Season of the 'Ukulele (SOTU) 629 - Season of the Cuckoo'lele

[dr_mitch]

Postcards for those who signed up as future hosts (so far) are done! Big shout out to @dr_mitch , @LimousinLil , @Ms Bean , and @ChaosLibrarian !

Here's a sneak peak (i don't like spoiling surprises). Can you spot the headstock of your uke of choice? These should hit the post Monday.

Still some time to fill up the calendar, folks!

View attachment 168161

Ooh, I'm excited!

 

[dr_mitch]

And time for my last song this season (but not, I hope the last of the season - still room for plenty more, and I hope to hear them). Thanks @hands_on_lanzon for hosting something with a deep theme, and for the generous gift of painting postcards!

 

[OiNumiDellArpa]

One of the verses of this song by Francesca Caccini reads:
“chi desia di saper cos’è Amore Io dirò che non sia ...se non furore” which may be translated as
"whoever wants to know what love is, I will tell him that it is nothing... if not obsession"

 

[ChaosLibrarian]

It wouldn't take much to convince me that I coulda used my brain, experience, and time better, but I had the thought of this chart in mind and the nerd part of me overpowered the sensible part of me. Anyways... if any of you folks like data, here's some. It's a count of song entries by date and user (FYI, the colors and grouping are completely arbitrary).
View attachment 168136

FYI, I'm up to five postcards to paint, as 4 Seasonistas have signed up to host upcoming weeks and one new Seasonista has joined.
There's still some time to keep me busy!

Cheers, all!!

I knew you were my people, Chris. This is BEAUTIFUL!

 

[YooperGirl]

Hey Chris! Hope things are going well for you! Thanks for the theme this week. It hits close to home for me as well as many others here, it looks like. I appreciate the spotlight on it and I also agree that it should be recognized more. We all are dealing with it to one extent or another. It’s not easy to have and it shouldn’t be looked at lightly, although too often I feel it is.
Anyway, I wish I could’ve added more this week especially being that it’s a subject I feel for a lot. This song was tricky for me to get down well enough for my liking, but here it is anyway. Thanks again.

 

[hands_on_lanzon]

I initially wanted to try learn this as an instrumental, chord melody, fingerstyle or whatever the right term for that is... but it turns out, it's super fun to sing! Sometime ya just gotta let loose and belt... go a little crazy. We've had a buncha songs called Crazy or with the word crazy in it... well, here's one that hasn't been done yet, by Gnarls Barkley.

It's the HOME stretch (see what I did there?... referencing the next season *wink wink * nudge nudge). Get your final Season 629 songs in (fingers crossed for yours, @ukudancer ) and go sign up to host, if you can.

 

[Canada Jim]

MY DAD WORKED HARD - Rachael Kilgour

I think this one works for both 629 and 630. I just got an invite to a house concert next Saturday. The performer is Rachael Kilgour. I had never heard of her, so I looked up some of her YouTube clips and this was the second one I found. Check her out. She's brilliant.

 

[ukudancer]

My ears are burning! Hahaha. To be completely honest, I could have had this done 3 days ago as just a simple piano + ukulele duet, but it just kept calling for more. A guitar harmony part, then came the bass and then I decided to double the bass part with strings...I thought I was done there, but then I added the kick drums and some guitar power chords laced with some fuzz (I kinda buried it tho). I then added another set of strings (this time a 5th higher than the bass line). The last part I ended up recording was that little ascending piano line in the interlude / outro.

I also didn't feel like resolving to C since it felt like Barbie & Billie Eilish are both looking for a sense of belonging. There's definitely a lot of introspection & sadness on this song. It was really quite fun to dig into it. Even just from a musical standpoint, there's a LOT more going on than it's initial impression.

Anyway, I hope you guys like it.

 

[ukudancer]

I initially wanted to try learn this as an instrumental, chord melody, fingerstyle or whatever the right term for that is... but it turns out, it's super fun to sing! Sometime ya just gotta let loose and belt... go a little crazy. We've had a buncha songs called Crazy or with the word crazy in it... well, here's one that hasn't been done yet, by Gnarls Barkley.

It's the HOME stretch (see what I did there?... referencing the next season *wink wink * nudge nudge). Get your final Season 629 songs in (fingers crossed for yours, @ukudancer ) and go sign up to host, if you can.

This was actually the first song that popped into my head since the guy who inspired me to pick up a uke played this at a weekly jam at my hometown bar.

