Sunday 13 March 2016

Song A Week 2016 - Look In Yer Heart

I didn't do a song last week and man, the outcry!  Wow.  The reason was that last week's song was destined to be a remix of a Grampa Big Balls recording titled Tip Of A Red Hot Penis that I made some years ago   Remixing?  A breeze. All fine and dandy.  Then I started making the video for the sound piece, comprised of thousands of stills, each displayed anywhere from .11 of a second to .22 of a second.   The collection of images alone has been a time consuming process and when I finally got to making the video, it took me 8 hours to make one minute and forty seconds of video....for a six minute noise piece.

So it has become apparent that that particular piece will be an ongoing work and I figured I'd better get back on the horse.  Before the horse keeled over and drowned in a ditch.  I've been singing this number from the past and decided to give it a whirl......a reboot of an old Dogbreath Brothers song, Look In Yer Heart.


Funny how a song changes through the lens of twenty years.  Here it is.  
And yah, that's Jerome presiding over the recording.


  
Look In Yer Heart
words and music by David P. Smith

Don't go lookin for yourself in a bottle
you'll just crash and burn
you won't find yourself in a reefer
when will you ever learn
You ain't funny when you're wasted
you don't talk too smart
Next time you go lookin for yourself
try lookin in yer heart

I'll throw you down
to the ground
kick you in the back
kick you 'til you hork and hack
and cough up your soul so black

You see yourself in the TV
but it ain't really you
Don't go lookin in some magazine
to tell you what to do
You don't need no gurus
them fellas don't talk so smart
Next time you go lookin for yourself
try lookin in your heart

I'll pick you up by the collar
and give your head a slap
don't give me no backtalk
I'm tired of your crap

You can check out the Dogbreath Brothers version here:     Look In Yer Heart  

Tuesday 1 March 2016

Song A week 2016 - New Blues #2 - Funeral Blues - Live with The Ape Shit Army - February 26, 2016



The last two weekends have been spent doing gigs with my current band, The Ape Shit Army.   It's been nourishing and stimulating to practice and play regularly with this group of musicians:  Dan Weisenberger on guitar, Jody Johnson on upright bass, and Rad Juli on drums.  Sometimes entertainment juggernaut Hank Pine joins us for some apocalyptic cello licks, as he does on this recording. We are supplemented vocally at times by Jeanne Tolmie, Ana Bon Bon, and Betty-Ann Lampman.  This shit is fun.

The skeleton of this song was born and documented on Song A Week 2012. I wrote it as an "introductory song" for a songwriting workshop I was attending as a lead up to Arts Wells.  At that time it was New Blues #3....somewhere along the road of rehearsing and recording it became #2 and #3 became #2.  Likely, you don't care about these trivial details.  But dammit that's the meaningless crap I obsess about.  


Since it debuted here as a little baby song in a shitty disposable diaper, it's grown some balls.
This version was recorded live at Solstice Cafe in Victoria, BC,  Friday night on my zoom mic. Tonight I messed around with random video clips I've accumulated on my phone and Frankensteined together a "video" to provide visual stimulus.

 

Funeral Blues
Words and music by David P. Smith

I emote with icons
stumbling down the passage of time
with two thin dimes on my feet
silver dollars in my sockets
draped in a cool white sheet
I could see the storm a-rising
as I rolled on round the bend
I was thinking about the funerals
I've been planning to attend
in my cum-stained pants
my curly hair shirt
in my wagon of woe
dragging a world of hurt
with a sack of blood
a bottle of dirt
Lightning struck the cruise ship
it shattered like a pomegranate
and I clung to two hearts that keep me anchored on this planet

Chorus

Sightless and speechless
a maggot wriggles in the muck
contemplates the vagaries of old Lady Luck
Is a bum hand better
than no hand at all?
It it best to grovel in shit
or to climb up and risk the fall
Sun pierced through the clouds
a heavenly sword of wrath
and I said to the maggot
Yo maggot do the math

Chorus

I could see the storm a-rising
as I rolled on round the bend
I was thinking about my funeral
and who might attend
the haters
the lovers
my sisters
and brothers
Stars rained from the sky
tiny daggers in the night
and I said to myself hey Davey boy
it's fight or flight
it's fight or flight
it's fight or flight

Chorus





Monday 22 February 2016

Song A Week 2016 - The Drunken Fool - February 22, 2016


Here's a little hillbilly number I wrote some time back that doesn't see the light of day too much.

