Oklahoma Music

2006-04-28T11:07:00.000-07:00

"The High Priest Of Country Music:" The Incredible Life of CONWAY TWITTY!

Conway Twitty was and still is one of the huge names in Country Music. But get this, Twitty started out at the same time that Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins (Blue Suade Shoes," Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, ... and along with many other musicians started in the middle of the 50s. Conway Twitty WAS NOT one who started his career with Sun Records in Memphis as a rock 'n roler. Put "sunrecords.com" in your browser's find-space or go to google and use it. But not yet. Read this post before you do, so you'll know what you will be browsing for.

There is a neat documentary out now, on Sun Records. I'm not going to lie to you. Back in the 50's there were white or caucasion radio stations and there were Black radio stations. Sam Phillips, the head of Sun Records was color blind. If you could sing, had a different sound, and were good, he'd record you. The new Cash movie is great as it approaches the Sun Record times. Our family never bought records back in those days, but, ... . (MORE)

There was a kid who went to school with us at Marland, Oklahoma named Andy Horney, who was into Sun Records. I can remember him telling me, "You should buy some of the Sun Records 45 RPM records because they are good."

Andy had more money than we did. He lived on a farm, and he was the only child that his parents could have. Back then, doctors didn't know about A- and B+ blood types as incompatible. Today they do. But what happened to Andy's mom, was, she had Andy, and his blood type was A- or A Negative. Having one baby was easy, but then the A negative blood would get into her system, and the B Positive blood type would be attacted by the negative blood, and it meant a sure death of any more babies.

Marcella has A negative and I am B positive. Now doctors just give the A- mother a shot before she gives birth, and the drug wouldn't allow the negative blood to pollute the mother's negative blood. We have five children, and our first one that died while young, Darla, was an A positive.

Parents would still try to have more babies, and they had a chance, if she happened to have an A negative blood baby. Andy's mother never had any more children, so they had money to buy the albums. I think of Andy a lot, these days, now with eBay. He could sell those old Sun Records for a hefty amount on eBay.

So back to Conway Twitty. First, I want you to know his last name was really Jenkins. Please do some research on him and find out what his first name is and how he got the name Conway Twitty! Believe me, you would not get your name that way.

Twitty controlled his songs, much like Elvis did. He would put a hold on a song for years, until he thought the time was right for him to release it as a record. Did it work? He had more number one songs than Elvis Presley. Is that incredible or what? I think he had 8 straight years that he had at least one number one song, and all of his songs ended up being in the top 10 anytime he released them

Holli doesn't call it a note, when I go way down and get a rumbly note. Not sure what she calls it, but Twitty's trade mark was that "growl." Another trade mark of Twitty was the personalization of the message. "Hello Darling," blew away the charts and when the gals listened to it, they believed he was talking to them. "You" was his big trademark. "I Want To Lay YOU Down," was a killer song. Have Bro Cecil download one of his songs.

Now this is going to be tough, but I want you to find his very first hit, and it was when I was in the 9th grade; and believe me, ... Twitty growled his way through it like no other artist.

Conway Twitty lived in Oklahoma City, forever, and would often sing at Spring Lake Amusement Park. He was killing Nashville so badly, that they "... offered him a deal that he could not refuse, ..." to move to Nashville. That is how influencial he was in the Country Music business. His first few songs weren't considered country. Dig this and it is a true story.

Twitty calls up his record company and says, I want to sing "oh Danny Boy."

"You gotta be kidding. Everyone has sung that song because it is Public Domain. I am not wasting my time and vinyl on, yet another cover of that song."

"Yes you will, " Twitty scolded. "You will or I'll find another record company that will." He forced his company to let him do it. Did it work?

Who would have ever believed you could record a rock 'n role version of that song, but he did. He started it as a ballad, then blew everyone away when he got to "Oh Danny Boy, Oh Danny Boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling." Wham, the song landed squarely in number one on the survey. But he did another song earlier than that, that is your job to find out what it was and was able to growl through it. It was in the TOP 10, but never hit number one.

He did move to Nashville and his title was, "The High Priest of Country Music." The only way I can do service to him, is for you to read about him on the Internet. Get ready for an incredible ride and a life that ended way too shortly. But his music lives on.

Now, I am going to do some posts on my favorite Duos or Duets, man and woman, and believe me, Conway had it down. Just get ready for it, because Bro Dale will give you my top two country duets and their incredible songs.

2006-04-26T14:47:00.000-07:00

Is this public domain or what!

Red River Valley is certainly public domain. Look a the three versions listed below. The words are different on all of them. As I research the song, it appears to me that there is a "mean spirited" disagreement on this song about who wrote it and where its about.

If you know anything about Oklahoma, you know that the bottom of Oklahoma has the center of the RED RIVER as its southern border. This actually means, that its border is liquid. One good rain can cause a meander, the nature of looping in old rivers, and when a meander has over looped itself, it forms a new boundry line where either Texas gains land and Oklahoma loses land, or Oklahoma gains land and Texas loses land. It is historically a hot potato.

An old, meandering river has made valleys and usually exist in a valley. But one of the writers below, makes a good case that "The Red River Valley" was written by someone who was closer to Canada and the valleys of Montana or South or North Dakota. Does it make any difference? Can we add verses to it? You bet we can, and we can do it and get up and sing them, without any fear of being sued by a controlling copyright. I have memorized this song before, and we have sung it at programs, where I sing the lead and Holli harmonizes. Holli is good at harmonizing and loves to do it. Her voice isn't that strong, but she is never off key. Can you think of other women singers who have not loud voices. Let's name a few women singers.

Emmy Lou Harris - Not Loud
Allison Kraus - Not Loud
Wynona Judd - Loud
Naomi Judd - Moderate but harmonizing
Dolly Parton - Loud
Shania Twain - Loud
Martina McBride - Loud
Reba McEntire - Loud
You decide.

Jessica Andrews	Suzy Bogguss
Deana Carter	Terri Clark
Patsy Cline	Tammy Cochran
Dixie Chicks	Sara Evans
Crystal Gayle	Faith Hill
The Kinleys	Alison Krauss
Patty Loveless	Loretta Lynn
Kathy Mattea	Martina McBride
Lila McCann	Reba McEntire
Jo Dee Messina	Lorrie Morgan
Jamie O'Neal	Dolly Parton
LeAnn Rimes	SHeDAISY
Pam Tillis	Tanya Tucker
Shania Twain	Lee Ann Womack
Chely Wright	Tammy Wynette
Wynonna	Trisha Yearwood

So, do you feel creative. Red River Valley is a great song to hone-up your song writing skills. Who knows, we might have some budding songwriters in this class. Do I like to write songs? Is the sky blue? Do we have troops in Iraq? Do we have a Republican President in the US? Are grizzly bears dangerous? Can black bears be dangerous? Will a cougar eat your flesh? I love to write songs. So, where did this song come from?