Here's a footage of UNRB playing Crazy at some function (you can only see the bass & sax, but the singer is playing a Pono electric uke through a bunch of effects). I LOVED this band. They usually took turns doing solos between the keys, sax & uke. The uke solo here actually quotes Ariana Grande's song Into You before they start trading solos with the sax player.

Gnarls Barkley - Crazy cover by UNRB

I also used to bring a bunch of dance partners to this jam and just dance all night long. These were the good old days for me.

Here's their cover of Rehab if you want to see his uke in action:

 

[hands_on_lanzon]

This was actually the first song that popped into my head since the guy who inspired me to pick up a uke played this at a weekly jam at my hometown bar.

Here's a footage of UNRB playing Crazy at some function (you can only see the bass & sax, but the singer is playing a Pono electric uke through a bunch of effects). I LOVED this band. They usually took turns doing solos between the keys, sax & uke. The uke solo here actually quotes Ariana Grande's song Into You before they start trading solos with the sax player.

Gnarls Barkley - Crazy cover by UNRB

I also used to bring a bunch of dance partners to this jam and just dance all night long. These were the good old days for me.

Here's their cover of Rehab if you want to see his uke in action:

I was kinda hoping to see some dancing in action!

 

[UkeCan1]

Oops ... I posted this video on YouTube hours ago for 629 + 630 ... and then forgot to post it here. It's 50 minutes late now, but I made it for you!

I'll edit in more info in a moment.

______________________________

This was the first song I thought of for a 629-630 twofer. It's a song about a home town with some residents of dubious mental health.

You can see why I didn't want to start 630 with it yesterday. There's a lot of cringy stuff here ... but I've done a good portion of the Tom Lehrer oeuvre, and haven't done this one before.

 

[ukudancer]

I was kinda hoping to see some dancing in action!

Ask and you shall receive!

Here's me as a baby dancer 7 years ago...Getting more comfortable with improvising, but still had much to learn. Live music is harder to dance to since you never know how much improvisation the musicians are going to do (and they do a lot with jazz & jam bands). It trained me to listen and follow the music (which is now coming in handy when you don't have a metronome and have to follow yourself playing a different instrument)

fixed

 

[hands_on_lanzon]

Ask and you shall receive!

Here's me as a baby dancer 7 years ago...Getting more comfortable with improvising, but still had much to learn. Live music is harder to dance to since you never know how much improvisation the musicians are going to do (and they do a lot with jazz & jam bands). It trained me to listen and follow the music (which is now coming in handy when you don't have a metronome and have to follow yourself playing a different instrument)

dance-y dance

awwww link doesn't seem to be working for me!

 

[hands_on_lanzon]

Hi All!! Hope you're all enjoying Berni's season 630 so far! I still have a few videos to watch and comment on before I come up with a wrap, hopefully later tonight.

In the meantime, here's one that I recorded as a season two'fer. Although it's not specifically about mental health, I discovered this song during the pandemic lockdowns, when I was going a little stir crazy. The song made me feel a little better about being stuck at home for so long. I included the lyrics to the first verse, where the state of the singers' mental health might warrant some attention, as he mentions numbness and might perhaps be dissociating or avoiding. I don't think it's actually what the song is about, but it's just a bit of what I felt as I heard it in lockdown. Those were the times, eh?!



It's 'This Must Be The Place' by the Talking Heads.

Home is where I want to be
Pick me up and turn me around
I feel numb, born with a weak heart
I guess I must be having fun
The less we say about it the better
Make it up as we go along
Feet on the ground, head in the sky
It's okay, I know nothing's wrong, nothing

 

[ukudancer]

^ you can do what you want. You're the host.

ps - the link is fixed. I think.
pps - Talking Heads is always a fun cover.

 

[hands_on_lanzon]

^ you can do what you want. You're the host.

ps - the link is fixed. I think.
pps - Talking Heads is always a fun cover.

sometimes I just need to convince myself that it's ok!

link's fixed and cutting that rug looks like a ton of fun!

 

[LimousinLil]

Thanks for a great week, Chris, with a really worthwhile theme ... you are a most excellent host!

 

[ukudancer]

+1 Chris. Thanks for the fun week.

link's fixed and cutting that rug looks like a ton of fun!

Dancing is always fun. I can't recommend it enough as it's such a great and sociable hobby. I honestly thought I had two left feet, but here I am 9 years later and I just added hip hop to my repertoire of Lindy Hop, Blues, Fusion and West Coast Swing. (I still need to properly learn Argentine Tango and the waltz).