The Drunken Fool
words and music by David P. Smith

Outside my bedroom window
there's an old old weeping willow
while I sleep he steals my dreams
and spills them on my pillow
When I wake in the morning
with my emptied out old head
it takes me an hour or two
to figure out I ain't dead

Now my heart likes to bellow
from inside his bloody cave
I pay no attention
I know not what he craves
I just get up in the morning
watch clocks go round and round
while I walk around in circles
in this two bit tinkle town

I got no stories to tell
just episodes and incidents
an odd twist of fate an outburst
an empty coincidence

And I got no songs to sing
was never good with dirty jokes
when it comes to witty repartee
I don't have a hope
I'm irritated and quickly bored
by the monkeys and the mules
but if you ply me with your whiskey
I'll play the drunken fool

Sunday 14 February 2016

Song A Week 2016 - My Heart and My Head (Reboot) - February 14, 2016

The song a week blog I did in 2012 provided a catalyst at the time to write some new songs.  I was playing a lot of music with Rachelle Reath, but I didn't have a regular band so to speak and wasn't gigging much.  Maybe that's the reason a bunch of those songs just fell off the radar.  Or maybe they just sucked. Time will tell.  Whatever, this is one of those songs.  

Written in 2012, Rachelle and I recorded it for the blog in 2012 and we performed it maybe two or three times.  I've changed the feel, put it in a different key, and tweaked one of those lyrics.  The particular line I changed had been a thorn in the side.....one of those lines that comes quickly, is an easy rhyme, and is sort of like a punch line.....but ultimately is weak.  Now it's better.

So here it is....Happy Valentine's Day.



My Heart and My Head 
words and music by David P. Smith

My heart pumps blood
through my scrambled veins
My heart is like a machine
machines don't feel pain
My heart
my heart 
my heart
and my head

My head is a vessel of bone
it contains my brain
My brain is like a machine
machines don't feel pain
Machines don't dream
they don't hope or aspire
They just do their jobs
that's how they're wired
My head
my head
my head
and my heart

My heart is not a metaphor
for courage, strength, or love
so please do not speak of these things
you know not what you speak of

My heart is a muscle
a muscle that is strong
It is the pulse it is the engine
to my life and to my song
My heart
my heart 
my heart
oh my heart
My heart
my heart 
my heart
oh my heart









Monday 8 February 2016

Song A Week 2016 - Picture of Me with Aaron Ellingsen and Jeanne Tolmie

One of the best things about doing this blog is using it as a catalyst to get together with friends and see what happens. Aaron Ellingsen, Jeanne Tolmie and I are frequent collaborators and it was fun and interesting to get together and have a run at this song.

Picture of Me
is a song I wrote a few years back that will be released on my upcoming album New Blues.  The studio version is a pretty cool stripped down arrangement - just accordion, Marek Tyler on drums, and my daughter Chloe Lampman singing backups.  This version - which we jammed out and recorded in about an hour or so - has a Cajun folkey feel thanks to Aaron Ellingsen's fiddle arrangement



 Picture of Me 

Do you remember that picture of me in a wheat field with that lean brown dog
his hound dog dink was lipstick pink and a red-tail hawk flew over and gave us a wink
And the Alberta sky was as blue as the Aegean Sea
do you remember 
remember that picture of me
And the Alberta sky was as blue as the Aegean Sea
will you remember
will you remember me
And a great long soft white cloud like a feather
stretched across the sky
And it was two hours and twenty-five minutes
before I said good-bye

Do you remember 
do you remember that picture of me
will you remember 
will you remember me
Do you remember 
do you remember that picture of me
will you remember 
will you remember me

Do you remember that picture of me in the bright white light with a galloping horse
my eyes were two black holes
portals to an underworld hotel
where the menacing ceilings hover over cold cold beds
like conquering aliens from the darkness over head
and dirty curtains guard the windows where we sleep
will you remember
will you remember me
And a thick soft swollen grey cloud like the belly of a whale 
filled the sky
And it was twenty-two years twenty two days
two hours and twenty-five minutes
after I said good-bye

