Friday, February 26, 2016

Dope City Blues Songified.

HowManyShadesAreThere
AnywayVille


It turns out that even Mr. Beer 'N Hockey gets the blues.

He wrote a bit about it awhile back in a prose form that starts like this:

My baby says I snore too loud
My dog's about to die
My mama's in the nursing home
My daddy he's long gone

The Dope City blues
Got me hanging up the phone
Only people calling
Want my pay cheque for their own...



So.

I decided to songify the thing.

It's all Hank Williams the elder major chords except for one.

Which I'm pretty sure Scotty and/or DonF will sniff out.

All of which is just a way of explaining that this may not be something that Beer would normally listen to.

At least not on purpose.

Unless it was on WDVX Junior or something like that.


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Got a songification suggestion from motorcycle guy...Workin' on it...Send 'em if you've got 'em.


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12 comments:

theo said...

Nice one!

Bill said...

Really nice Ross. Great tune and fitting lyrics.

Pretty sure that Beer (and Sonja) will really appreciate your work.

RossK said...

Thanks Theo and Bill!

Am actually most proud of the Neilified wee bridge after the second verse - new type deal for me.


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Don F. said...

Great job! I love the feel with the lyrics, it all just works, sounds great.
You are playing in D# and I think I detect a Gmin7 in the guitar soloed part, at least to my ear.
Again love the song!

RossK said...

Thanks Don--

And that is one helluvan ear you've got.

I wrote the post before I recorded the tune and I did shift up a half-step from the D while fiddling mostly because it helped tweak things into a Tweedyish groove a little...That bloody guy really is inside my head on a whole lotta levels.


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Lew said...

Technical details way beyond my ken, but I know songified when I hear it, and I just heard it.

Brilliant!

RossK said...

Thanks very, very much Lew.

(details not really technical...just showing off the basest of base knowledge/expertise, at least in my case)


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Mr. Beer N. Hockey said...

Pretty song that is. Played it out back, where the Hammer used to lie, between dinner and dessert for Hunky, Kitty and Sonja under the light of the near full moon. None of us were quite ready for it, I'll tell you that. Thanks for making it.

RossK said...

Beer--

For Hammer, wherever you may find her.

Especially under all the light of all the full moons.

Thanks for writing it.


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RossK said...

Thanks Frankie!

Hope all is well.


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Scotty on Denman said...

Well, alright! Been buried in pig-tailed old strings and patch-cords for a few weeks---and a whole lot of Blues (especially concerning writer's-block--- which is prob'ly more appropriate to C&W) so I thought I might need a break from it. Good job I was wrong!

Really bang up job, Ross---I'm a real Tele fan, sounds boss on your bridge there. Great title (Jimmy Webb says they're super-important---but what does HE know?---left the cake out in the rain, after all!) This number is worth anybody's listen, including Mr B&H.

Me and my co-writer have like maybe two more numbers to go (to pen, that is) and we're ready for Marc Atkinson's cool and cozy studio on Hornby.

But this!---This "Dope City Blues" is a real inspiration. Gonna give my accompaniment a listen at tomorrow's rehearsal. However, regretfully, I can't send suggestions for a bit yet---I'd get a lecture if I were to moonlight at this point...

...so, keep on rockin' !!! all I can say...

Oh yeah, my latest writer's-block remedy: do it in Neapolitan (found that out trying to transliterate "Torna Surriento" from Jimmy Rosselli's scintillating rendition which is in the more-Portuguese-sounding Neapolitan). Prob'ly works in other languages too.

Good luck!

RossK said...

scotty--

There is so much there it's gonna take me a bit process it all.

Jeebuz though, I sure do wanna hear the fruits of your latest labours! (I'm sure you can see what I've done there)

And don't worry about the moonlighting in the moment...It can wait cause I'm working on a bunch more stuff.


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