Where oh where, are you tonight?
Why did you leave me here all alone?
I looked the world over and thought I found true love.
You found another and FFFFTHHHHHH you were gone.

Want to hear one of my verses? This song is not,
NOT public Domain. It is owned by Ya Hoo, I think.

Now we don't get older, we only get better.
The time of our life is always at hand.
We've waited so long and our ship has come in!
And no one can do it like McDonald's can!

(Everybody!)

Now we don't get older, we only get better.
The time of our life is here at our hands.
We've waited so long and our ship has come in!
And no one can do it like McDonald's can!

1) Red River Valley

From this valley they say you are going
We will miss your bright eyes and sweet smile
For they say you are taking the sunshine
That has brightened our path for a while

Come and sit by my side if you love me
Do not hasten to bid me adieu
But remember the Red Valley
And the cowboy who loved you so true

Won't you think of the valley you're leaving
Oh how lonely, how sad it will be?
Oh think of the fond heart you're breaking
And the grief you are causing to me

As you go to your home by the ocean
May you never forget those sweet hours
That we spent in the Red River Valley
And the love we exchanged mid the flowers

Red River Valley Download Midi File Barry Taylor
Information	Lyrics
*This was originally In the Bright Mohawk Valley, a tune popular in New York. It spread throughout the South and cowboys in the Red River Valley localized it to become the tune we are familiar with.*	From this valley they say you are going We will miss your bright eyes and sweet smile For they say you are taking the sunshine That has brightened our path for a while Come and sit by my side if you love me Do not hasten to bid me adieu But remember the Red River Valley And the cowboy who loved you so true Won't you think of the valley you're leaving Oh how lonely, how sad it will be? Oh think of the fond heart you're breaking And the grief you are causing to me Come and sit by my side if you love me Do not hasten to bid me adieu But remember the Red River Valley And the cowboy who loved you so true As you go to your home by the ocean May you never forget those sweet hours That we spent in the Red River Valley And the love we exchanged mid the flowers Come and sit by my side if you love me Do not hasten to bid me adieu But remember the Red River Valley And the cowboy who loved you so true
Information and lyrics From

I remember watching Roy Rogers when I was a Chicago cowboy in the 1940s. Bob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneers sang Red River Valley in a movie by the same name. This song always reminds me of my childhood fantasies of riding the range with a cowboy hat and a good chestnut mare.

Lyrics:

Red River Valley

[G] From this valley they say you are going
We will miss your bright eyes and sweet smile [D]
[G] For they say you are taking the [C] sunshine
That has [D] brightened our path for a [G] while

Come and sit by my side if you love me
Do not hasten to bid me adieu
But remember the Red River Valley
And the cowboy who loved you so true

Won't you think of the valley you're leaving
Oh how lonely, how sad it will be?
Oh think of the fond heart you're breaking
And the grief you are causing to me

As you go to your home by the ocean
May you never forget those sweet hours
That we spent in the Red River Valley
And the love we exchanged mid the flowers

Repeat first verse

Red River Valley
arranged and adapted by Arlo Guthrie

From this valley they say you are going
We will miss your bright eyes and sweet smile
For they say you are taking the sunshine
That has brightened our pathways awhile

CHORUS:
Come and sit by my side, if you love me
Do not hasten to bid me adieu
Just remember the Red River Valley
And the cowboy who loved you so true

I've been thinking a long time, my darling
Of the sweet words you never would say
Now, alas, must my fond hopes all vanish
For they say you are gong away

Do you think of the valley you're leaving
O how lonely and how dreary it will be
And do you think of the kind hearts you're breaking
And the pain you are causing to me

CHORUS
They will bury me where you have wandered
Near the hills where the daffodils grow
When you're gone from the Red River Valley
For I can't live without you I know

CHORUS

2006-04-25T20:42:00.000-07:00

Merle Travis, ... did you hear me? I said, "Merle Travis."

This musician set the standard in Nashville for many years.

-----Merle Travis was virtually without peer as a guitarist and songwriter. A unique stylist, he was respected and prominent enough to have an instrumental style ("Travis

picking") named after him, and only Chet Atkins even comes close to the influence that Travis had on the way the guitar is understood and played in country music. (Indeed, Atkins was initially signed to RCA to be that label's Merle Travis.) More?

-----Click More? I have a friend who plays like Merle, but he regrets it, because he feels like Merle's style leaves little for lead and creativity. But, to say, Merle Travis had a giant effect on the Nashville as a writer and player, is an understatement. One of the standard songs I play is Merle Travis's "16 Tons."

-----He didn't like the song at first, second and even twentyeth, but then Tennessee Ernie Ford recorded it, and it was a HUGGE HIT. If you were in the United States right now, somewhere on TV, you would see this advertisement about coal-covered women in nifty, skin-tight apparel, working in a coal mine. Guess what song is playing behind them.

-----Without "16 Tons," I may have never really learned to play the guitar well. The song has a fast switch from C7 to B7, which is the basic element of the song, and once I had that down, I learned the song.

-----I spent a summer selling Bibles in Hinton, West Virginia. My sales manager hated me, because I didn't sell lots of Bibles. While selling in the summertime, I took off to see the sites. In Hinton, West Virginia, they have an open coal mine where visitors can pay to go through it. Of course, I did. They also sold a coal miner sculpture made up of fine coal pressed into a likeness of a coal miner with his hate and his coal mining bucket/jug/life saver.

-----When I worked in Kansas as a Career Education Specialist, I had a film strip about coal. The schools ran off the lady that was running the van, when I took over. I always said, "I can play the guitar and I can sing, but I can't do both at the same time." Well, now, the teachers up there changed my mind for me. I started doing Lyceums on Coal Mining, which fit right into their science unit, and every school and every teacher in our Northern District, had a fast change in attitude about their USAVE Career Education Source. And me? I learned to play the guitar and sing at the same time, without having to look at a paper. So, I owe my success as a guitar player to Merle Travis's "16 Tons," and "Pea Picken Tennessee Ernie Ford's rendition of Sixteen Tons of Number 9 Coal, and what did you get? Another day older and deeper in debt. Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause, I can't go. I owe my soul to the company store." And that was all true.