 

[ukudancer]

Hi All!! Hope you're all enjoying Berni's season 630 so far! I still have a few videos to watch and comment on before I come up with a wrap, hopefully later tonight.

In the meantime, here's one that I recorded as a season two'fer. Although it's not specifically about mental health, I discovered this song during the pandemic lockdowns, when I was going a little stir crazy. The song made me feel a little better about being stuck at home for so long. I included the lyrics to the first verse, where the state of the singers' mental health might warrant some attention, as he mentions numbness and might perhaps be dissociating or avoiding. I don't think it's actually what the song is about, but it's just a bit of what I felt as I heard it in lockdown. Those were the times, eh?!

View attachment 168294

It's 'This Must Be The Place' by the Talking Heads.

Home is where I want to be
Pick me up and turn me around
I feel numb, born with a weak heart
I guess I must be having fun
The less we say about it the better
Make it up as we go along
Feet on the ground, head in the sky
It's okay, I know nothing's wrong, nothing

Add your own video to the playlist. If you put my Eilish cover as well, that would make for 99 videos.

That's a lot of songs to go through!

 

[hands_on_lanzon]

Starting to wrap things up... this will be over a few posts, so bear with me and imagine a long drumroll as you scroll quickly or study slowly. I should really be working, but instead I've decided to use my brainpower for the greater good.

• 44 Seasonistas submitted songs this week + a few guest Seasonistas who had videos submitted on their behalf (welcome back @Friesse, my secret vocalist slash favorite person in the entire world who's too shy and would rather remain nameless and faceless, all of Wendy's birds friends and open mic friends, and Jon's fam doing some gardening in a home video)
• For those of you still matching UUUsernames to real names to virtual faces, I've created the list below to help you feel a bit more at home* here in the Seasons. (*Season 630 plug )
• 99 Entries show up on the list I created below (table 1)
  • Somehow the YT Playlist shows 100 videos, but two unlisted and there's one IG entry counted in the list below (I don't have the brainpower to reconcile it)
  • Wendy's Open Mic entries included four songs each, so we definitely broke into 3 digits!

