Seasons of the Ukulele

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

Season 758 - History

dr_mitch

Welcome back Seasonistas, and welcome if you’re new to the Seasons.

This week the theme is history. Simply put, songs which refer to historical events or current day news when the song was written. Major events, minor events, good news, bad news, all good songs for the theme. Or if there's a song closely tied to a moment or moments in history, bring it on!

Both covers and original songs are welcome. Once you've posted a new song for the week, you may repost an older song, if you so wish. If you're new to the seasons, for your first song, there are no rules - please post whatever you like. Otherwise, all the usual rules apply. The Season runs from the start of Sunday 23rd August in Hawaii until the end of Sunday 30th August in Hawaii. If you need further clarification on the rules, please see Edwin’s FAQ:

https://seasonistaforum.flarum.cloud/d/16-what-are-the-seasons-of-the-ukulele-and-other-faqs-with-answers

The maximum number of entries this week per person is 536, which according to some is the worst year in history.

And of course season 757 is still in flight.

The Playlist is here:

Barbablanca

Great theme! Looks Like I will be busy this Season too! Historical songs used to be my speciality.

Thanks for hosting!

UkeCan1

There's an obvious twofer about an airplane flight that failed, that is known for being long.

I'll spare you that one.

This one's about the first such flight to succeed - December 17, 1903 at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, by two brothers who studied, practiced, and innovated till they got it Wright.

There are a few good songs on the Tube about this historic event - this one really gets me in the feels.

"The Canvas Wing" by PayTreeIt

johnpoole

Hi Paul. Thanks for hosting. Here’s a Leonard Cohen about Joan of Arc. It revolves around the conversation Joan has with the fire. I’m not sure about the historical accuracy but LC is a bit older than me so he may have been privy to some inside info. It’s a long song so I’ve made visuals of some of my latest oil paintings. I just realised they are all Australian scenes except for one Sri Lankan….there for the sharp eyed spotters.On baritone.

LimousinLil

Hello, Paul … and thanks for hosting! I was actually really struggling to find something to fit your most interesting theme and then decided to settle on the Second World War and this came to mind. I don't know how widely "Dad's Army" has travelled around the globe … it is the most wonderful series, but uniquely British, telling the story of one Home Guard unit - the Home Guard being composed of men and boys either too old or too young to enlist, who would leap to the Country's defence in case of invasion. (A clash of personalities meant that this particular group was nothing short of incompetent!)

Threebird

Thanks for hosting this Season! I like this Season's theme, and it gives me a chance to have a go at one of my favourite U2 songs…'Van Diemen's Land' from Rattle & Hum. I was messing around with the effects on my amp and wanted to hear how this one worked with the song, I was recording it with my phone so I could have a listen but this take turned out "good enough" so I will post it. I am singing/playing at the phone (as usual) and across the room I have an amp emitting the effected uke sound, so kinda like having 2 uke tracks (and the tap-tap-tapping of my fingers on the strings).

About the song from a random source https://www.u2radio.com/2018/03/u2101-van-diemens-land/ …"During the early nineteenth century, Van Diemen’s land, now known as Tasmania, an island off the coast of Australia, was a penal colony which served several parts of the UK, meaning that criminals were sent there to serve out their sentences in lieu of being given the death penalty. One criminal who was sent to the island was a man named John Boyle O’Reilly. O’Reilly was an irish writer, poet, and activist who believed that Ireland should establish a separate state from England. Because of these beliefs, he was not very popular with Britain, and he was convicted and sent to serve a twenty year sentence in Van Diemen’s Land……The lyrics to the song “Van Diemen’s Land” are all about O’Reilly’s final free night in Ireland, and Edge is supposing that the poet would have spent those hours in the arms of a lover. I’m not sure how historically accurate that is, but as Bono has been known to say, “never let the truth get in the way of a good story.” The music to this song fits the lyrics perfectly–all there is to the song is a simple guitar part that highlights the pain of separation and injustice that the lyrics describe."

And about Mr O'Reilly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Boyle_O%27Reilly

And the song

AlanDP

"Lizzie Borden" was written by Michael Brown and recorded by the Chad Mitchell Trio, a folk group that included John Denver before he went solo and became famous. Brown had a long and distinguished life as a composer, lyricist, performer, and a few other things. He and his wife gave Harper Lee the gift of a year's financial support so she could leave her job and "write whatever you please."