Do you remember 
do you remember that picture of me
will you remember 
will you remember me
Do you remember 
do you remember that picture of me
will you remember 
will you remember me

Sunday 31 January 2016

Song A Week 2016 - Seasons (Future Islands Cover) - January 30, 2016

In the fall of 2014 I became obsessed with this song by the band Future Islands and in particular with this version of the song on the David Letterman show.  Not only is the performance riveting, Letterman's reaction is worth the watch

Summer 2015 I just wanted to learn to play it myself.  With some assistance from my musically-smarter-than-me daughter Chloe, I worked up a version on the accordion and quickly became obsessed with playing it. It is a really beautiful pop song.  We're working up a version with my band The Ape Shit Army that we'll be playing at our upcoming shows in February. 

Here is a version of the song I recorded on my phone one night in December. 

 The official video for the song is little bizarre.  Cowboys, rodeos, couples on horses, pickup trucks....I almost suspect it is a deconstructive anti-video.......comments?


Seasons

Seasons change
and I tried hard just to soften you
seasons change
I grew tired of trying to change for you
And I've been waiting on you
I've been waiting on you
I've been waiting on you
I've been waiting on you

When it breaks
the summer will wake
and the winter will wash away the tears
When it breaks
the summer will warm
and the winter will crave what is gone
crave what is all gone away

People change
but some people never do
and when people change
they gain a peace but they lose one too
And I've been waiting on you
I've been waiting on you
 I've been waiting on you
I've been waiting on you

****Stardate Feb 1/2016:  finding lyrics on the Future Islands website today I see that where I sing "...wash away the tears...." the actual lyric is ".....wash away the taste...."   

And here's the gig posters for our upcoming shows in Nanaimo, Powell River, Victoria, and Vancouver.








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Monday 25 January 2016

Song A Week 2016 - Why Don't You Do Right - January 24, 2016

Not so long ago after I left home, let's say circa 1980, I went through my parents' records and recorded to cassette anything that seemed remotely interesting.  One song I recorded - from Reader's Digest Million Dollar Memories - was Peggy Lee's version of Why Don't You Do Right with the Benny Goodman Orchestra. Loved that shit.

Fast forward about 30 years, Sarah Rhude and I were talking potential collaborations and Dan Weisenberger is spinning the vinyl at a swinging post-gig loft party.  One slab of vinyl was Lil Green's dynamite original take of the song, a favourite of Sarah's.  Bingo! There's our collaboration.

Well not quite Bingo yet. Fast forward another couple of years to the here and now.  A great benefit of ye olde blog is it acts both as a catalyst and provides purpose to get together with friends and make music. Rhudey and I are chatting about playing some music together, my brain snaps into blog production mode;  Rachelle Reath and I have been talking about playing and have a long history of collaborating - in The Euphorians, as a duo, and numerous occasions the last time I was song-a-week-ing........OK, this time:  Bingo!  For real.  Rhudey, Rachelle, and me.   Here's our version of Why Don't You Do Right, recorded in Rachelle's living room.


Why Don't You Do Right is generally accepted as a reworking of the song Weed Smoker's Dream, recorded in 1936 by The Harlem Hamfats and credited to piano player Joe McCoy.  There is some dispute over that credit as there is over the writing credit of Why Don't You Do Right.  While official credit is given to McCoy for re-working the song into a classic woman's blues number, others see the song as thematically and narratively distinct and believe Lil Green penned her own version. The Lil Green recording of the song was one of Peggy Lee's favourite records.  Here she is.....Lil Green!



In a 1984 interview Peggy Lee said "I was and am a fan of Lil Green, a great old blues singer, and Lil recorded it.  I used to play that record over and over in my dressing room, which was next door to Benny.  Finally he said, ' You obviously like that song.'  I said, 'Oh, I love it.' He said 'Would you like me to have arrangement made of it?' I said 'I'd love that,' and he did."   Here's Peggy Lee live with the Benny Goodman Orchestra.  




And here's a hipper take of it recorded later....Peggy Lee with Dave Barbour and his Band







To write this blog, I referenced Wikipedia and a fascinating article about Peggy Lee written by Ivan Santiago-Mercado.  You can check that article out here The Peggy Lee Bio-Discography And Videography: Observations About The Song "Why Don't You Do Right?"  