Table 1. Entry Info

Count	UU Name	Name	Song	Artist	Date
1​	hands_on_lanzon	Chris	HELP!	The Beatles	3/2​
2​	UkeCan1	Wendy	Leap Day The Bruce's Philosophers Drinking Song Crazy Little Thing Called Love Games People Play	Original Monty Python Queen Joe South	3/3​
3​	Charley B	Charley	Reefer Madness	Hawkulele	3/3​
4​	Canada Jim	Jim	Crazy	Pat Donohue, parody of Willie Nelson	3/3​
5​	Joo	Joo	Touch Me Someplace I Can Feel	John Callahan	3/3​
6​	Renaissance-Man	RM	Hurt	Johnny Cash	3/3​
7​	LimousinLil	Val	Walk on By	Dionne Warwick	3/3​
8​	wee_ginga_yin	Rob	A hell of a Duet	Charles Bukowski	3/3​
9​	mythinformed	Mark	Crazy	Patsy Cline	3/3​
10​	dr_mitch	Paul	I don't like Mondays	Boomtown Rats	3/3​
11​	AlanDP	Alan	Twisted	Wardell Gray and Annie Ross	3/3​
12​	mikelz777	Mikel/Scott?	I Built a Friend	Alec Benjamin	3/3​
13​	mountain goat	Jon	riches and wonders	Original	3/3​
14​	Flatbaroque	John	Paint it Black	The Rolling Stones	3/3​
15​	flyingroc	Roy	Lithium	Nirvana	3/3​
16​	mountain goat	Jon	the yellow leaf	original	3/3​
17​	UkeFoote	Brian	It's No Good Trying	Syd Barrett	3/3​
18​	mythinformed	Mark	Still Got the Blues	Gary Moore	3/3​
19​	LimousinLil	Val	Loving You Has Made Me Bananas	Guy Marks	3/4​
20​	wee_ginga_yin	Rob	My s**'s Fucked Up	Warren Zevon	3/4​
21​	Ms Bean	Sabine	La mamotte	Van Beethoven	3/4​
22​	TheOnlyUkeThatMatters	Ralf	O' Sanity	Yoko Ono	3/4​
23​	UkeCan1	Wendy	Neurodiversity (Matchmaker parody)	Original	3/4​
24​	hands_on_lanzon	Chris	I'll Stand By You	The Pretenders	3/4​
25​	good_uke_boy	GUB	Fire and Rain	James Taylor	3/4​
26​	Canada Jim	Jim	Crazy Lazy From Londonderry	Michael Smith	3/4​
27​	jtsteam	Edwin	Final Straw	Original	3/4​
28​	Canada Jim	Jim	The Dutchman	Michael Smith	3/4​
29​	Renaissance-Man	RM	Beautiful	Christina Aguilera	3/4​
30​	mountain goat	Jon	song for john berryman	Original	3/4​
31​	wee_ginga_yin	Rob	What they want	Charles Bukowski	3/4​
32​	wee_ginga_yin	Rob	What they want	Charles Bukowski	3/5​
33​	Flatbaroque	John	Mad World	Gary Jules version	3/5​
34​	hands_on_lanzon	Chris	Crazy for Uke (Parody)	Original	3/5​
35​	pabrizzer	Brian	my old friend the blues	Steve Earle	3/5​
36​	LimousinLil	Val	Vincent	Don McLean	3/5​
37​	One Man And His Uke	John	Like The Regent Benefiting From The Madness Of King George	Original	3/5​
38​	Joo	Joo	all my trials	Nick Drake	3/5​
39​	jtsteam	Edwin	Sit Down	James	3/5​
40​	jtsteam	Edwin	Overthinkers Anonymous	Original	3/5​
41​	Canada Jim	Jim	Bidin' My Time	Gene MacLellan	3/5​
42​	acharman	Andrew	Colorblind	Counting Crows	3/5​
43​	mythinformed	Mark	Downtown	Petula Clark	3/5​
44​	wee_ginga_yin	Rob	Love Will Tear Us Apart Again	Joy Division	3/5​
45​	hands_on_lanzon	Chris	Society	Eddie Vedder	3/6​
46​	LimousinLil	Val	ACUTE SCHIZOPHRENIA PARANOIA BLUES	The Kinks	3/6​
47​	redpaul1	Paul	Wish You Were Here	Pink Floyd	3/6​
48​	UkeCan1	Wendy	Brain Damage/Eclipse	Pink Floyd	3/6​
49​	ukukeguy	Robert	Thoughts of Mary Jane	Nick and Gabrielle Drake	3/6​
50​	mythinformed	Mark	The Long and Winding Road	The Beatles	3/6​
51​	jtsteam	Edwin	Better Reasons	Original	3/6​
52​	Threebird	Threebird	Mr. Bobb	Manu Chao	3/6​
53​	dr_mitch	Paul	Wild Man Blues	Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, Eddie Davis	3/6​
54​	mountain goat	Jon	lean-to	Original	3/6​
55​	acharman	Andrew	The Quiet Room	Alice Cooper	3/6​
56​	wee_ginga_yin	Rob	House on the Hill	Kevin Coyne	3/7​
57​	Barbalanca	Berni	Lost Hours	Original	3/7​
58​	One Man And His Uke	John	NOYFB	Original	3/7​
59​	joo	Joo	on Monday	Original	3/7​
60​	Joko	Joko	Crazy Mama	J.J. Cale	3/7​
61​	TheOnlyUkeThatMatters	Ralf	On Melancholy Hill	Gorillaz	3/7​
62​	Oldscruggsfan	OSF	You May Be Right	Billy Joel	3/7​
63​	CeeJay	CJ	Happy Days and Lonely Nights	Sellers and Milligan	3/7​
64​	mountain goat	Jon	poem for worn out lovers	Original	3/7​
65​	DelGriff	Del	I Wanna Be Sedated	Ramones	3/7​
66​	AlanDP	Alan	Crazy People	Boswell Sisters	3/7​
67​	CeeJay	CJ	Folsom Prison Blues	Johnny Cash	3/8​
68​	joo	Joo	I can't sleep	Original	3/8​
69​	YorkSteve	Steve	Madness	Prince Buster	3/8​
70​	Oldscruggsfan	OSF	The Merry Go Round Broke Down	Cliff Friend	3/8​
71​	mountain goat	Jon	Isaiah 45:23	Mountain Goats	3/8​
72​	hands_on_lanzon	Chris	One More Light	Linkin Park	3/8​
73​	joo	Joo	the voices in our heads	Original	3/8​
74​	Mezcalero	Kev	Starry Starry Night	Don McLean	3/8​
75​	TBB	Victoria	Le Cygne	Saint-Saëns	3/8​
76​	UkeCan1	Wendy	Brain Damage/Eclipse We're Not Gonna Take It Home, Country Roads Fool on the Hill Leap Day	Pink Floyd John Denver vs Twisted Sister The Beatles Original	3/9​
77​	UkeCan1	Wendy	So Long, Farewell	The Sound of Music	3/9​
78​	wee_ginga_yin	Rob	Mad World	Tears for Fears	3/9​
79​	mikeinmontara	Mike			3/9​
80​	xommen	Wim	Crazy	Seal	3/9​
81​	ChaosLibrarian	Marin	Fired My Therapist	Madelline	3/9​
82​	flyingroc	Roy	Hurt	Nine Inch Nails	3/9​
83​	TCK	TCK	Paranoid	Black Sabbath	3/9​
84​	TCK	TCK	Madness	Prince Buster	3/9​
85​	TCK	TCK	Valerie	Amy Winehouse	3/9​
86​	Canada Jim	Jim	We were Kind of Crazy Then	Susanna Clark	3/9​
87​	Mezcalero & Friesse	Kev & Jasmine Fellows	Across the Universe	The Beatles	3/10​
88​	UkeCan1	Wendy	You're My Home	Billy Joel	3/10​
89​	wee_ginga_yin	Rob	Crazy	Patsy Cline	3/10​
90​	Bystander		Help!	The Beatles	3/10​
91​	kolibri	Ylle	I'm Going Slightly Mad	Queen	3/10​
92​	dr_mitch	Paul	All the Young Dudes	Mott the Hoople	3/10​
93​	OiNumiDellArpa		chi desia di saper	Francesca Caccini	3/10​
94​	YooperGirl	Tanya	Unwell	Matchbox Twenty	3/10​
95​	hands_on_lanzon	Chris	Crazy	Gnarles Barkley	3/10​
96​	Canada Jim	Jim	My Dad Worked Hard	Rachael Kilgour	3/10​
97​	ukudancer	Arvin	What I Was Made For	Billie Eilish	3/10​
98​	UkeCan1	Wendy	My Home Town	Tom Lehrer	3/11​
99​	hands_on_lanzon	Chris	This Must Be The Place	Talking Heads	3/11​