-----The coal mine companies built homes for their coal miners, rented them out to them, and even provided a company store to buy things from, on credit, of course, and those coal companies owned the coal miners, "lock-stock-and-barrel." (An idiom.) Discuss with Mr. Cecil, what that means and discuss it in your class. I left out one of the verses, when I sang it to the students. Can you guess which one? "Dark As A Dungeon" is another Travis song. See if you can find out who are others who recorded it, besides Travis. Remember, Travis's sisters get the royalties. Be sure to check out, "Stonewall Jackson+Singer" to include his cover. Have Mr. Cecil down load Jackson's Travis songs.

Sixteen Tons
(Merle Travis)

I was born one mornin' when the sun didn't shine
Picked up a shovel and I walked to the mine
I hauled Sixteen Tons of number 9 coal
And the straw-boss said, "Well, bless my soul"

(Chorus:)

You haul Sixteen Tons, whadaya get?
Another older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

Repeat Chorus

Born one morning it was drizzle and rain
Fightin' and Trouble are my middle name
I was raised in a canebrake by an old mama lion
And no high-toned woman make me walk the line

Repeat Chorus

See me comin' better step aside
A lot of men didn't and a lot of men died
I got one fist of iron and the other of steel
And if the right one don't get ya, the left one will

Repeat Chorus

Born one mornin' when the sun didn't shine
Picked up a shovel and I walked to the mine
I hauled Sixteen Tons of number 9 coal
And the straw-boss said, "Well, bless my soul"

Repeat Chorus

2006-04-24T23:56:00.000-07:00

THE LIPS!!!

-----No, this doesn't involve Mick Jagger. The Lips put it all together in the early '80s - 1984 to be exact.

-----It would be good if you bought one of their CDs and listen to them. I am not an expert on them, but my son, Darrin, is up on them and is a big fan of theirs as well. I think he has met the Bands' MASTER in the Apple Store where he dropped in to buy an iPod.

Check out what it says about them in the wikipedia, the online encyclopedia.

"

The Flaming Lips

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Jump to: navigation, search


Above: Drozd, Coyne, Ivins
Country	Oklahoma, USA
Years active	1983 – Present
Genre(s)	Alternative rock
Label(s)	Warner Brothers Records
Members	Steven Drozd Wayne Coyne Michael Ivins

-----The Flaming Lips (formed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1983) are an idiosyncratic and acclaimed American alternative rock band.

-----Although indie rock/post-punk approach to rock music, The Flaming Lips are known for their lush, multi-layered, psychedelic-ish arrangements and their spacey lyrics and bizarre song titles. They are also acclaimed for their elaborate live shows; featuring animal suits, puppets, video projections and complex stage light configurations. In 2002, Q magazine named The Flaming Lips one of the "50 bands to see before you die".

-----The group recorded several albums and EPs on an indie label in the 1980s and early 1990s. After signing to Warner Brothers, they scored a top ten hit in 1995 with "She Don’t Use Jelly" (known in Australia as "Vaseline"). Although it has been their only hit single, the band has maintained critical respect and, to a lesser extent, commercial viability with sonically majestic albums such as 1999’s The Soft Bulletin and 2002’s Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots.

-----Now this one is a biggy and you can research it to death, with "Results of about 17,300,000 for the flaming Lips." Now, even in the Thai number system, that is a heck of a lot of sites. 17 million. Are you kidding me? Are we going to have to spend the rest of this semester researching all those sites? Hope not. Divided it up, into groups and then go for it.

-----If the Flaming Lips have had an accidental career then this documentary is indeed an accident. In 1991, I was simply Wayne's art school neighbor in Norman, Oklahoma with a film camera and some tenacity. They were in need of a willing and somewhat competent cinematographer and I was on a constant hunt for action-packed stories and oddball characters. And thus a relationship built of geographic convenience and a mutual desire to create ourselves. And now, 15-years later, I have thankfully made my filmmaking career through working with the Flaming Lips.

After combing 400 hours of footage that includes a decade of home movies, personal interviews, live shows, music videos, and behind the scenes of Christmas on Mars, The Fearless Freaks is at last realized. Although I am certainly excited and ready to share this film with the world I have to admit it's bitter sweet. I can't image not filming a Lips concert, a Drozd brother jam session or the Coyne family Christmas. I am forever grateful to Wayne, Steven and Michael for their patience and trust. Without the unbelievable access that the band allowed this film would just be another okay rockumentary. Instead, together we have created an insightful and personal piece of cinema."

-BRADLEY BEESLEY

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1983 in Oklahoma City, OK

Years Active

1910	20	30	40	50	60	70	80	90	2000

Genre		Styles
Rock		l Rock

Who do you love? Tell the world.

A Chronology of Insanity
by Sean Neumann

Two things stick out in my mind when it comes to the Flaming Lips: The band playing a transvestite bar, and playing on "Beverly Hills 90210." I can't think of anyone crazy enough or ballsy enough to do those gigs besides maybe the Butthole Surfers, Ween or Tom Jones.

Rarely does a band go from being associated with acid-popping, glue-sniffing urchins to being hailed as one of the most important acts of the past 10 years. I mean, who in the hell would have even thought that this band would have one of their albums - The Soft Bulletin - mentioned as one of the best of the past year? A band that have written songs entitled "Talkin' 'Bout The Smiling Deathporn Immortatlity Blues (Everyone Wants To Live Forever)" and "March of the Rotten Vegetables" are considered a critical success? I just thought they were my own private indulgence, like a secret affinity for inhaling nitrous-oxide from whipped-cream cannisters. If 10 years ago, you would have told me that the Flaming Lips would be incorporating classical music into their repertoire, I would have called you a crack-addicted bonehead with a subdural-hematoma.

But lo-and-behold, I am professing my love for the Lips, based not only on my own predilection for the bizarre and outrageously creative, but because these guys have broken down their own barrier between improvisation and crack-addled musical arrangement.

The Lips formed in Oklahoma City in 1983. Rumor has it that Wayne Coyne stole a cache of instruments from a church hall and got his brother Mark and Michael Ivins to play with him. Another legend is that Ivins and Mark Coyne met when Coyne showed up at a party Ivins was throwing at his parents' house. Either way, the bunch made a four-song demo tape and started sending it out. Their legendary first gig did in fact take place in an Oklahoma City transvestite bar called the Blue Note, and by 1985, after numerous drummers floated in and out of the band, they settled on Richard English to pound the skins while Mark Coyne departed to get married.