Bystander

Thanks for hosting again Paul, gone for an obvious one that I already know how to play, Space Oddity by David Bowie.

This one comes in at about four times longer than my usual covers !

xommen

With the band we used to play van Diemens Land a lot, so it is still in my system, here is another version of it.

xommen

And here is another historical U2 song, it is called the Troubles, which is of course about the Troubles in Ireland.

potmo

UkeCan1 Interesting. I guess Edwin gave us carte blanche pretty much and I am assuming you are referring to American Pie, which would lead to a song which doesn't only not mention a plane or a flight by name, certainly refers to a plane which was indeed flying before it crashed – a new level of thorton! I was actually thinking about doing the song in some kind of abridged manner but I didn't even think about it in the context of a twofer.

potmo

Deportees (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos) – Woodie Guthrie twofer

Thanks for hosting Paul. Great topic. I actually, strangely have done quite a few songs that fit this for my blast from the past. And plenty of other songs to choose from.

dr_mitch

Thanks everyone for a brilliant start to the Season! It's always enjoyable to host. The playlist should be up to date - and I look forward to more!

LimousinLil

Hello again, Paul! When you mentioned it, the opportunity to sing that famous song about the testicularly-challenged hierarchy of the Third Reich was too great to resist. My apologies for lowering the tone …

CanadaJim

Titanic (Midnight On The Sea) - Lead Belly

Some historical fiction is involved here. Huddie Ledbetter took some artistic license when he composed this song. There is no record of prize-fighter Jack Johnson ever seeking a passage on the Titanic, but it makes a good story.

dr_mitch

I recorded this song last year, but I'll invoke host's privilege to include it, even without a new recording yet.

It's called Betty and Dupree, and based on a true story

In 1921, Frank Dupree robbed a jewellery store to steal a diamond ring to impress his new girlfriend, Betty. He killed a security guard and injured another man during his escape, and when caught, he was convicted and hanged - the last person to be hanged in the state of Georgia. His defence argued hat he was led astray by Betty, and quoted misogynistic verses from the bible to make the point.

There's a family of related songs about the incident, dating back to 1926. Names of songs in this family include Dupree's Diamond Blues (the name of the Grateful Dead take on it), Betty and Dupree, and Diamond Ring Blues. They're related, but not the same, either lyrically or musically.

Aviva

Dusty Old Dust by Woody Guthrie

During the 1930's in the western U.S. a severe drought and poor farming practices combined to bring about the environmental disaster known as the "dust bowl". There were actually giant black blizzards, like the "Black Sunday" in April 1935 that is referred to in this song. There was so much dust that it blocked out the sun, and some folks thought it might be the end of the world. Many people fled their homes and left the area.

jon

a song that originated in the early 1900s as an African-American spiritual
and that was popularised in the early 1960s with the folk revival.
i only knew it from an old Bob Gibson recording
it documents the tragic Galveston storms and flood of September 1900

Barbablanca

Here's my first for this Season! Background Info in the YouTube description.

Hope you like:

DelGriff

Thanks for hosting, Doc! :-)

ABBA won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest with this song, when it was an actual song contest and not the bizarre and (for me) unwatchable/unbearable circus it has since become.

I realise in retrospect that ABBA were a huge musical influence on my younger self. I’ve always loved their music, though it was considered ‘uncool’ to admit to that when I was a schoolboy back in the ‘70s and early ‘80s, as I painfully discovered at the time! 😆

Baritone uke with synth bass, pads and piano additions, and some vocal harmonies too. I’ve slowed it down compared to the original - I realised a good while back that it’s futile to try to make an ABBA cover sound anything like the original!

Waterloo (slower version) - ABBA cover (SOTU 758)

The historical context of the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815, according to Wikipedia:

Waterloo was the decisive engagement of the Waterloo campaign and Napoleon's last. It was the second-bloodiest single day battle of the Napoleonic Wars, after Borodino. According to Wellington, the battle was "the nearest-run thing you ever saw in your life".[21]^ Napoleon abdicated four days later, and coalition forces entered Paris on 7 July. The defeat at Waterloo marked the end of Napoleon's Hundred Days return from exile. It precipitated Napoleon's second and definitive abdication as Emperor of the French and ended the First French Empire.