The Town I Loved So Well – The Dubliners

I was listening to the new Dexys album yesterday. “Let the Record Show: Dexys Do Irish and Country Soul” is a covers album with a loose Irish theme (loose in that it includes Rod Stewart and Joni Mitchell songs!). But it also includes a wonderful version of this gem, a song I loved but had almost forgotten about.

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The Town I Loved So Well comes from an unlikely source. Songwriter Phil Coulter was a professional musician, songwriter and arranger, responsible (amongst other things) for two Eurovision smashes (Puppet On A String, and Congratulations) as well as the England 1970 football squad’s Back Home, and the Bay City Rollers Shang-A-Lang. But away from the commercial focus of thos 60s and 70s pop hits, Coulter also indulged his love of Irish folk music, working with the likes of Planxty and The Dubliners. It was for the latter that he wrote this beautiful song.

Based on Coulter’s upbringing in Derry, Northern Ireland, the first three verses reflect on childhood memories of the two that he grew up in. But it is the juxtaposition of those verses with the final two which really gives the song it’s power. For in those verses he reflects on how all of that has been destroyed by the unrest and violence that gripped Northern Ireland during the last 60s and early 70s. Derry was the scene of the Bloody Sunday massacres, and much more deadly sectarian violence beside. And so the song is a lament for a lost innocence, and a forlorn reflection on what that violence has done to the place he loved.

And so the songsheet. Nothing tricky here, just four chords, for the most part straightforward timing. You can thrown a few Gsus4 chords in at the end of some of the lines, but it’s best kept simple. Sounds lovely when picked as well. Enjoy!

Old England – The Waterboys

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Evening has fallen
The swans are singing
The last of sunday’s bells is ringing
The wind in the trees is sighing
and old England is dying

 

 

UkeTunes Songbook – The 60s and 70s

When I published the last update to the UkeTunes songbook, there was a suggestion from Mike DiCamillo for a 1970s songbook to sit alongside the 1980s one. Seemed a good idea, so here it is.

EXCEPT. I decided to extend it to a 60s and 70s songbook – it seemed to feel like a logical thing to do, and I think those songs sit well together.

So here’s a collection of over 40 songs from that period, running the full gamut from crooning to punk, with a bit of reggae, psychedelia, country, soul, pop and rock along the way.

As ever, please feel free to onward share and use as you wish.

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One Little Song – Gillian Welch

Looking back it’s been over 18 months since I posted a Gillian Welch song on here. So it seemed time to rectify that.

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So this morning this little ditty popped up whilst the iPod was playing on shuffle. And I thought, “that’s nice” and “that would work on the ukulele”. So this evening I gave it a try. And I was right – it does work.

This is the third song from 2003’s Soul Journey album that I’ve posted on here (see also Look At Miss Ohio and No One Knows My Name). Which is odd, because as I said previously that album is probably my least favourite of her albums (which doesn’t mean it’s bad, it just means that Gillian sets the bar *so* high). But in contrast to the fuller band sound of a number of the tracks, One Little Song is stripped back to the very basics – just haunting vocals and picked guitar. It is a brief but not inconsequential tune that is seemingly born of a struggle to write a new tune (Welch sets herself high standards, and has commented that songwriting can be a struggle, something that contributed to the 8 year gap between Soul Journey and it’s follow-up, The Harrow and the Harvest).

And here’s the songsheet. Nothing too complicated as far as the chords are concerned, although there are a number of barre chords in there. I’ve added in an Asus4 for the intro, and you can throw a few of those into the first couple of lines of the verses if you wish, to give it a bit more colour. Oh, and this is definitely one to try picking if you can – its not really a strummer. Enjoy!

Bonny – Prefab Sprout

Not only is Steve McQueen one of the albums of the 1980s, I would argue that it is one of the albums of all-time.

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Not that this seems to be a universally held truth. Despite a lot of love for it, it only manages to scrape in at number 434 on the NME list of the best 500 albums ever. And doesn’t appear at all on the equivalent Rolling Stone list. But in this case I can safely say that they are both wrong. Steve McQueen, the second album from Paddy McAloon and his erstwhile band Prefab Sprout, was/is pure genius.

Musically sophisticated  yet still totally accessible, lyrically witty whilst still emotionally resonant, melodies to die for, all given a superb pop sheen by producer Thomas Dolby. Oh, and the angelic backing vocals of Wendy Smith are (more than just) the icing on the cake.

From the opening meta-country of “Faron Young” (a country-tinged song taking “Four In The Morning” as its emotional reference point ) the standard is set. Side One then ploughs a furrow that, to my mind, is not excelled anywhere in pop music – Bonny, Appetite, When Love Breaks Down (released at least three times, and still only charting at #25!), Goodbye Lucille #1 (otherwise known as Johnny Johnny), Hallelujah (*not* the Leonard Cohen song!). And if Side Two is somehow less than the first, it is only because of the insanely high standards that have already been set – Moving The River, Horsin’ Around, Desire As, Blueberry Pies, When The Angels. Pure pop perfection in one single package.