In 1986, the Lips were signed to Restless Records and released Hear It Is, which was followed by 1987's Oh My Gawd!! They met the like-minded Butthole Surfers and were invited to be the openers for a tour. On that trip they met Jonathan Donahue of Mercury Rev, and he became the band's sound technician for 1988's Telepathic Surgery. After afew extrememly weird and improvisational efforts, English gave way to Nathan Roberts. Donahue took on the name "Dingus" and became a full-fleged member of the group while he worked on Mercury Rev's debut album Yerself Is Steam. In 1990, the Lips released In A Priest Driven Ambulance, a record filled with references to the Virgin Mary, Jesus Christ, and various riffs from divergent popular songs of the time. In the minds of many, it's the band's finest recording.

These early records are some of the strangest to leak out of the brains of human beings. The simple fact is that none of the records carry a shred of normalcy. They're excercises in excessive experimentation and distorted reality. Their cross-pollination of pop-music, psychedelia, abstract language, and free-association can make a listener feel as though he's on acid even though he's never touched the stuff. Imagine a tripping George Gershwin in a leisure suit and purple hair playing a viola, a piano, and peddle effects on an out-of-tune piano all at the same time, and you'd be pretty close to what the Lips sound like.

Reckless Records folded in 1990, and the Lips were picked up by Warner Brothers. They went into the studio and began to expand (yes, expand) their sound with Hit To Death In The Future Head. Released in 1992, the record was a mess of musical hedonism, but it also marked a turning point for the band. The Lips began to build musical arrangements with a direction.

Roberts left the band and in mid-1992, Steven Drodz and Ronald Jones joined on to cut Transmissions From The Satellite Heart, and by 1994, something very strange happened: The record produced a huge hit, "She Don't Use Jelly." The cut earned the band a slot on Lollapalooza's second stage, a number-one hit, heavy rotation on MTV, and the infamous spot on "Beverly Hills 90210" in which Ian Ziering's character thought the Lips "rawked."

Every time I think of the Flaming Lips and 1994, I think of the video for "Turn It On." In it, the band play three gorgeous women doing their laundry and dancing on washing machines while psychedelic strobe lights pulsate in the background. A transcendental moment, friends. I never looked at doing laundry the same way again. I also remember Wayne Coyne on MTV, sounding as if he'd been inhaling paint fumes from a sock and drinking turpentine all day, talking to Kurt Loder about how important the bubble machine is for a live show. My favorite lunatics, whom my "Summer of Love" mother thought were demented and bizzare, were getting critical recognition from the likes of Rolling Stone.

After three years of touring, the band went to Chicago and recorded, the straight forward Clouds Taste Metallic. After a year of touring to support the record, Jones was replaced by Steven Drozd and the Lips stopped touring as a conventional band. In a very risky move, Lips shows became excercises in audience participation. The band also began to expand their sound, again.

First, Coyne organized the "Parking Lot Experiment" in which some 40 cars took part. Coyne distributed pre-recorded music tapes to the folks in each car, and with their doors open and on cue, each driver began to play his tape. Brilliant. Next up was the recording of Zaireeka, four-CDs meant to played simultaneously on separate players. The album makes you experience vertigo, dementia, disorientation, and aural hallucination, and feel the strange calm that sets in when good mushrooms get their hooks in your mind. Now, after warping minds - their own and their audience's - they released The Soft Bulletin which is nothing short of a wonderfully orchestrated album. When I heard it, I could hardly believe that this was the same group of morons that sang about "Brainville" and "The Abandoned Hospital Ship." They developed a true integration of progressive rock and classical music and blended it with their own predilection for whacked-out blues and psychedelia. Coyne's lyrics also became more introspective and - gasp - serious! Not only that, the album was hailed as everything from the second coming to album of the year.

It's been almost 16 years since they played in the trani-bar. Now they're staring down the barrel of legitimacy without a sense of self-importance. When they are asked about their own impact on the music scene, Coyne, Ivins and Drozd brush aside any gushing praise. Instead, they just talk about how they decided to stop being cool and just be the geeks they truly are. They've listed progressive rock, the blues and classical music as their influences. They've toured with people more insane than themselves, used toilet bowls as instruments and done the Letterman show. They've gone from being dust-bowl psychedelics to critical sensations. Hell, everyone should be such geeks.

Biography

by Jason Ankeny

Biography

by Jason Ankeny

Even within the eclectic world of alternative rock, few bands were so brave, so frequently brilliant, and so deliciously weird as the Flaming Lips. From their beginnings as Oklahoma weirdos to their pop culture breakthrough in the mid-'90s to their status as one of the most respected groups of the 2000s, the Lips have ridden one of the more surreal and haphazard career trajectories in pop music. An acid-bubblegum band with as much affinity for sweet melodies as blistering noise assaults, their off-kilter sound, uncommon emotional depth, and bizarre history (packed with tales of self-immolating fans and the like) firmly established them as true originals.

The Flaming Lips formed in Oklahoma City in 1983, when founder and guitarist Wayne Coyne allegedly stole a collection of musical instruments from an area church hall and enlisted his vocalist brother Mark and bassist Michael Ivins to start a band. Giving themselves the nonsensical name the Flaming Lips (its origin variously attributed to a porn film, an obscure drug reference, or a dream in which a fiery Virgin Mary plants a kiss on Wayne in the backseat of his car), the band made its live debut at a local transvestite club. After progressing through an endless string of drummers, they recruited percussionist Richard English prior to recording their self-titled debut, issued on green vinyl on their own Lovely Sorts of Death label in 1985.

When Mark Coyne soon departed to get married, Wayne assumed full control of the group; in addition to remaining its lead guitarist, he also became the primary singer and songwriter. Continuing on as a trio, the Lips released 1986's Hear It Is, followed a year later by Oh My Gawd!!!...The Flaming Lips. While touring in support of the Butthole Surfers, they played Buffalo, NY, where they were befriended by concert promoter Jonathan Donahue; after a jam session with Donahue's nascent band Mercury Rev, he and Coyne became close friends, and Donahue eventually signed on as the group's sound technician.