And in closing.....Weed Smoker's Dream - Harlem Hamfats





Monday 18 January 2016

Song A Week 2016 - #2 - New Blues # 5: Walkin' Talkin' Blues - 1/18/2016

 When I was eighteen years old my brother gave me a Muddy Waters record, Hard Again, and I was on my way to being a blues junkie. Through that decade I saw iconic figures perform -  Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, John Lee Hooker, Albert King, Koko Taylor, Albert Collins - hung out at the King Eddy in Calgary where many great players and bands passed through, and made two pilgrimages to Chicago specifically to soak up the blues.

When I started performing and then writing music, country and hillbilly were my prime influences, blues for white people I've always thought of it.  As I kept playing and writing my music became less specifically referential and began to incorporate prose writing into song form.  Songs became lyrically dense and irregular in structure.  Unblues-like.  

I have always been in awe of the power the writing in blues and country music achieves quite economically.  The ability to express deep human emotions and experiences in a few words, a simple phrase, can ultimately be the most moving and evocative.  In  2011, after a period of these dense , irregular songs - like Bouncy Castles which you can find elsewhere on this blog - I became interested in re-examining blues forms.

After a bleakly alienating Halloween party I attended in Chinatown where I had sunk to new depths of  drunken dysfunction and suffered the physical and psychic toll, I wrote New Blues #1 - Whiskey Blues, which I recorded with The Euphorians  
There are now eight songs in this body of work, some of which will feature on the album I hope to release this spring or early summer titled New Blues.  

I believe all the songs in the New Blues series homage the blues in musical form and spirit. From a lyrical standpoint, my propensity for surreal commentary re-asserts itself in some of the compositions.  The song featured on this blog is a talking blues, with a nod to hip hop - but didn't hip hop nod at the blues first?   The song references the traditional tale of the drifter who encounters an authority figure, as in the Jimmy Rogers' song Waitin' for the Train.


New Blues #5 - Walkin' Talkin' Blues

Well I woke up in the morning and I drank three bottles of wine
started out walking on those telephone lines
Over emerald driving ranges department stores on fire
celebrities politicians hustlers hipsters hookers liars
tracks and shacks and strip malls
baseball diamonds
smoking factories burning black trees a river running brown
just kept walking on those telephone lines right outta skeleton town

I left my head in a laundromat at the edge of town
fuckin thing was a fucking idiot always acting like a clown
left my heart in a box at the side of the road
fuckin think was disobedient wouldn't do what he was told
had to leave my liver in a jar by the river
I'd told him more than once never yell give 'er
beside the cellphone island at the shopping mall
where the queens of high school gather to make important calls
the young bucks primp and preen discuss the gravity of their balls

I had seen the field of green where broken hearts all lie
I had spent one night in the room where losers sit and cry
I'd been walkin above the road that is paved with the hair and bones
of old lovers and old friends a road I thought would never end

I walked one thousand miles decided I should stop
that's when I was accosted by a big ole cop
he said Son I'm gonna arrest you for walkin in the air
I said Officer that ain't fair I was not walkin in the air I was walkin on them telephone lines
he said boy I don't like your attitude you smell like cherry wine
I'm gonna pound your ass so fuckin hard you'll be shittin out your mouth
you're gonna wish that whore your mother never let you out

Now I was not enamoured by this turn of luck
being corn-holed by a good ole boy would suck
I was quivering in my space boots
I was leaking from my meat flute
I was spraying in my diaper
I was praying for a sniper
to make a deadly intervention
just one bullet of prevention
but there was not need to fear
there was an answer to my prayers

You see suddenly from the sky that big ole cop was hit
he exploded like a jam jar his torso totally split
he'd been struck down from the heavens by a deadly drone
launched by King Obama upon his ebony throne

I headed back to town I had to share the news
I got the walkin on the telephone line walkin talkin blues
I headed back to town I had to share the news
I got the walkin on the telephone line walkin talkin blues
I headed back to town I had to share the news
I got the walkin on the telephone line walkin talkin blues
I headed back to town I had to share the news
I got the walkin on the telephone line walkin talkin blues


