Song Lyric Sunday 29/12/2019 – Crazy

Thank you to Jim Adams, who hosts Song Lyric Sunday and gives us the chance to share lots of familiar, and some not so familiar, songs.

If you fancy sharing one of your favourite songs you can find out how to participate, and also listen to all the great entries, here.

Well, it’s a crazy old world, and that crazy time of the year between Christmas and New Year. Crazy is the theme for this week and it’s crazy just how many songs there are that have crazy in the title, never mind the lyrics. There are also groups such as The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, who you’ve probably never heard of. They existed only from 1967 to 1970, complete with flaming head and nudity on stage, and then reformed in 2000 and are, apparently, still performing!

However, I’m not offering you Arthur Brown. Instead, I’m going back to a song released in May 1956 which was a career making hit for Ray Price. “Crazy Arms“ is an American country song which was first published in 1949 by pedal steel player Ralph Mooney and Charles “Chuck” Seals, although it was probably written by Paul Gilley of Kentucky, who worked as a ghost writer for various artists including Hank Williams.

The strength of a song can often be measured by the number of covers that are made by well known singers. “Crazy Arms” has been covered many times by performers both in country music and other genres. Some of the more notable names include Marion Worth, Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong, Chuck Berry, the Andrews Sisters, Gram Parsons, Patsy Cline, Waylon Jennings, Trini Lopez, Mickey Gilley, Great Speckled Bird, Willie Nelson, Patty Loveless, Jerry Lee Lewis, Marie Osmond, and the Jerry Garcia Band.  In 2000 Van Morrison and Linda Gail Lewis performed the song on their album You Win Again. Linda Ronstadt recorded a cover for her 1971 album, and Marty Stuart recorded an instrumental version with Mooney on his 2010 album Ghost Train: The Studio B Sessions.

You can hear some of these versions by clicking the link on the name, and here is the Ray Price version, although very poor quality video!

Crazy Arms

Now blue ain’t the word for the way that I feel
And a storm is brewing in this heart of mine
This ain’t no crazy dream I know that’s it real
You’re someone else’s love now, you’re not mine

Crazy arms that reach to hold somebody new
But my yearning heart keeps saying you’re not mine
My troubled mind knows soon to another you’ll be wed
That’s why I’m lonely all the time

Please take these treasured dreams I had for you and me
And take all the love I thought was mine
Someday my crazy arms will hold somebody new
But right now I’m so lonesome I could die

Crazy arms that reach to hold somebody new
But my yearning heart keeps saying you’re not mine
My troubled mind knows soon to another you’ll be wed
You’re someone else’s love now, you’re not mine
Well you’re someone else’s love now, you’re not mine

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Chuck Seals / Ralph Eugene Mooney

Crazy Arms lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

Song Lyric Sunday 20/10/2019 – Lean /Sit /Stand

Thank you to Jim Adams, who hosts Song Lyric Sunday and gives us the chance to share lots of familiar, and some not so familiar, songs.

If you fancy sharing one of your favourite songs you can find out how to participate, and also listen to all the great entries, here.

This week I’m not going to sit on the fence. I am leaning towards STAND with the song Don’t Stand So Close To Me by The Police.

Sting, the lead singer of the The Police, attended St Cuthbert’s Grammar School in Newcastle upon Tyne. As a young man he visited nightclubs, such as Club A’Gogo, to see all the groups he could, including Cream and Manfred Mann, who influenced his music.  After working as  a bus conductor, a building labourer and a tax officer, he attended Northern Counties College of Education (now Northumbria University) from 1971 to 1974 and qualified as a teacher.  He taught at St Paul’s First School in Cramlington for two years.

At night he performed jazz with The Phoenix Jazzmen, Newcastle Big Band, and Last Exit. It was whilst playing with the Phoenix Jazzmen, wearing a black and yellow hooped sweater, that he gained the name Sting.

He no doubt experienced situations, whilst teaching, that mirror the words in the song. It must be incredibly difficult for all young teachers to manage situations in schools where the hormones of youth are working overtime. The reference to Nabokov, at the end of the song, refers to the novel he was most famous for, Lolita!

Without further ado here is Don’t Stand So Close To Me. I hope you enjoy it!