After recording 1988's difficult Telepathic Surgery, English exited, reducing the Lips to the core duo of Coyne and Ivins; after adding drummer Nathan Roberts, Donahue adopted the name Dingus and became a full-time member in time to cut 1990's stellar In a Priest Driven Ambulance while simultaneously recording the brilliant Mercury Rev debut, Yerself Is Steam. Following a series of hopeful phone calls to Warner Bros., the company signed the band in 1991, and in 1992 their oft-delayed major-label debut, Hit to Death in the Future Head, appeared to little commercial notice; Donahue soon exited to focus his full energies on Mercury Rev, followed by the departure of Roberts.

With new guitarist Ronald Jones and drummer Steven Drozd, they cut 1993's sublime Transmissions from the Satellite Heart, which they supported by playing the second stage at Lollapalooza and touring the nation in a Ryder truck. Initially, the album stiffed; however, nearly a year after its initial release, the single "She Don't Use Jelly" became a grassroots hit, and against all odds the Flaming Lips found themselves on the Top 40 charts. They took full advantage of their requisite 15 minutes of fame, appearing everywhere from MTV's annual Spring Break broadcast to an arena tour in support of Candlebox to a memorably surreal lip-synched performance on the teen soap opera Beverly Hills 90210, where supporting character Steve Sanders (portrayed by actor Ian Ziering) uttered the immortal words, "You know, I've never been a big fan of alternative music, but these guys rocked the house!"

After the 1994 release of a limited-edition sampler of odds-and-ends titled Providing Needles for Your Balloons, the Lips returned in 1995 with Clouds Taste Metallic, a strikingly mature and diverse collection highlighted by the singles "Bad Days" (also heard in the film Batman Forever), "This Here Giraffe," and "Brainville." Despite the inclusion of the remarkably melodic "Psychiatric Explorations of the Fetus with Needles," "Christmas at the Zoo" (rumored to be under consideration for inclusion on an upcoming John Tesh holiday record), and the epic "Guy Who Got a Headache and Accidentally Saves the World," the album nonetheless failed to live up to the commercial success of Transmissions, and the band was once again relegated to cult status.

In 1996, the Lips' world went haywire; first, Jones disappeared to undertake a spiritual odyssey from which he did not return, then Drozd's hand was almost needlessly amputated after he was bitten by a spider. At about the same time, Ivins was the victim of a bizarre hit-and-run accident after a wheel came off of another vehicle and slammed into his car, trapping him inside. Ironically, Coyne was having car problems of his own when rumors of his latest sonic foray -- conducting an orchestra of 40 automobiles, all with their tape decks playing specially composed music at the same time -- prompted fan discussion of his possible psychological collapse. "I would try to tell people what I was doing and found that I couldn't explain it very well," Coyne later remarked about the project, dubbed the Parking Lot Experiment. "Plus, I had a sore on the side of my tongue for a week and it made me talk kind of weird. I'm sure they thought I was retarded."

By the following year, the Flaming Lips (who continued as a trio, opting not to attempt to replace Jones) were back in the studio, recording an album that, according to Coyne, would be "so different and exciting it will either make us millionaires or break us" -- in short, 1997's Zaireeka, a breathtaking and wildly experimental set of four discs designed to be played simultaneously. A previously unreleased track, "Hot Day," also appeared earlier that year on the soundtrack to Richard Linklater's film SubUrbia. A Collection of Songs Representing an Enthusiasm for Recording...by Amateurs, a retrospective of their Restless label material, followed in 1998, and a year later the Lips returned with a breathtaking new studio effort, The Soft Bulletin. After a three-year absence from the shelves, 2002 brought several new releases, including the new record Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots and a two-volume retrospective of the Restless years. Yoshimi won the group even more popular and critical acclaim than The Soft Bulletin, which the group maximized by spending half of 2002 appearing with Beck on his Sea Change tour as both his opening act and backing band. The Lips kept busy over the next two years by touring in support of Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots and working on their movie Christmas on Mars. They returned to the studio in 2004 and spent much of 2005 recording; that year, the Flaming Lips documentary The Fearless Freaks and VOID video collection were both released, whetting fans' appetites for the band's 2006 album At War with the Mystics.

So there, you can spend the rest of your life researching The Flaming Lips

2006-04-24T14:53:00.001-07:00

Soldiers Last Letter

Soldier's Last Letter

When the postman delivered the letter
Well, it filled her old heart full of joy
But she didn't know 'til she read the inside
It was the last one from her darling boy.

"Dear Mom," was the way that it started
"I miss you so much," it went on
"And, Mom, I didn't know that I loved you so
But I'll prove it when this war is won."

"I'm writing this down in a trench, Mom
So don't scold if it isn't so neat
For you know as you did, when I was a kid
And would come home with mud on my feet."

"Well, the captain just gave us our orders
And mom we will carry them through
I'll finish this letter the first chance I get
But for now I'll just say I love you."

Then the mother's old hands began to tremble
As she fought against tears in her eyes
For they came unashamed, there was no name
And she knew that her darlin' had died.

That night as she knelt down by her bedside
She prayed, "Lord above, hear my plea
Protect all the sons who are fighting tonight
And dear God keep America free."

Okay, I have a chore for you. A chore means like, ... something you have to do every day. In the olden days of Oklahoma, all the kids had specific things to do, whenever they came home from school. Some had to gather the eggs. Some, ... feed the cows. Others, ... milk the cows. By the way, how often should you milk a cow?

Our grade school kids went to the Harms Homestead in Oklahoma City. They were broken up into small groups led by one of the volunteers, and they took all of the groups to the various farm chores that had to be done. I went along as a member of the faculty.

When my group came to the cow, the girl had the kids act like they were milking the cow, with a plastic glove stapled to the area were the cow's udder was supposed to be. An udder is the cow's teats, where the milk comes out, ... the faucets.

"How many times a day should this cow be milked?" I asked. The student in charge was flustered big time.

"Ah, ... I don't know that." She was a city girl for sure. "Three times a day? One time? I don't know!"

Soldiers_last_letter

I then explained to her why a cow had to be milked twice a day, early in the morning and close to sundown, or the cow's mammary glands would stop making milk. So, having read up to this far, here is you chore for this page. Click the url above, and then it will send you to that song, Soldiers Last Letter. It was a hit, during the II World War by Ernest Tubb, and Tubb was my mother's favorite singer. Why? Well, Dad was in the Army at that time, and they lived in the California.

Now minimize that page but let the music play. My guess would be that Chet Atkins is responsible for the music background. He came from a classical guitar background, when he spent a year with one of the classical guitar masters. He then moved back to Nashville and made his music part of Country Music. Big time. He was, at least, part owner of RCA Records.

