Seasons of the Ukulele

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

Season 749 - K.I.S.S ( Keep it simple Seasonistas)

UkeFoote

"Talk Talk", by the Music Machine, for one stringed plastic ukulele with singing. I won this ukulele in a Season long past. It was hosted by Mike in Wales and the prize was a plastic Brunswick concert ukulele upon which was printed the flag of Wales. I lent the uke to a student several years ago and she busted the bridge. These days it sits in a closet with a single string (C) left upon it. Every once in a while I pick it up and bang about a bit - this was one of those times. Thanks for hosting, John!

This song is from 1966, and it so happens that I'll be performing an entire show of music from 1966 this Sunday in UkeFoote's second live show of the summer. You can watch the show on zoom. Info is on the poster (time is Pacific Coast USA):

OneManAndHisPGUke

Good morning Seasonistas! Another very hot day here in the UK, but nothing compared to France for example, you take care there @LimousinLil ! Thank you to the Seasonistas who have brought songs since we last spoke.

Jon got down and dirty by the shoreline to bring The Ramones on a lovely little painted uke.

Cody and Elmo brought Cripple Creek on a freebie Enya, then a bit of Rishikesh era Beatles as his blast from the past.

Tin Pan Alan played a sweet song on a very cheap but lovely sounding uke.

Joo played a Michael Leunig poem on a thrift shop uke (that could almost be a season in itself, play what you want but it has to be on a uke brought from a thrift/charity shop). I adore Joo’s painted ukes.

Jon played a moving original inspired by the first biblical fraternity of Cain and Abel. He has such a way with words. This again played on a uke painted by Joo.

And next came Brian on the one string plastic Brunswick, demonstrating the truth in that phrase that less is more.

As ever it’s a joy to host, because you really don’t know what you are going to get. Either way, thanks to all so far and keep on keeping on 👍

LimousinLil

OneManAndHisPGUke Merci beaucoup, John! I was watching the French news last night and the temperature in Limoges (about an hour-and-a-half across from here) was 39 degrees plus yesterday. We were one of the first 35 departments to be declared on red alert. There are now 49 departments at this level, i.e. most of France; and it seems set to continue next week. We have been issued a directive - I would copy it, but I can't here - telling us to stay indoors if possible and shut the windows and shutters … and it is still stiflingly hot inside. No alcohol is to be sold at public events and some of these events have actually been cancelled because of the heat. The only time to get anything at all done outside is first thing in the morning or when it starts to cool - quite late - in the evening. For the first couple of nights - to add insult to injury - I had to sleep with the windows (actually doors) shut in the bedroom because Seamus, the cat, feeling overheated, took himself out onto the narrow ledge and I needed all my negotiating skills (and some treats) to entice him back inside. I've given up being on suicide watch now and left him to his fate … and also given him an exit strategy on the ground floor, with an open kitchen window (but not SO open that Merlin the dog can jump out.) This seems to have worked out satisfactorily, apart from the fact that I acquired two extra cats in the course of last night. Life is FUN!

CeeJay

LimousinLil You can never have too many cats. It is The Cat Distribution System at work.,

joo

Hi again John,

We sat down before dinner to jam and ended up playing this. On a uke ornament and a plastic toy uke, both of which we have played in our first posts.

LimousinLil

CeeJay Hmmm! Well, I've got two already … I think that'll do me!

OneManAndHisPGUke

Not sure what the layout of your house is @LimousinLil but could you, and the animals sleep downstairs? In theory it should be cooler as the hot air rises through the house. We sometimes do that here.

LimousinLil

OneManAndHisPGUke Now THAT'S a thought! I've got three floors - tall, narrow house - and, at the moment, the higher up you go, the hotter it gets. I am actually OK in the first floor bedroom - provided I can open the windows/doors - Merlin sleeps downstairs anyway. Margot (senior cat) tends to sleep on top of me and Seamus is sort of free-range. Being quite high up - 700 plus metres - it does get cooler during the night; although, at the moment, it's not THAT cool. If I attempted to sleep downstairs on the sofa (too short anyway), I think Merlin would probably be taking up half of it, as he does during the day. I could just do without the extra cats! Ho hum!

