Season 573 - Tom Waits for Lowe man

I AM A GRUMPY OLD LADY.
Sometimes feel that I torture you all by making weird videos. I hope this is not too painful for you all.
Inspired by the posts about being grumpy (my fault for starting that...actually, Nick Lowe's fault), I thought I would record an original on that.
Grumpy Old Joo recorded 3 tracks, all first takes.
1. My baritone started buzzing big time, so I used it with all the buzzing.
2 and 3. Then I sang random lines over, twice. All first takes. Thinking about being grumpy...about me being grumpy.
When I sang the second time I suddenly thought of the grumpy, suffering protagonist in Samuel Beckett's Three Novels.
Those lines "it is raining, it is not raining," and "I can't go on. I will go on," are from the novels.

There were much noise happening when I was recording - airplane noise, people talking, birds, fan noise, Teochew opera, telephone ringing. I used them as part of the video. Hopefully that worked for you too.

I think this mess should fall under the " Growing Old Disgracefully" category.
(as if these are not enough info, you can read more in my YT description).
If the audio is too painful, I hope my animation with my paintings is interesting to look at.
Thanks for hosting, Steve. The pain shall stop here. After the High I got from mucking around, I might attempt a Lowe later this week, if I feel inspired.
 
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Another catch-up session done, and I have been thinking about how and when I started following these two performers.
I remember buying Nick Lowe's singles on Stiff Records, c.1979, and my little pile of concert tickets tells me that I went to see Rockpile (his band with Dave Edmunds) in October 1980 for £2.50. I have stayed with him pretty much ever since, and have enjoyed seeing him age slightly more gracefully than some of his contemporaries.
Tom Waits, on the other hand, was added to my regular listening list much later. In fact, back in the 1980s I remember being baffled by a friend of mine enjoying his "Swordfishtrombones" album. To me it sounded like a walrus barking while somebody pushed over all the display stands in a junk shop. And to be honest, some of it still does. But a few years ago I listened to some of his earlier stuff, and that made a lot more sense. Then the later things grew on me too. So if anybody else is struggling to find something by him, go and try the songs on his first few albums, before the voice turned to sandpaper.
 
And more Nick Lowe. Tbh, I could have recorded a great Nick Lowe song every day and there’d still be loads of his songs I’d want to do. This is one I recorded before, I think Andy, @Desert Pavement , did a Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello season, and I might have done this for that one. It may be one of his best known songs, perhaps THE best known song of his songs, one he wrote when he was in Brinsley Schwartz. But it bears repeating, because, as messages go, it’s hard to argue with.

I did indeed, Season 347. There’s always room for more though.

 
Nick Lowe has undergone a lot of phases on 50+ years of writing and performing. Pub rocker, pre-punk satirist, clever pop jokester, and most recently, mature troubadour. This is one from his current phase. His wit is as stinging as ever.

 
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573 Tom Waits for Lowe Man -
Jockey Full Of Bourbon

( Darn, I got the title wrong in the video grrr)

The hat's back and it smells of bear !!!


 
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A Eulogy for Mr Freeman or how to become disgustingly old and close your Youtube account... a Bukowski poetry reading.
 
I've had some difficulty with this season so far, partly because I've been away until today, but mainly because there's so many Tom Waits songs that I've been waiting for a chance to do that I didn't know where to start. It's a good problem to have... anyway, here's one from Rain Dogs:



I love hearing Tom Waits covers (and I'm pretty sure I'll enjoy the Nick Lowe ones too). I'll catch up soon!
 
I found a Tom Wait's I didn't know. One of my new favourites. Powerful writing of remnants of a life at a garage sale. And thanks to who ever worked out the jazzy guitar chords (originally a piano song). I just took the guitar chords and blacked out the bottom two strings with a felt pen..hey presto baritone uke jazz chords...kinda.
 
here's a homemade-y for the season. i dunno if it's quite sufficiently "growing old disgracefully". but it is about going your own way regardless, and regardless of the cost... anyway i hope it counts! and it's got a bit of a train theme, which i think ticks a box too... mebbe!

"rolling on"

 
It's time for you to love.



Well the smart money's on Harlow and the moon is in the street
And the shadow boys are breaking all the laws.
And you're east of east Saint Louis and the wind is making speeches
And the rain sounds like a round of applause.
And Napoleon is weeping in a carnival saloon
His invisible fiancee's in the mirror.
And the band is going home, it's raining hammers, it's raining nails
And it's true there's nothing left for him down here.
And it's time time time, and it's time time time
And it's time time time that you love
And it's time time time.
And they all pretend they're orphans and their memory's like a train.
You can see it getting smaller as it pulls away.
And the things you can't remember tell the things you can't forget.
That history puts a saint in every dream
Well she said she'd stick around until the bandages came off
But these mama's boys just don't know when to quit.
And Matilda asks the sailors "are those dreams or are those prayers?"
So close your eyes, son, and this won't hurt a bit.
Oh it's time time time, and it's time time time
And it's time time time that you love
And it's time time time.
Well things are pretty lousy for a calendar girl
The boys just dive right off the cars and splash into the street.
And when they're on a roll she pulls a razor from her boot
And a thousand pigeons fall around her feet.
So put a candle in the window and a kiss upon his lips
As the dish outside the window fills with rain.
Just like a stranger with the weeds in your heart
And pay the fiddler off 'til I come back again
Oh it's time time time, and it's time time time
And it's time time time that you love
And it's time time time
And it's time time time, and it's time time time
And it's time time time that you love
And it's time time time
 
I found a Tom Wait's I didn't know. One of my new favourites. Powerful writing of remnants of a life at a garage sale. And thanks to who ever worked out the jazzy guitar chords (originally a piano song). I just took the guitar chords and blacked out the bottom two strings with a felt pen..hey presto baritone uke jazz chords...kinda.

This one really slayed me, man. Wow. Beautifully done.
 
Another catch-up session done, and I make it 35 songs from 22 Seasonistas. Excellent.
As I expected I have been introduced to songs I hadn't heard before, and ones I had forgotten all about.
A weird thing happened today. I decided to play a Tom Waits album from Spotify in my car. When it finished, Spotify did its usual trick of playing something else I might enjoy. Nick Lowe. How does it know?
 
Ruby's Arms
Glass of whisky, stub of a cigarette hanging from the corner of the mouth, pork pie hat perched on the back of the head, seedy run down bar, spluttering light bulb on the blink and a out of tune piano tinkling in the background.

Someone is leaving the comfort and safety of a warm bed to go to a place that they don't want to go to, fight for a cause they don't believe in.

All that they take with them is a memory of better times. A scarf from off a clothes line, that they can wrap around themselves when they need to remember the good times when things were not so bad.
 
Hi again Steve.
I posted an original song a couple of hours ago and when I looked at it again, I am not sure if it might be a bit too rude for some people.
(it is still on my channel if anyone is interested to see if it really is....)

I am posting another "original" instead.


The lyrics are in my YT video description section.
 
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