Atkins couldn't sing worth a piddle, and only put out one album that he sang on. It was a total failure, but as a session man, and making a legitiment art form out of Country Music, his influence has been unexceeded. Atkins covered everybody on his albums and was a session man on tons of records cut. Do a google check, on Atkins. But, now it is time for your chore. Here it is.

1) Find out who wrote "Soldiers Last Letter." It is credited to Ernest Tubb, but you need to dig further than that, to find out who wrote it.

2) Do some further Internet research and find out how many Country Artists "covered" that song. Obviously, who ever is playing the music, as I write this, did a cover of the music. Who else did?

3) Which artist was the latest to cover the song?

You can find some sites that will give you the chords on the song. Actually, those chords may be updated by Chet Atkins, but, as it was first recorded there were no more than 3 chords changes in the song, and you can actually get through the song by playing only to chords, ... the first chord and the last chord of any key you choose.

Now, I have listened to Tubb forever. My mother had a sheet music with this song on it. After the tornado, I doubt that she still has it. But Jimmy Rogers (the Country Blues Singer) gave Tubb his guitar, on his death bed and wanted him to carry on. Tubb tried, but another singer, singing like Jimmy Rogers, just wasn't a money maker. So Ernest Tubb and the Texas Troubadours, changed their musical style to a "laid-back" Country Style, and he was an instant hit.

Throughout the '40s, Tubb was the man to take the US through WWII. He continued to have lots of play time, through out, the 50s, and his last song, that hit the charts was in 1964 or so, when he came out with, "Thanks, Thanks A Lot" and "One In the Row, and his Big Hit, the two chorded, "Waltz Across Texas." (I've use the Waltz song to teach hundreds of students how to play guitar. This is off the top of my head. A little research will probably find me wrong, but ... you can do the research, and I will gladly admit that I am mistaken.

The last few years of his life, he continued to play. His lead guitar man played simple one string lead-ins and riffs. They all wore White Stetson's and out of his group came legitiment stars in their own right. Charley Green? Again, ... a little research would easily find me wrong. The group played throughout the US, and one of his last appearances was at Joplin, Missouri, when he was an hour late and took the stage, drunk. A bad habit of a lot of stars, including the great Hank Williams. And Hank will be another, longer story.

I like Ernest Tubb music. He's dead, now, but he carries on with a big Country Store down town Nashville and at least one more in Austin, Texas. His Country Music was simple, crisp, laid-back, and cool.

2006-04-20T21:12:00.000-07:00

What is the difference between "Cowboy Music" and "Country Western Music?"

-----There is a lot of difference, I think. Cowboy Music's home-base, was in Hollywood. The Sons Of The Pioneers were created, over a time, in Hollywood. It was a "need-based" creation, I suppose, back in the early '30s when Westerns were big. Gene Autry was discovered in Oklahoma at a relay station singing Western songs, and quickly moved to Hollywood.

-----At the same time, Roy Rogers found his way to The Sons of the Pioneers, which lead him to a record contract as well as a film contract. As the industry churned out Western after Western, they needed Cowboy Songs, and the group was formed and reformed over the years. These guys were really singers and professional musicians. Jimmy Hindrix and the Beatles added much to our music history, but you simply cannot over-look the importance of the Sons Of The Pioneers. If you want to hear how great "The Pioneers," were, you can get your teacher to let you hear "The Ghost Riders in The Sky." They are absolutely phenominal.

-----Notice in the song below, that the four basic chord structure in any song, has gone beyond basic. C F G7 D, would be your basic chords for a song in the key of C. But look at the chords below. These guys were making music in the '30s, and their chording, even at that time, goes beyond the run-of-the-mill, Toby Keith song, wouldn't you say? Bear with me here, but looking over the chord structure, the song goes into a different key, ... with the chorus. Hmm. I need to pull my old guitar out and see what this song sounds like. By the way

Artist/Band: Sons Of The Pioneers
Lyrics for Song: Tumbling Tumbleweeds
Lyrics for Album: Rca Country Legends

*****
              Tumbling Tumbleweeds by Bob Nolan

Prelude:

      C                     F              C
      I'm a roaming cowboy, riding all day long
      G7                    C
      Tumbleweeds around me sing their lonely song.
      F                           C Cm6 A7
      Nights underneath a prairie moon,
      D7                      G
      I ride alone and sing a tune.

Chorus:

      F                      F7
      See them tumbling down,
      E                                 E7
      Pledging their love to the ground,
      F                       C        C#dim
      Lonely but free I'll be found
      G7                               C         C+
      Drifting along with the tumbling tumbleweeds.

      F                           F7
      Cares of the past are behind,
      E                           E7
      Nowhere to go but I'll find
      F                         C      C#dim
      Just where the trail will wind,
      G7                               C         C+
      Drifting along with the tumbling tumbleweeds.

        Fm6  G7             C           Am6# B7             Em  B7  G7
      I know when night has gone that a new world's born at dawn,

      F                       F7
      I'll keep rolling along,
      E                           E7
      Deep in my heart is a song,
      F                     C      C#dim
      Here on the range I belong,
      G7                               C     C7  C+
      Drifting along with the tumbling tumbleweeds.

Repeat from Chorus to end

Last time add:

      G7                               C   
      Drifting along with the tumbling tumbleweeds.


Toby Keith's Song, which is pretty much his theme song, now, was patterned after the stuff done by
The Sons Of The Pioneers, but look at the difference in chord structure.  Pretty Awesome if you ask me.



Artist: Toby Keith Tabs/Chords
Song: Should Have Been A Cowboy Tab in Key of G. No "Diminished Chords" on this song.

   Should Have Been a Cowboy
   by Toby Keith
   Transcribed by:  Keith Reding

   Played in a syncopated rhythm the same through out the song.