________________________________________________________


New Blues #1 - Whiskey Blues

I drank so much whiskey I could not walk or speak
I drank so much whiskey I could neither walk or speak
When I woke up in the morning I said
'this is not the path I seek'

I stepped outside my door sun said 'I'm too low to shine'
Stepped outside my door sun said 'I'm too low to shine'
What's a man to do
'bout the storm clouds gathered 'round his mind

When the sun climbed up he was shining angry and bright
When the sun climbed up he was shining angry and bright
My head was on fire
and I was blinded by the light

The night fell black like a great weight from the sky
The night fell black like a great weight from the sky
I felt so all alone
but I was too empty cry

____________________________________________________



This is representative of  the kind of sound when  I saw Muddy.... Nineteen Years Old........take 5 minutes outta your life, put your fucking phone down,  roll one up or grab your lover, and check out the slo-o-o-o-ow blues


Hang on to your lover, grab a drink.....Willie Dixon, I Can't Quit You Baby

John Lee Hooker. Live, raw,  Hobo Blues.

Okay, I saw Albert King, but I'm generally not a big fan of the 10 minute guitar solo style blues.  I understand Albert was a big influence on Stevie Ray Vaughan.  But here's a nice little economical number with some tasty guitar work.  Fact is, when they fade it out - I want more!

This song may be more associated with Etta James, but my first experience of it was with Koko Taylor.  Somewhere I have an autographed pic of her I got at the King Eddy.....with the names of bars I should visit in Chicago written in black felt pen.

Albert Collins was a gifted guitar player with an absolutely unique style, attack, and sound.  His nickname was The Iceman.  John Zorn composed a thirteen minute piece for him called Two Lane Highway.  I had the good fortune of seeing him in a great room in Chicago....with Koko Taylor opening!  Sheeeee-yit.  These are for all you guitar nerds out there.  His signature tune...The Iceman

Tuesday 12 January 2016

Song A Week 2016 - #1! - Blues In The Bottle

In 2012 I attempted to do a song a week blogpost.  I didn't quite make it, weeks were missed as the year unfolded, especially towards the end.  Still, it was ultimately fruitful in that the construct spurred me to play more music and create a body of work.  I did a fair amount of research on the cover songs I did and found out some interesting stuff, I think some of the posts were a good read, some of the songs were good performances, and most importantly it was a catalyst for collaborating with other musicians and artists who I admire and love to play with - Rachelle Reath, Marek Tyler, Emily Goodenough, Eric Gallipo, David "The Great Giffoni" Gifford, Grayson Walker, Jeanne Tolmie, Troy "Big Bubba" Cook.   It was very cool to track the hits on the blog, where they came from in the world, which posts were most popular, and I cultivated a YouTube presence which was turning out to be the legacy of the blog after it ended.  

Then the weird Google shit hit the fan.  My account was screwed around with and the videos, though they were still on YouTube, would not come up in a search. It was pretty much impossible to get them to come up, even with very specific searches.....and it still is.  This year my wife Betty-Ann has endeavoured to re-post the blogs, an attempt to fan the dying embers, an act I am grateful for.  At the same time it begs the question....why not get off your ass and do it again.   
                      
 Dum-Dum.             Dingaling.             Ding Dong. 

I'm running late!  It's goddam January 12th!  What the fuck.  Here's the first one.  When I first picked up the accordion one of my prime influences was the Holy Modal Rounders. Their irreverent, humourous, raw approach to old folk and hillbilly music gave me the license to have a go.  Here's a song I've known for years but never played until a couple of weeks ago. Blues In The Bottle.


Here's the whole Holy Modal Rounders album that I was listening to at the time on a worn out cassette....first song is Blues In The Bottle
I haven't done exhaustive research, but I believe this is the original version of the song, recorded by Prince Albert Hunt's Texas Ramblers  in 1928.  It was also recorded, and is perhaps better known, by the great Lightnin' Hopkins.  I would venture a guess that The Rounders were listening to this version.



Here's me doing the Holy Modal Rounders' Same Old Man last time I did this song a week biz.


And this is The Dogbreath Brothers channeling the Holy Modal Rounders Black-Eyed Suzy.....beer-fuelled and live to 4-track cassette yo. (Click link below the pic)