Seven songwriters submitted 17 originals.

Table 2. SOTU 629 Originals

UU Name	Name	Song
UkeCan1	Wendy	Leap Day
mountain goat	Jon	riches and wonders
mountain goat	Jon	the yellow leaf
UkeCan1	Wendy	Neurodiversity (Matchmaker parody)
jtsteam	Edwin	Final Straw
mountain goat	Jon	song for john berryman
hands_on_lanzon	Chris	Crazy for Uke (Parody)
One Man And His Uke	John	Like The Regent Benefiting From The Madness Of King George
jtsteam	Edwin	Overthinkers Anonymous
jtsteam	Edwin	Better Reasons
mountain goat	Jon	lean-to
Barbalanca	Berni	Lost Hours
One Man And His Uke	John	NOYFB
joo	Joo	on Monday
mountain goat	Jon	poem for worn out lovers
joo	Joo	I can't sleep
joo	Joo	the voices in our heads

Rob led the way with 8 entries, Wendy led the way with 13 songs in 7 entries (if my math is correct), followed by your host (me), Jon and Jim rounding out the top 3 submitters.

Table 3. Entry Count

UU Name	Entry Count
wee_ginga_yin	8
UkeCan1	7
hands_on_lanzon	7
mountain goat	6
Canada Jim	6
Joo	5
LimousinLil	4
mythinformed	4
jtsteam	4
dr_mitch	3
TCK	3
Flatbaroque	2
TheOnlyUkeThatMatters	2
Renaissance-Man	2
flyingroc	2
AlanDP	2
CeeJay	2
One Man And His Uke	2
Oldscruggsfan	2
acharman	2
xommen	1
good_uke_boy	1
Bystander	1
ukudancer	1
ukukeguy	1
DelGriff	1
mikelz777	1
Joko	1
OiNumiDellArpa	1
Barbalanca	1
UkeFoote	1
pabrizzer	1
mikeinmontara	1
redpaul1	1
YorkSteve	1
ChaosLibrarian	1
Mezcalero & Friesse	1
TBB	1
kolibri	1
Charley B	1
YooperGirl	1
Threebird	1
Mezcalero	1
Ms Bean	1
Grand Total	99