   Intro:  G | D | C | D | G | D | C | D

   D            G     D          C       D       G
   I bet you've never heard ole Marshall Dillion say
        D              C               D       G
   Miss Kitty have you ever thought of running away
   D        C             D
   Settling down will you marry me
   G    D         C                    D
   If I asked you twice and begged you pretty please
   G  D          C        D        G
   She'd of said Yes in a New York minute
        D               C
   They never tied the knot
       D            G  D
   His heart wasn't in it
           C          D
   Stole a kiss as he road away
   G        D        C                       D
   He never hung his hat up at Kitty's place


   Chorus:
                      G | D | C |D
   I should've been a Cowboy
   D                      G | D | C |D
   I should'be learned to rope and ride
   G          D           C          D
   wearing my six-shooter riding by pony
        G | D | C |D
   on a cattle drive
   D            G | D | C |D
   Stealing the young girl's hearts
   D         G | D | C |D
   Just like Gene and Roy
   D             G | D | C |D
   Singing those campfire songs
                      G | D | C
   I should've been a cowboy


   Verse 2

   I might of had a side kick with a funny name

   running wild through the hills chasing Jesse James

   Ending up on the brink of danger

   Riding shotgun for the Texas Rangers


   Go west yound man, haven't you been told

   California's full of whisky, women and gold

   Sleeping out all night beneath the Texas stars

   Dream in my eye and a prayer in my heart


   Chorus


Please, support Toby Keith. Guitar Chords, Tablatures
Buy: Toby Keith Sheet Music | Toby Keith CD | Toby Keith Posters
[ More Keith Toby Tablatures  |  More Toby Keith Chords ]


©2005 cowboylyrics.com


All lyrics are property and copyright of their owners. All lyrics provided for educational purposes only.

-----I found a great history of Cowboy Music and you will want to read it all. Remember, that this kind of music would never have formed in any other country in the world. Is that amazing, or what? Maybe Australia or countries in South America, but it didn't happen there. Only in the US. These guys played great chord progressions and had tight harmony, way back in the '30s, and Country Music, based in Nashville and now in Austin, Texas.

History of Cowboy Music

-----The sad thing is, one of my best guitar friends, who could play all of that and many time more, died in December at 76. His name was Bob Vaughn. He had a ... guitorgan ..., and he would blow everyone away. I am a guitar player, but Bob Vaughn, to me was the difference between a tsunami and a ripple. Do a google search on .. "guitorgan."

-----I'm watching Pink Floyd on the Tonight Show, and there in big time visability is a Hammond D-2 organ, the same type that the Beatles used on their White Album and probably most of their other albums around. Hammond is another Amerocan, musical name that you should google. It was an organ made differently than any other organs of the day and was present in Studio with Phillips in Memphis, where Johnny Cash and Elvis got their starts. David Gilmore is the lead singer and vocalist that is on right now with Pink Floyd. With Hammond D-2 organs, you will always find a Leslie Box. If you watch the videos of the early Mowtown stuff, you will see the D-2 setting on the uncovered floor, on the ground. Stevie Wonder probably got his early start on that organ. My M-3 Hammond is under the weather right now. I've got to tear it apart and see if I can find a loose connection.

-----Be ready for my next blog posting on American Indian Tribal Music. It consists of one drum and rattles. Considering, that I am sitting right in the middle of where this music comes from and am leap years ahead of Mr. Cecil, when it comes to this kind of music. Among American Indians, Blues Music is popular, as well.

The Caddo County Harpman

2006-04-14T21:13:00.000-07:00

Oh My Darling, Oh My Darling, Oh My Darling Clementine.

So a quick look at this website and what gives it away as a Public Domain song? Over the years I have memorized this song and unmemorized it. It is in 3/4 time, which means your pick hits the lowest string and then you pick roles over the other five or 4, three times. I hate that. I think it is so boring to get up and do a song like this without some fancy slaps and hits with your pick. My style of guitar playing is more like Folk Music, than it is like Country Music.

The above is not the ONLY Clementine site. I picked this one because it has an MP3 Download on it. I would love to for others to add new verses as they discover them.

1) In a cabin, in a canon,
An excavating for a mine;
Dwelt a miner, a forty-niner,
And his daughter Clementine.
Chorus:
Oh my darling, Oh my darling,
Oh my darling Clementine,
You are lost and gone forever,
Drefful sorry, Clementine.

2.	3.
She drove her ducklets, to the river Ev�ry morning just at nine; She stubb�d her toe, against a silver, And fell into the foaming brine. Chorus:	I saw her lips above the water, Blowing bubbles soft and fine; Alas for me, I was no swimmer, And so I lost my Clementine. Chorus:

I believe that should be "a sliver," don't you? A sliver is a piece of wood that goes into your skin at some place, like your foot or hand, but in a tornado, you can and will get them everywhere if you are not below ground.

I can remember us singing this song in our music class in Marland. We had a book for each of us, and we went through the book, just like it was an arithmetic book. I don't think we ever finished it, year in and year out. As a freshman (9th) grader, I won the lead roll in the "Junior/Senior Play." That shows how small that school was.

I will get out David Allan Coe's edition of this song, and put it here. He does a great job on that whole album. Coe spent time in prison; is covered with tatoos; blond hair below his shoulders; silver stuff coming through his nose and ears; and is overweight and wears a "Hell's Angels" jacket. Generally, Hells Angels describes outlaws who ride Harley-Davidsons and do drugs and "hell" bent on getting in trouble.

David Allen Coe
http://www.officialdavidallancoe.com/

I have a friend that was supposed to introduce him. He greeted David and told him what he was supposed to do, and David said, "#$%%%, nobody introduces ME, but myself."

2006-04-13T22:09:00.000-07:00

You Don't Even Call Me By My Name

-----Why am I putting this song on this blog? Why? Because it is one of my favorite songs ever written. Hopefully you will get a copy of this song and listen to it. It is just, incredibly written. Not by a long shot, Steve Goodman's greatest song, but it is one of the simplest Country Songs ever written and was a killer hit. It is still being played on CW stations across the US. Just how many Country stations are there in the US? I don't know, but I do know that there are more CW stations in the US, than any other type of radio stations right now I am listening to "The Killer" on SERIUS Radio. "The Killer" is the name for Jerry Lee Lewis.

-----This song still puts money into Steve Goodman's bank account. What is the greatest song ever written by Steve Goodman? I know the answer, so research it. What is the song and how many Country and Blues artists have "covered" it? That means, how many artists have put his greatest song on an their album with them singing it. Hint, ... even Ray Charles did a cover on it. I don't play it, because it is not an easy song for an ordinary guitarist.

THE REAL STEVE GOODMAN

-----It just so happens, I have a David Allan Coe album with a great "Clementine" cover. On a scale of 1 to 10, it is a 10. But David isn't a nice guy. Steve Goodman, was, though. Steve Goodman was a genious. Now, I just gave you the best Steve Goodman website on the planet, so I would love for you to browse it and see what you find. You would think stevegoodman.com should be his website. Wrong! The creep that grabbed that Internet name, at least, lists the REAL Steve Goodman, as the first two url's on his site. He is, though, very humble about the real Steve Goodman's genius. But if you just put, stevegoodman.com, you'll see, that there is a lot of difference between the two. Don't even bother to go to that site. The guy is not worth your time. Above, it is. Also, there is the Steve Goodman that wrote Gospel Music, which I have mentioned earlier.

