Season 616: December Will Be Magic Again

[wee_ginga_yin]

Cygnus atratus, also known as a mucky duck, last time I was asked to paint one.

Something is happening here but you don't know what it is

 

[LimousinLil]

Since, owing to a surfeit of appointments, I have been mainly absent after the beginning of the week and I now have toothache - one of the appointments was with the Dentist - I've spent such time as I've had reading up about Jake Thackray. Apart from his own brilliant songs, he was also a great admirer of Georges Brassens and was responsible for some marvellous translations of his work. (Thackray had spent three years in France, teaching English after his time at Durham University, and there he had discovered the "chansonnier" tradition ... and in particular the works of Georges Brassens. Thackray said that he missed out on rock and roll and all his influences were French.) The attached photos show Thackray and Brassens together.

I now need to catch up on all the songs that I've missed through being mainly absent this week ... thanks for the interesting combination of magic and Thackray, Edwin!

 

[Canada Jim]

Yan Tan Tethera - Eric Nagler
I had started learning Jake Thackray's song Old Molly Metcalfe and realised that, although I'd never heard the song (nor heard of Jake) I had heard the phrase "Yan Tan Tethera" on a cassette that my kids had when they were 4 or 5. It was a story about "the little people" told by a children's entertainer, Eric Nagler, that my kids liked. I have no idea what happened to the tape and can't recall the story, but there was a song that went with the story that has the word "magic" in it. so here are the 4 lines I can recall:



Old Molly Metcalfe - Jake Thackray
The only version of this song I've heard is Jake's acapella version. I'd bever heard of Jake till this week, but have been enjoying his music via YouTube this week. I see that ukukeguy beat me to it yesterday (and 3 years ago), and I'm now off to listen to his versions.

Many thanks to Edwin for introducing me to Jake's music.

 

[wee_ginga_yin]

STINKUS MAXIMUS (WeeOriginal)

 

[jtsteam]

Hi everyone! I see you've been busy today. Unfortunately so have I so I'm behind on my listening (sorry!). Not sure I'll catch up before tomorrow morning my time, but I've at least brought the playlist up to date up to this point. We're up to 51 songs, and still about two and a half days to go, so plenty of time for further trickery (and indeed further Thackray).

EDIT: Okay, I've caught up a bit. Back later, and I'm looking forward to it because I see there's a couple of my favourites coming up...

 

[dr_mitch]

Right, time for some jazz ukulele with my second song this week.

 

[ukuleledaddy]

Black Magic.
Not that one. This is a little rockabilly tune by Jericho Jones.

 

[caukulele]

This song was written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King, and recorded for the first time in 1960 by the Shirelles. In 1971 Carole King recorded it on her album Tapestry. Tapestry was one of the first albums I bought when I was fourteen years old, and I memorized every song on that album and learned to play the guitar because of that album. Through the years many singers have recorded Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow, including; Linda Ronstadt, Roberta Flack and Amy Winehouse. My husband and I did this song ten years ago on the Seasons (although neither of us remembered doing it), so with the lyrics “can I believe the magic of your sighs…” we decided it was time to try it again.

 

[Joko]

Well howdy there Seasonista peoples, Joko coming to you from Mandalay, Burma. It's been a weird week of civil war, constant electrical blackouts, and minor surgery on my anus. I hope no one's done this one, which took a whole lot of mixing.

 

[Barbablanca]

As a prize in a recent Season, Chris Lanzon sent me a cool wrestling mask. Inspired by that, and by this week's theme, I came up with this tale of a wrestler who is also a magician and combines the two worlds in his act.

I hope you enjoy:



PS The sculpture of the two naked wrestlers is entitled. "Hercules and Diomedes"

 

[UkulAle]

Hi everyone,
first of all I apologize to ukukeguy for offering you a song that he has already interpreted very well yesterday (sorry)
Mine is, as always, an instrumental arrangement that I hope you will enjoy.
The song is Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic by The Police.
See you soon, bye

 

[AlanDP]

I couldn't find much information about the composer, Arthur Penn. He was born in London, England in 1875 and died in New London, Connecticut in 1941. He wrote a song called "Smilin' Through" which became a standard and was recorded by such notables as Judy Garland and Bing Crosby. This song isn't quite so well-known, I guess.

 

[emba]

Well , I just realized I would have enough time for a song today but it had to be one I didn’t have to learn the tune for and could already basically sing. Thanks to Aladdin and the probably hundreds of times I watched it as as kid, “A Whole New World” fit the bill, and it mentions “a magic carpet ride” to fit the theme.

 

[hands_on_lanzon]

We’ll, I just realized I would have enough time for a song today but it had to be one I didn’t have to learn the tune for and could already basically sing. Thanks to Aladdin and the probably hundreds of times I watched it as as kid, “A Whole New World” for the bill, and it mentions “a magic carpet ride” to for the theme.

Great bring!

I was looking at the lyrics to the Genie's Friend Like Me and I can't pull it off! Anyone? Anyone?!

 

[uke4ia]

I wanted to do a song this Season that had "magic" in the lyrics, but not the title. This Electric Light Orchestra song came to mind.

 

[AZChris]

Better get this in before the door closes. Thanks for hosting and for having a fun challenge Edwin. Here's "You Can Do Magic" from America, a song I always wanted to learn. In addition to uke, I added percussion loops, bass and quite a bit of harmony.

 

[ukudancer]

Alright. Here's the finished piece. I ended up revising a few of the passages and how I played them. Added way more keys than I thought I would including strings / vox during the interlude, bells a third up from the melody "it's all black magic." I'm super glad I only had a week to work on it otherwise, this will just continue to snow ball out of control in search of what's possible. Regardless, it's still broken down into manageable little chunks so that even though the whole thing looks difficult, it's really not too bad.

 

[TheOnlyUkeThatMatters]

Way back in the mid-90s I played in a band called the Halo Benders. Mostly I played drums, though I played guitar on a few songs as well. One of those works for this Season…

 

[UkeCan1]

Did I miss it, or has no one yet done "Magic" by Pilot?!

 

[UkeCan1]

Also, I did a bunch of jamming at the Sunday open mic, some of which fits this theme, and all of which was magic, none of it planned. I'll come back and edit that in once the video finishes uploading.

Official set, with spontaneous band "The Moondancers". Songs 1, 3, and 4 contain the word "magic".

"Moondance" - Van Morrison
"Locomotive Breath" - Jethro Tull
"Abracadabra" - Steve Miller Band
"Will You Love Me Tomorrow" - The Shirelles (Goffin / King)
I'm a Believer - The Monkees

Arguably, Coombsy being able to play flute after I did a Jethro Tull song last time without one, and then showing up this week, as if by magic, moments after we began the set, qualifies as a kind of magic.

And "I'm a Believer" ... in magic, right?

Featuring Andy on bass, the other Andy (and John at the start?) on guitar, Coombsy on flute, who arrived just in time, Marie (rhymes with "starry") on vocals, Garth off camera on cajon, Ruth singing along from the audience, and of course me, Wendy on uke.



We did a bunch more jamming after that, and I got video, but none of those songs met either theme, so this'll do for tonight. This girl needs sleep....