Seasons of the Ukulele

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

Season 757 - Ready for Takeoff

Edwin

Hello from the flight deck! This is your captain speaking, and I'd like to welcome you on board this 757. Please stow your bags and take your seats so that we can get moving as soon as we're cleared. Meanwhile, let me update you on some of the details of our journey this week.

I'd like you to bring us songs about flying, specifically the kind where a thing has made it off the ground under its own power. There's lots of things that could be meant by "flying" even within that, of course, so to be precise, you can bring us any song where you can answer "yes" to one of the following questions about something in it or something that it's about:

Is it a bird?
Is it a plane?
Is it Superman?

Songs must be recorded specifically for this week (please say somewhere in the video or description that it's for Season 757), and please remember to tell us the title and either the artist you're covering, or the name of the composers (which could of course, be you - I'd love to hear originals!). That's pretty much all there is to it! The cabin crew will shortly be giving their briefing but as always we ask that you check the Seasons FAQ which you'll find in the seat pocket in front of you. In case of any doubts, I'm sure most of you remember that I'm not going to be picky - usual rules apply, and if you think it fits one of the categories above, it does. We do however advise you to keep your seatbelts fastened while seated, in case we encounter any unexpected rock and roll.

We're almost ready for departure, and just waiting for clearance. Takeoff is scheduled for 00:00 Hawaii time on Sunday 16th August, and flying time will be 8 days. Remember that there is still Madness in the air - it isn't scheduled to land until the end of Sunday 16th in Hawaii.

A special welcome on board to those of you who've never flown with us before. You are welcome to bring us any song you like, with no constraints other than it should be performed specifically for this week.

Anyway, time to sit back and enjoy the flight! The flight log will appear here once entries start coming in.

Edit: Here is the Playlist, er, I mean, the logbook.

DelGriff

Edwin We do however advise you to keep your seatbelts fastened while seated, in case we encounter any unexpected rock and roll.

😆😆😆

potmo

Edwin I guss air balloons are out then...

LimousinLil

Edwin I just saw what you did there, Edwin (I'm very slow) … that's really clever!

johnpoole

I may do Mr Boeingjangles. I have a good conchord sheet.

It’s breakfast time here and someone has just woken me up. “ Chicken or Fish sir?”

UkeCan1

potmo Edwin I guss air balloons are out then...

And spaceflight? 😢

CeeJay

@ "UkeCan1"#p7621 Well as both are about flight I don't see why ?

And Led Zeppelin would be the perfect band name choice 😆😆😆

UkeCan1

Today was the monthly Chapters open mic. It's been quite a few months since I've performed there, and I almost didn't today. But then I thought of three doable songs that are all (if you stretch far enough) vaguely twoferish … except that I didn't notice the spaceflight prohibition until after I'd chosen the set and it was too late to reconsider.

I think I did reasonably well for not having rehearsed except for a super-quick run-through of the first two - host Garth was particularly impressed with my vocals on "Space Oddity". I guess two years in a barbershop chorus is paying off a little bit!

"Mr. Spaceman" - The Byrds
"Space Oddity" - David Bowie
"Thank You For Flying With Us" - original

UkeCan1

CeeJay UkeCan1 Well as both are about flight I don't see why ?

He said specifically to limit it to birds, planes, and Superman.

So David said that leaves out air balloons, and I realized (too late) that it also excludes spaceships (unless perhaps you think they are space planes).

joo

Thanks for hosting, Edwin! Love the theme.

I think this song by Paul Simon might fit. The words plane and fly can be found in the lyrics. I think perhaps this song is about a fella feeling lonely and isolated after his friend Tom left on a plane. I was thinking about it the other day, humming it to myself. I have never played it nor recorded it, so I wanted to record it first thing this morning. I got my trusty camera with an external mic attached, and asked Jon to film me before the Sunday show Insiders started. I played a Lanikai baritone ukulele, capo-ed at the third fret. The chords I got from Ultimate Guitar. I didn't play so well but it is good enough for me as the more important thing for me was to capture the moment as the morning light made the daffodils looked even more golden. We picked them from the roadside on our walks. We also have some growing in our front garden. They are fragrant and really brighten up the lounge. Thanks to Jon for filming this.

CeeJay

UkeCan1

I think I detect a shade of hostility and snark in your remark.

There is always the Thornton Rule.

UkeFoote

“The Dawntreader”, by Joni Mitchell, for tenor ukulele with singing.

Thanks for hosting, Edwin. The season came at a perfect time for me - I’ve been working on many songs about birds lately, as our August show is titled “Birdsongs”

Edwin

Hi all, thanks for getting things going! I've added a link to the Playlist above. I can't listen just yet but I'll catch up with the first few entries later today.

Edwin

UkeCan1 The third one definitely fits!

Still, I did try to make this stand out in the first post but people seem to have missed it, so what I'm looking for is:

Birds
Planes
Superman

Off the top of my head I can only think of one song about Superman but perhaps there will be more by the end of the week. There's no shortage of bird and plane songs though.

Barbablanca

What a great theme. I have several songs I haven't done videos for that involve "Flight".

Here is the first of them: "Descending through Thick Cloud"

UkeCan1

CeeJay UkeCan1

I think I detect a shade of hostility and snark in your remark.

Not intended at all. The space planes was my own wishful thinking, due to having chosen two out of three songs involving them for my set before I realized. I am calling Thornton Rule for sure!

My third song takes place on an airplane and has "Flying" in the title, so that one straight out qualifies at least … I think…. (Oh, yes - I see Edwin agrees….)

The rest of my comment was for clarity, as at least you and I both seem to have missed on first reading the specific list of allowed flying things. It's a clever theme … and requires careful reading of the T's & C's.

CeeJay

Edwin

Birds/Planes/Superman ?

But only in flight. Ostriches right are out . Unless flying a sopwith camel ?😇

Just to be clearo crystal like.

CeeJay

UkeCan1

Perhaps I shouldn't respond BB…..Before Breakfast….I'm grumpy enough these days anyway……

UkeCan1

Edwin Off the top of my head I can only think of one song about Superman but perhaps there will be more by the end of the week.

I can think of a few Superman songs - I hope to try one later that is not well known.

LimousinLil

Hello, Edwin … and thanks for hosting; great to see you here! This was the first song I thought of when I saw the week's theme. (I'm sorry, it's a bit "boomy" - I didn't have the mic in the right place - and I didn't have time to redo it as I had to take the dog out.)