive. As far as I know ECT is still used as a treatment for these kinds of mental illnesses. I can’t say with certainty that everybody who undergoes it benefits, but it seemed to work for those people who I saw back on the ward afterwards.

So, anyway, after that long preamble, here is Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment by The Ramones.

UkeCan1

Fun Fact: Steam (a power-related band name) didn't exist until after this song became a hit … and none of the writers and record performers were in the touring band when they assembled it after the fact.

The song was recorded to be a B-side, but they realized it had greater hit potential than the other song, and were smart enough to release this as the A-side.

"Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" by Steam

Nearsighted-Lemon-McKay

OK, since a pseudo-Randy made a prediction that then became this season, I thought it was only fair to do one of Randy's songs. I scoured them and found this one, that is loaded with power. Sometimes When I Wander.

DelGriff

Thanks for stepping in at the last minute to host, Graham - really appreciate it!

Here’s a song that’s very special to me. I covered it about 5 years ago, so I thought I’d do something a little different with it this time - I slowed the tempo quite a bit and added some synth strings, a homemade drum track and some vocal harmonies.

Together In Electric Dreams (slower version) - Philip Oakey and Giorgio Moroder cover (SOTU 746)

UkeFoote

"Electricity", by Captain Beefheart, for soprano ukulele and singing, with overdubs of Ashbory Ubass and Moog Theremin. Thanks for stepping up to host, Wendy and Graham!

Bystander

Hello folks, just a trickle of entries in the last 24 hours, 5 more songs and 3 more seasonistas.

Quality over quantity seems to be what's happening here, I'm fine with that !

Wendy has updated the playlist so let's see what the next 24 hours bring.

UkeCan1

I thought of Midnight Oil day one, but hadn't picked a specific song.

Then yesterday, Oils lead singer and former Australian Member of Parliament Peter Garrett launched a much overdue public inquiry into the extremely expensive and highly questionable AUKUS (Aus/UK/US) "deal" to purchase nuclear-powered submarines from the US.

More about that here, if you're curious:

I listened to A LOT of Oils when I lived here in the early '90s - lots to choose from.

I picked "Put Down That Weapon" from their 1987 album "Diesel and Dust", which is about nuclear weapons, but could just as easily be about nuclear subs. (The opening line is "Under the waterline…")

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