Nobody could keep up that standard forever, but McAloon and Co. certainly didn’t let that stop them trying. Official follow-up From Langley Park To Memphis, the sprawling, ambitious, vaguely conceptual (Love, God, Elvis, Death!) Jordan: The Comeback, the more low-key Andromeda Heights, and the surprise solo (but still using the Prefab moniker) Crimson/Red all flew the flag for perfect, sophisticated pop (and McQueen’s predecessor, the slightly prickly Swoon, would be up there too). Yet Steve McQueen acts as a high water mark for just how perfect perfect pop can be.

So here is Bonny, a lyrically ambiguous tome (is it about a girl that’s left him, or a man that’s died) that is a perfect representation of the Steve McQueen sound. It was later covered very successfully in a more reflective, slowed down version by Editors (who – coincidence or not – were on the same record label – Newcastle-based Kitchenware – as the Prefab’s, at the time a veritable feast of goodness with stablemates including Hurrah!, Kane Gang and Martin Stephenson and the Daintees).

So can we do justice to this marvellous song on the ukulele? Probably not, but that won’t stop me or you trying. So here’s the songsheet. If it looks a little busy, don’t worry. Listen to the song, particularly the intro, to get the strumming pattern going which you can keeping going throughout the song. Some of the transition chords are very brief (e.g. the Asus4 at the beginning of the chorus lines, the A’s at the end of those lines, and all the Bm7’s) and could be skipped if you struggle with timing. But they do add to the colouring of the song. If in doubt at any time, just resort to that gorgeous major 7 chord! Enjoy!

UkeTunes Songbooks – Edition 2 is here!!!

It’s what the ukulele world hasn’t been waiting for! Its just over a year now since I first compiled and published the UkeTunes songbook. And judging by the number of downloads it looks like something that some people have appreciated. So I thought I’d give them an update to incorporate all of the songs that I’ve put on this site since then. And here it is.

As well as sweeping up all of the songs published on this site to date, I’ve also taken the opportunity to incorporate a number of other songs that I’d worked on but never got round to uploading onto the site (I’ll get round to publishing them as single sheets somewhen soon).

So there’s 37 new songs in total, pushing the main songbook to over 110 songs. Continuing the eclectic nature of the site, those new songs range from 1920s blues, smatterings of country, 1990s britpop and dance to One Direction. With the usual healthy smattering of the best of the 80s for good measure.

Not content with one songbook, though, I’ve compiled this into three books:

• UkeTunes Songbook, Edition 2. This is the full song book, with all the songs in.
• UkeTunes Songbook, Volume 2. This contains just the new songs, so supplements the original songbook (Volume 1).
• UkeTunes 80s Songbook, Edition 2. An update to the previous edition, containing all of the 1980s songs that have been published here.

As before, please feel free to onward share and use as you wish.

For reference, the full set of new songs is as follows (links are to individual song sheets for each song):

• Baby what you want me to do
• Backwater blues
• Brass buttons
• Dancing with myself
• Don’t let it trouble your mind
• Don’t stop believin’
• Down in the subway
• Feeling good
• Georgia on my mind
• Get it right next time
• Happy hour
• He’s on the phone
• History
• In my hour of darkness
• Let’s dance
• Lightning bolt
• Lyin’ eyes
• Mad world
• Missing
• Moon river
• My zero
• Ode to billy joe
• Rainbow connection
• Rock ‘n’ roll star
• Save a prayer
• Sunshine superman
• Take a chance with me
• Tempted
• The great dominions
• Thinking out loud
• Together in electric dreams
• Walk on by
• What!
• Whistle down the wind
• Worrisome heart
• You and me song
• Your love is king

 

 

 

He’s On The Phone – Saint Etienne

By the 1990s I’d started to lose track of contemporary pop music. Much of the dance scene that dominated the charts didn’t really interest me, and my focus was veering towards more country, folk and singer-songwriter sounds. As a result Saint Etienne passed me by.

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Which was a shame really. Because here was a band who combined a classic pop sensibility with a very british outlook, and blended that with facets of the contemporary dance sound. And in the process created a quite special and unique vibe that gave dance music genuine songs with a knowing, melodic twist. Over the years the more overt dance sounds became less prominent as their sound matured, but that mindset still pervaded their work. Songs took on my grown-up themes (although they also recorded a set of children’s songs as well!), reaching – to my mind – a peak in the truly extraordinary Teenage Winter.

He’s On The Phone was the bands biggest hit. The song was a reworking of a “Week-end à Rome”, a previous collaboration with French singer Etienne Daho. Introduced by a simple descending piano riff, the song powers along on a pulsating dance beat and tells the story of a hotel-based liaison between a young academic girl and a married man.

So not obvious material for a ukulele cover, clearly. But I think this works quite well. There’s a few unusual chords in there, and the Bsus4 to Bm transition may be a bit tricky to start with. But generally this shouldn’t be too tricky to pick up. I’ve also included the tab for that piano riff as well, which happens at the beginning of the song and then appears at various stages throughout. Give it a go. And enjoy!