CanadaJim

KEEP THE CHANGE - Cris Cuddy
(played on a Harmony soprano ukulele)
I've loved the late Cris Cuddy's music for decades and, knowing how much I loved this song, he sang it at my 70th birthday party.

jon

a simple arrangement on a simple uke of a simple song w/ a simple message called "Simple Gifts"
but really it's just a show-and-tell of the latest tip-shop uke we found and that
joojoo brought back to life w/ her gorgeous art 🙂

jon

an original song for the season at Snug Beach this morning
i wrote it nearly 30 years ago and i never thought it'd be resuscitated lol
"it's all so simple: i'm your King if you're my Queen"
Historiography

OneManAndHisPGUke

Good morning Seasonistas. Quick hello/goodbye from me as I’m off out to work but I will have a look at your latest entries and add them to the playlist when I get back in tonight. Keep keeping it simple 👍

jon

had a go learning this fantastic Irving Berlin song today from 1947, "A Couple of Swells"
i talk a little about the uke at the start, a really lovely 'Dulcet' soprano
made in Japan around late 60s/early 70s that joo found online at a Cash Converters -
best $19 we've probably ever spent on an instrument, i really should play it more
thanks John

LimousinLil

Hello again, John! Having walked the dog, I grabbed a last moment of shade to record this before it got too unbearably hot. The uke I was intending to use - which really IS pretty cheap and nasty - had busted a string; so I chose this cigar box uke, which I am ashamed to say, I had completely forgotten I had! I think it WAS quite cheap, but it really isn't nasty … and even comes with a surgeon's health warning about the dangers of smoking!

Nearsighted-Lemon-McKay

So, my contribution to the season is Sam the Sham's "Little Red Riding Hood", which has several instances of "keep" in the lyrics. In the video I am playing my collection of 1950's plastic ukuleles, which range in quality from cheap toy to nice quality sounding ukuleles. The original prices on these ranged from a buck and a quarter to a whopping six dollars.

potmo

Strobe Light – The B52's.

many kisses on various parts of the body and i am not going to make any comments about the cheapness of my 25 dollar mitchell uke, because it was a present from Tamar. Speaking of sisters, my other sister Aviva, who has appeared in a jam or two with me and who got a master's degree in Piano, has a red Enya now and I am hoping I can lure her into the group. She is the one in the family with musical talent (although Tamar has a sweet voice imo)

CeeJay

For Season Of The Uke 749 a ukey 'zouki song with the main word in it, Kiss. The Chordettes, Nana Mouskouri, Melina Mercouri and Connie Francis were much better, but I don't think any of those lovely ladies played the uke like a 'zouk and an attempted baglama. And this IS simple. So simple I forgot to video the accompaniament but thought, sod it, LOL.

Ta Pedia to Pirea, or The Boys From Pirea taken

from the film Never On a Sunday, which loaned its name to the subsequent song.

joo

Here is a homemade song to show off 9 of our second hand ukes that i painted over. Oh, one of them is a new Mahalo, although it was already much used when it got painted over. (I stuck some sequins on the headstock hehe)

Lyrics in YT description. You can see the brand and price of each at the end.

OneManAndHisPGUke

Good morning Seasonistas wherever you may be across the globe. We’ve had more fantastic submissions, starting off with Jon and Joo’s fun funky rendition of Prince, via Tom Jones, with Kiss. Joo played a little solo of that ornament uke which sounded great!

Jim pitched in with a song by Chris Cuddy he played on a lovely old Harmony soprano. It amazes me how good so many of these cheap ukes sound.

A trio of tunes then from Jon, beautiful picking on Simple Gifts and he re-visited a great pop song he wrote 30 years ago. Lastly he channeled his inner Fred Astaire on a cheap and (unusually) not painted uke that still sounded great.

Val played outside in the relative cool of the morning on a fab looking, and sounding cigar box uke. I wonder if Shirley Bassey plays uke?

Nearsighted Lemon McKay went all plastic on us with a range of great sounding ukes. I had uke envy when he brought the Maccaferri out…..maybe one day.

Potmo brought the B-52s, excellent energetic strumming on a song I didn’t know before.

CeeJay multitracked to great effect on a tune I know very well, Never On A Sunday.

And Jon and Joo brought a really fun original about their cheap ukes. Fab lyric Joo, I always love your lyrics.

I hope to bring one myself later today. Watch this space……

OneManAndHisPGUke

And here it is! This is from the album Sunday At Devil Dirt that Isobel Campbell (formerly of Belle and Sebastian) recorded with Mark Lanegan (formerly of Screaming Trees and Queens Of The Stone Age). Qualifies due to having the word Keep in the title, plus I play it on the cheapest and nastiest uke in the house, a pink Tanglewood Union series soprano. It won’t win any prizes for beauty. It was my daughter’s uke…when I first got into uke-ing, maybe 12/13 years ago, we bought this one for her, and another slightly more expensive one for me. It might be due a makeover, Joo style. So here is Keep Me In Mind, Sweetheart, a pretty little tune written by Isobel Campbell, and sung by Isobel and Mark.

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