Listen, Rewritten Song

Rewritten Song: Where Have You Gone? (version 2)

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Here’s the rewrite of the song I posted this week last year.

Commence the clapping.

You can click here and listen to the original version.

Anyway, for this rewrite I didn’t really know what to do. I never really liked this song to begin with. It’s okay, but I think it’s a little too much of, “Hey, listen to this, I’m clever, and I’m telling you how it should be.” That ain’t no way to write or sing a song. There’s none of your own self in it if you’re just going at someone else’s way of living. So I tried to turn it around a little. It’s sort of successful, I supposed. I basically just rearranged the words and made a sort of repeating verse line.

The song’s more aimed at me now. Says I only been doing one thing and how am I supposed to know anything else or care about anything else. And that ain’t no way to live.

Or maybe it doesn’t say that. Maybe I’m analyzing it too much. What do you think?

Listen, Talkin' Headline Blues

The Talkin’ Headline Blues #31

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The slow crawl comes to a halt in the middle of the road leading to the sanctuary of Heaven. The Lord Almighty looks down and sees the spilling out of all the blood of the Earth, an even flow, bubbling across the mountain ranges and deep in through the river valleys. The smell is intoxicating. Not in a good way.

Then, the ringing phones at the dial-in bank display photographic images on small screens made to allow for private conversations.

As the variable-speed fans blow air all over the heads of women sitting in bathroom stalls, outside there is a gathering of insects in the trash heap in the alley. Everything is broken down. No one can communicate with anyone else at all. I grunt and moan and you grunt and moan and then we just move on through space, breathing no oxygen and taking up no physical moments.

Listen, New Song

Goodbye, Goodbye

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In Cairo, the Spring can be great, but the Fall not so much

In Cairo, the Spring can be great, but the Fall...not so muchSo I had the idea for this new song on Tuesday last week. For one reason or another the old tune Goin’ Down to Cairo popped into my head while I was driving around in my car. Don’t know if you’ve ever heard that tune, check it out if you haven’t. This video is a pretty good approximation of how it’s always sung. You can also read about what that tune is all about over here, courtesy of the Old Town School of Folk Music. That’s where I first heard the song. People up there love it. Can’t get enough of it.

Anyway, I had that tune goin in my head and then I figured I hadn’t ever tried to write a song about the Arab Spring. Mainly, probably, because I don’t know a whole lot about it and because it ain’t really affecting me and my comfortable life. Other than for a week or so, a month or so ago, the news channels couldn’t get enough of it.

It’s pretty obvious, I think, how I went from a song about a town way down south at the tip of the bottom of Illinois to something about what’s going on over in the Middle East. And it was pretty easy, actually, to go from one to the other and back again. People in Illinois say “Kay-ro” and people in Egypt say “Ki-ro,” but they all want the same things when you get right down to it. Ain’t anything hard about that.

So that’s the song for today. Have a listen.

Listen, Rewritten Song

Rewritten Song: I Have No Idea (version 2)

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Here’s the new version of “I Have No Idea.” This is another song that made it onto my full-length album from last year. Was the last song I wrote for that album, in fact. Wrote it while I was driving down the road. Ever done that? I don’t recommend it. The people behind you know what you’re doing and they don’t like it. They’re busy and’ve got places to be, damnit.

Anyway, the structure of this one is pretty similar to the original (which you can listen to here). I haven’t performed this one too much, so I’m not totally bored with it and when I went back to play it I remembered how much I liked it. The original felt like a finished song already. So I didn’t change much. Just maybe the guitar part and the melody and singing a little.

The guitar part is loosely based on my song “Lawd Almighty.” Do you hear it in there? Go listen to that tune and maybe you’ll be able to pick it out.

I’ll leave it up to you to compare, though. You’re probably a better critic than me.

Listen, Talkin' Headline Blues

The Talkin’ Headline Blues #30

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The slow steady steam down to the ocean flowing with debris (logs, leaves, roots, muck) out into the wide open with a current that picks up that steam-rolls that rushes over and over and over and under continuing all the way to the pastures to the silt ponds to the neck of the woods to the thick forests of dead wood and moss to the blankets of salt at the delta.

Three towns over the towns forming a halo are flattened. Thank goodness for low monthly installment plans. Thank goodness for the good old American Flag flapping in the howling wind that rips and tears at the underbelly of all that is good and sacred. Thank goodness for the backs that are made to stand on for so long.

I’m a prop. How about you?

Songwriting, home recording and vinyl records from Chicago folk singer and songwriter Andrew Francis.