Tag: original song

I’m gonna sing these blues and then I won’t be blue no more

images-3I’m gonna sing these blues and then I won’t be blue no more.
I musta sung this song a thousand times before.

Click below to hear the sad lament (Don’t worry, it’s not really sad). I recorded it twice since the last time: the first arrow plays the guitar and harmonica version, the second arrow plays a slower piano rendition. Pick your poison.

I’m gonna sing these blues and then I won’t be blue no more! I think these are very fine words for a blues song. However, I do realize that they also qualify as certifiable “famous last words” –
Words that join a list (a veritable compendium!) of other famous last words such as: “This is my last drink and then I’m going home”, or “You can’t fool me”, or “I sure ain’t gonna make that mistake again”, or “Tomorrow I’m going to….”, or “I’m going to change. I promise” or “Once I get this all figured out I’ll….”

So let’s sing these blues and then we won’t be blue no more. Again!

The Urge To Write

IMG_0503This one is for all the writers and poets out there. It is presumptuous of me to put this song on here again, the Paths of Many Wonders song, but I thought I did it a bit better here. And about the little poem, it starts out a bit cynnical and ends up kinda mushy.

From whence does this urge to write arise?

From what source does it derive its power?

Nervous energy perhaps

Nervous energy very finely sublimated

Into quite marvelous and delightful results

Sometimes

……….

At its best this energy is expressed

And penetrates

To its pure form

Which is Divine Light!

Desert Wind

images-1I wrote this song about Israel and the Negev desert after my first visit there. It’s a nice song to play along with if you have such inclinations (I mean inclinations to play along, sing along, hum along, tap your feet along kinds of inclinations). I myself enjoy playing it (an unfortunate lilting, somewhat musical inclination, a weakness for rhyme inclination, a slippery slope of snappy tunes sort of inclination). In any case, Desert Wind is on my CD titled Up in the Bronx and Down in LA. My Up in the Bronx novel, written before I recorded the songs in 2011, is, despite all my brave efforts, quite autobiographical. So that’s why I recorded the song for the CD. Huh? See the Up in the Bronx page in the header for more info about the book and also about the soundtrack CD. I was playing the song again the other day, so for your listening pleasure (I hope), and also to perhaps interest you in taking a look at the book…

 And to give you someting a little snappier to listen to I’ve addd Lovesick Blues if you’re brave enough to click on it

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Hey! There's Up in the Bronx on the shelves at the Los Angeles Public library
Hey! There’s Up in the Bronx on the shelves at the Los Angeles Public library

Paths of Wonder


DSCN0470I did walk down paths of many wonders

In the silence of the afternoon

And I returned to a land of wonders

Wonders… Wonders

……Paths of many wonders

I came back from a path of many wonders

And the wonders were still everywhere

Take my hand, come with me

To a land we shall share

Take me back baby

Take me back baby

Take me back

A Train Coming Through Your Town Again

Blame Marina Kanavaki for encouraging me, but here’s another stab at the song I did yesterday. I hope “stab” wasn’t too graphic a depiction. I’m still working on it. But this time I added another track of piano. So click to hear a train on two tracks, which sounds quite proper, a train on two tracks, but it isn’t. Huh??. The song is about the machine, the system, the corporate web of intrigue that has so stupefied people for so long. So the song says “Wake up, people, the train already run through your town” I think everybody knows that, as there’s such dissatisfaction with the political system(s), at least in the US – and, I think, nearly everywhere in the world. The political systems are overwhelmed, corrupted by the power of wealthy interests. What are the people to do?

The last verse isn’t quite clear in the recording

I got the news/Riding the bus this morning

It happened right in front of my eyes

And I tell you, buddy, there was no warning

Hey, the train. It run through your town.

And, as I said to Marina, such a description of the current political landscape certainly does put people in a corner, a hard situation. But seeing the truth, seeing events plainly and accurately is a good way to begin the long journey back home.

If I Really Was Crazy…..

images-5“If I really was crazy I’d be the last to know”.

I mentioned this country-western “hook” to lovely Mira.

I finished up the song (almost) and here it is. The logic is unassailable. Being crazy would preclude any ability to detect your own craziness. One of those Catch 22 things. This song is a sing-a-long – that is, if you’re crazy too.

If I really was crazy I’d be the last to know

If I really was crazy I wouldn’t let it show

If I really was crazy now would that be so wrong?

If I really was crazy

If I really was crazy you might be crazy too

And if we really both were crazy then there’s nothing else to do

If we really both were crazy we still could sing this songimages-4

If we really were crazy

I got the madman blues

Got ’em to the bottoms of my travellin’ shoes

Come on baby take my hand

I think you’re lookin’ for a man

I got the madman blues

If I really were crazy I’d be the last to know
If I really was crazy I’d just get on with the show
If I really was crazy I still would sing this song
If I really was crazy

I got the madman blues
Got ’em to the bootom of my travellin’ shoes
Come on baby take my hand
I think you lookin’ for a man
I got the madman blues images-3

Susie

Here’s a song I wrote a long time ago that I just recalled. One of our fellow bloggers was talking last week about all the cliched rhymes in pop music, and i remembered trying to rhyme Suzie with bluesy, choosy, floozy, and the like. Anyone who wants to play it can sing it without having any worries about patent violations – as well as having the satisfaction of improving upon it. It’s a little country ditty that’s cute and catchy I thought, so that’s why I’m posting it.

Going to San Francisco Again

“What, again? Bumba, what the whatchamacallit is the matter with you? Didn’t you do that song already and post it on the blog like more times than I care to remember?”

“Yeah, so what?

“Like go look at the SEARCH option on the lower right side of the screen. You put in going to San Francisco or folk music or anything like that and see what comes up.”

“That’s right, you get this song a million times. So what?”

“Well, doesn’t such lazy repetition lower your own standard of journalistic, literary, and artistic excellence for this Bumbastories blog of yours???”

“The whaaat standard for whaaaat blog???”

Such are the conversations Bumba’s been having with himself. Anyhow here’s the song Going to San Francisco

Goin to San Francisco Again

OK, so I’ve done this song on the blog already. OK…Twice, but who’s counting? Well, here it is again in a different key. I keep changing the words here and there, but the basic idea remains the same. Now, what that “basic idea” is is up for grabs, but I think it has something to do with the fair city of San Francisco and having some fun. Goin down to San Francisco, Gonna have some fun…….

I went down to San Francisco

To see about some fun

When I got back from San Francisco

Everything was gone

The village was lay in ruins

Smoke was everywhere

Nobody seemed to notice

Nobody seemed to care

So I’m goin back down to San Francisco

Gonna have some fun

Goin back to San Francisco

My song be sung

Hey, ain’t you comin?

Ain’t no place left to hide

C’mon baby, take my hand

I ain’t afraid to try

I’m goin down to San Francisco

Gonna have some fun

I’m goin down to San Francisco

When my day is done

I’ll see you in San Francisco

Come and take my hand

I’ll be lookin for a woman in San Francisco

That’s lookin’ for a man

I’m goin down to San Francisco

Gonna have some fun

I’ll be in San Francisco

When this day is done

Goin down to San Francisco

San Francisco here I come