Seasons of the Ukulele

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

Season 672 - Never Enough Time

DesertPavement

Hello all, and welcome to the 672nd Season of the Ukulele. We’ve had at least one Season specifically about time (53 I think), and others where songs mentioning time were allowed. This season though, with the turning of the page to a new calendar year, I would like you to please bring me songs about the PASSAGE of time. So, for example, Jim Croce’s “Time in a Bottle”, no, but Harry Chapin’s “Cats in the Cradle”, yes.

Songwriters, please craft originals around the same theme. Rob, if you’re here, please feel free to plumb the depths of your back catalog for on-theme songs.

All of the details can be found in Edwin’s FAQ thread, but in general:

Season starts at the stroke of midnight Hawaii time, Sunday 29 December and ends strike of midnight on Monday 6 January
Multi tracks, instrumentals, collaborations, etc., are ok as long as your ukulele/s is/are front and center
Do please try to listen to and comment to as many songs as you can, but please be civil/constructive
One song per day limit please
Newcomers are always welcome. If you have any questions please feel free to ask them here or refer to the FAQ thread linked above

I’m traveling pretty much the rest of today but will be online tomorrow if any questions come up. In the meantime I’ll leave you to think about (and maybe even practice) a song or 2 (or 8) for the coming week.

PLAYLIST

Joko

DesertPavement (53 I think),

I looked it up. 53 was do any past theme you hadn't done already…
226 was Passage of TIme week, Some great options in that week for those seeking inspitation…

pabrizzer

a paoriginal for season 672

Joko

Here ya go, Andy.
Wow, it is physically a lot more work to pick this way over a whole 3-minute song than it is to strum!

AlanDP

Written in 1914, a hundred years ago.

johnpoole

Thanks Andy. The Passage of Time has an added dimension if reincarnation is considered. Jimmy Webb's " Highwayman".

Mezcalero

Hey Andy, thanks for hosting this week! I apologize, I verbally referred to it as your season but used 671 instead of 672. I corrected the title at least. Hope every one is doing well and enjoying the seasonal break! Thanks to all of you who have kept the seasons rolling as if nothing happened! The change has encourage me to do my best to participate more regularly!

Cheers,

kev

UkeCan1

I planned to do this yesterday as a twofer, but hadn't quite got the opening melody down. I recorded "As Time Goes By" instead, but let too much time go by (or not enough) ... there was a whipper snipper going nearby, and it was unlistenable.

So here's my happy belated birthday song to two people in my life ... about time marching on - "Older" by They Might Be Giants.

redpaul1

Hi Andy,

Thanks for hosting. The first song I thought of when I saw the theme. Hope it fits.

YorkSteve

Here's a song from one of my favourite albums of 2024, Katherine Priddy's "The Pendulum Swing". I played this a while back at the Saturday open mic, and a few people said it would be nice at a funeral. So, on that cheerful note, a Happy New Year!

dr_mitch

Sorry for this being my first post on the new forum - I've been ill, and then busy with seasonal stuff. But this time…I actually wrote a song which fits the season. Here it is. I call it simply New Year's Eve Blues.

It's a 12 bar blues in G (well, 16 bars in the final verse), played with a boogie woogie feel.

It’s New Year’s Eve, and I ain’t getting home tonight,
It’s New Year’s Eve, and I ain’t getting home tonight,
It’s 2am, and there’s no taxi in sight.

It’s 3am, I could just have another drink.
It’s 3am, I could just have another drink.
But if I’m getting home, I know I’ll have to think.

I’m wondering, should I call a teetotal friend,
I’m wondering, should I call a teetotal friend,
Hey it’s 4am, and I don’t want to offend.

I could stretch my legs, and take the long walk home,
I could stretch my legs, and take the long walk home,
Ten miles at 5am, that’s no way to roam.

I’m sick of my friends, and they’re just as sick of me,
I’m sick of my friends, and they’re just as sick of me,
Hey it’s 6am, and I ain’t good company.

It’s 7am, it’ll soon be break of day,
It’s 7am, it’ll soon be break of day,
My cab’s now here, so happy new year!
We must do this again, and I’ll be on my way.

DelGriff

Thanks for hosting, Andy! :-)

So when it comes to the ending of relationships (as well as other painful life events), time, or more accurately the passage of time, is considered to be the great healer. But I know from recent personal experience that this isn’t always the case. So I changed some lyrics for this new acoustic version of an original song I wrote a couple of years ago, to reflect this. (Here is the previous multitrack version.)

Just me, baritone uke and some vocal harmonies added here.

CanadaJim

Great topic Andy.
Here's one that I haven't done for about a year, so. . .

THE CIRCLE GAME - Joni Mitchell

UkeCan1

I had another go at "As Time Goes By" - much more successful than my unlistenable video from Sunday. I performed the song much better … and no fingernails-on-blackboard whipper snipper screeching behind me.

Written by Herman Hupfeld more than a decade before it was famously featured in Casablanca.

PSST, Andy @DesertPavement : Will there be a playlist? 😉

CanadaJim

**When You And I Were Young Maggie - George W. Johnson & James Austin Butterfield

George Johnson was a school teacher in Mount Hope, Ontario, a few miles from where I grew up, when he wrote this poem for his fiancé, Maggie. They were married and had a home near Mount Hope. The poem was later put to music by Johnson's friend James Butterfield.
Johnson's words capture exactly the way I feel about my darlin' Maggie whose birthday was yesterday.
The photo is about 42 years old, before we were married.
Happy Birthday Sweetie!

DesertPavement

Whoops, sorry Joko. I looked again and the season generally about time was #59. If people want to look for inspiration there be my guest, but remember that any song you bring this week must note Time’s passage.

Thanks for all your songs so far. The playlist is created, live, and current up to here. Hope you all are continuing to enjoy a happy holidays.

LimousinLil

Hello, Andy, and thanks for hosting - especially over the holiday period! I THINK this song qualifies, in that the singer is looking back to a previous period … to his/her and the subject's childhood. (If necessary, I will attempt to invoke the Thornton Rule.) I've always really liked what was (possibly) Peter Sarstedt's only big hit, although I've just read that the late great British DJ, John Peel considered it the worst song ever written. HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!

BigKingVelour

Thanks for picking a Season theme that allows me to play a song by none other than Richard Hell. You don't normally think of him as a balladeer, but this one works great, and describes time as what it is - the revealer.

bobjking

Hey, Andy!

Cheers for the week! Here's an original for the season about bumping into someone you knew from school who you haven't seen for many years. The conversation is usually a mixture of catching up, reminiscing and noting the passage of time. The song is a mixture of fact and fiction. I'll let you decide which is which.

It does also contain a shamelessly bad joke/play on words in the first verse about the Lady Diana haircut that was popular at the time with girls at school which I won't be apologising for.

Here's wishing you all a very happy 2025!

[deleted]

thank you for this week Andy

happy new year everyone! a Darren Hanlon song