Don’t Stand So Close to Me

The Police

Young teacher the subject
Of schoolgirl fantasy
She wants him so badly
Knows what she wants to be
Inside her there’s no room
This girl’s an open page
Book marking she’s so close now
This girl is half his age

Don’t stand so close to me
Her friends are so jealous
You know how bad girls get
Sometimes it’s not so easy
To be the teacher’s pet
Temptation, frustration
So bad it makes him cry
Wet bus stop, she’s waiting
His car is warm and dry

Don’t stand so close to me
Loose talk in the classroom
To hurt they try and try
Strong words in the staffroom
The accusations fly
It’s no use
He sees her
He starts to shake and cough
Just like the old man in
That book by Nabakov

Don’t stand so close to me

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Gordon Sumner

Don’t Stand So Close to Me lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

Song Lyric Sunday 15/09/2019 – House of Four Doors – The Moody Blues

Facebook has just reminded me that it is 55 years to the day since I left home to start my army career. It has nothing to do with SLS, apart from the fact that a lot of my musical influences stem from that time.

Thank you to Jim Adams, who hosts Song Lyric Sunday and gives us the chance to share lots of familiar, and some not so familiar, songs.

If you fancy sharing one of your favourite songs you can find out how to participate, and also listen to all the great entries, here.

This week Jim has given us the following to work with: Floor/House/Roof/Walls.

My immediate thoughts turned to:

Another Brick in The Wall by Pink Floyd

House of the Rising Sun by The Animals

Up on the roof by dozens of singers,

and then I thought of “Madness” who seemed to make a habit of singing about houses, for example House of Fun, Our House, and, although the title doesn’t fit in with the theme, Kitchen Floor. Whatever can they be singing about here?

I’m not going for any of these. Instead I have chosen a Moody Blues song from In Search of the Lost Chord, their 1968 concept album based around a broad theme of quest and discovery.

On this album they played all instruments themselves (approximately 33). Indian instruments such as the sitar (played by guitarist Justin Hayward), the tambura (played by keyboardist Mike Pinder) and the tabla (played by drummer and percussionist Graeme Edge) can be heard on several tracks (notably “Departure”, “Visions of Paradise” and “Om”). Other unconventional (for the Moodies) instruments were also used, notably the oboe (played by percussionist/flute player Ray Thomas) and the cello (played by bassist John Lodge, who tuned it as a bass guitar). The mellotron, played by Pinder, produced many string and horn embellishments. (Thank you wikipedia)

I think that this album shows off their amazing musical talents more than any of their other work does. The video is also typical of all their performances in front of a camera. They always seem very awkward, as if they would much prefer to be unseen, but just get on making music.

See what you think.

House of Four Doors

The Moody Blues

Mystery spread it’s cloak
Across the sky
We’d lost our way
Shadows fell from trees
They knew why
Then through the leaves a light broke through
A path lost for years lead us through

House of four doors
I could live there forever
House of four doors
Would it be there forever?

Loneliness, the face of pilgrims eyes was known
As the door opened wide

Beauty they had found before my eyes to see
To the next door we came

Love of music showed in everything we heard
Through the third door where are we?

Enter in all ye who seek to find within
As the plaque said on the last door

Walking through that door
Outside we came nowhere at all
Perhaps the answers here
Not there anymore

Then in our hearts the light broke through
A path lost for years is there in view

House of four doors
You’ll be lost now forever
House of four doors
Rest of life’s life forever

House of four doors
You’ll be lost now forever
House of four doors

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: John Lodge

House of Four Doors lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc

 

Smile time #2

Well, I didn’t expect to be back so soon with this, but I so enjoyed the first Smile time that I had to discover just where those children lived.

They are from Podersdorf am See, a small market town in Austria with a population of only about 2,500. They are very near to the Slovakia and Hungary borders, so my guess at East European was pretty accurate.

They have what appears to be a fantastic primary school with a fine musical tradition, and here they are, with my Smile time #2, singing “Good Morning, Did you sleep well? I love the anticipation of the percussionists!

Smile time #1

There are many things in life that make me smile, and I like to smile! It is so much easier than frowning, or grimacing.

I have decided to, occasionally, pass things on that I happen across that  have made me smile. The first is something that I included in a comment on Colleen Brown’s lovely blog, The Chatter Blog. If you’ve never read any of Colleen’s words, or seen her delightful drawings, I can guarantee that you will find many a smile amongst her wise words and insightful sketches.

So, without further ado, here is my very first Smile time! The Ging Gang Goolie song.

It’s a gibberish song, widely spread around the world and popular among Scouts and Girl Guides as a campfire “round”. Originally Scandinavian. Sounds as though these are East European children. I bet you smiled!