-----Now, what is this blog about. Of course, nothing else but "Oh My Darling Clementine," one of the truly great songs of the American Western Wilderness. This is the first song that I screwed up, the first time I entered a talent contest at the small school we attended. It was embarrassing, but I did end up getting through the song.

You Don't Even Call Me By My Name
(Steve Goodman)

C ----------------------G
It was all that I could do
-----------------C
to keep from cryin'
F --------------------------------------C
sometimes it seems so useless to remain
F ---------------------------------------C
You don't have to call me darlin', darlin'
G----------------------------------C
You never even call me by my name.
C ---------------------G ---------------C
You don't have to call me Waylon Jennings
C--------------------- G ---------------------C
And you don't have to call me Charlie Pride.
F------------------------------ C--------------------- Am
You don't have to call me Merle Haggard, anymore.
D---------------------------------- G
Even though your on my fightin' side.

CHORUS
F ---------C
And I'll hang around as long as you will let me
G
And I never minded standin' in the rain.
F----------------------------------------- C
You don't have to call me darlin', darlin'
G ---------------------------------C
You never even call me by my name.

I've heard my name a few times in your phone book
I've seen it on signs where I've laid
But the only time I know, I'll hear David Allan Coe
Is when Jesus has his final judgement day.

(enter now the Steve Goodman story. The first half is played
with a background of C and G. Just before Steve writes back
with the perfect Country and Western song, it is just a straight
background C chord.) "Now Steve Goodman sent me this song and said, "David, this is the perfect Country Music song. And I wrote back and said, "Steve, it cannot be the perfect Country Western Song, because it doesn't say anything about Momma, getting drunk, pickup trucks, prison, rain, and trains." So Steve sat down and wrote another verse to the song and sent it to me, and I realized that it WAS the perfect Country Western song, and I am obliged to put it on this album."

Well, I was drunk the day my Mom got outta prison.
And I went to pick her up in the rain.
But, before I could get to the station in my pickup truck
She got runned over by a damned old train.

So I'll hang around as long as you will let me
And I never minded standin' in the rain. No,
You don't have to call me darlin', darlin'
C--------------------- G ---------F--------------------- C
You never even call me, I wonder why you don't call me
F -----------------C -----G ---C--- F ----C
Why don't you ever call me by my name.

Performed by: David Allan Coe (early 70's)

Make your teacher get the song and sing along with it. Somebody reads the spoken part. Some stations got revised copies of this song, where the verse with "Jesus" in it, wasn't played. I still sing this song and will sing it until I die, because, "... I don't mind standin' in the rain!"

Caddo County Harpman
Now you need to open the next blog about Clementine. That is my daughter in picture, teaching a child how to play the piano. She has a Performance Piano Degree from Cameron University and has her own Music Business called "Holli Hill Music Studio."

2006-04-13T21:49:00.000-07:00

Home On The Range

I am putting this song on the list because it is a must. I can remember singing this in my 5th grade music class. Yes, we had a class back in the 50s which taught music, in a small, small town in Oklahoma. Thanks to our present administration, very few small schools have music anymore. Been cut because of a silly program called No Child Left Behind.

Well, with the loss of music, there are lots of kids left behind. In our local school, we have music classes and smaller towns, lose students to our school, because the student's abilities are in music.

This is a great song to research. I would love everyone to comment on this song, throughout this session. Without a doubt, it IS a Public Domain song, with lots of verses added. I'd love to see additions to the verses below. And, how about the instant, negative vibes you get from the very first hit after you do a google on it.

You learn, right off, that it is the state song of Kansas. When we lived in Kansas, we lived as far to the North in Western Kansas. Nebraska was 11 miles away. After the first real snow, early in September, I realized that, my place in life, was not going to be Kansas, ... at least that far up in Kansas.

The first time I went out to shovel the snow, I ended up in bed with a pathetically bad back, and, if I was bad then, you can image what my back is like over 30 years later. So have fun, researching this song.

Home On The Range

Home on the range song
Camp Songs and Lyrics
Home on the range Recommend Bussongs.com
to a friend!
More about this song / Easy reading version with music

1st Verse:
Oh, give me a home, where the buffalo roam,
Where the deer and the antelope play,
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,
And the skies are not cloudy all day.

Chorus:
Home, home on the range,
Where the deer and the antelope play,
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,
And the skies are not cloudy all day.

2nd Verse:
Where the air is so pure, the zephyrs so free,
The breezes so balmy and light,
That I would not exchange my home on the range
For all the cities so bright.

Chorus

3rd Verse:
Oh, give me a land where the bright diamond sand
Flows leisurely down the stream;
Where the graceful white swan goes gliding along
Like a maid in a heavenly dream.

Chorus

4th Verse:
The red man was pressed from this part of the West,
He's likly no more to return
To the banks of Red River where seldom if ever
Their flickering campfires burn.

Chorus

5th Verse:
How often at night when the heavens are bright
With the light of the glittering stars,
Have I stood here amazed and asked as I gazed
If their glory exceeds that of ours.

Chorus

6th Verse:
Oh, I love these wild flowers in this dear land of ours;
The curlew I love to hear scream;
And I love the white rocks and the antelope flocks
That graze on the mountain-tops green.

Chorus

7th Verse:
Then I would not exchange my home on the range,
Where the deer and the antelope play;
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are not cloudy all day.

Chorus

2006-04-12T23:46:00.000-07:00

Who Am I

When I think of how He came so far from glory
Came to dwell among the lowly such as I
To suffer shame and such disgrace
On Mount Calvary take my place
Then I ask myself this question
Who am I?

Who am I that The King would bleed and die for
Who am I that He would pray not my will, Thy Lord
The answer I may never know
Why He ever loved me so
But to that old rugged cross He'd go
For who am I?

When I'm reminded of His words
I'll leave Him never
If you'll be true I'll give to you life forever
Oh I wonder what I could have done
To deserve God's only Son
To fight my battles until they're won
For who am I?

Who am I that The King would bleed and die for
Who am I that He would pray not my will, Thy Lord
The answer I may never know
Why He ever loved me so
But to that old rugged cross He'd go
For who am I?
But to an old rugged cross He'd go for, who am I?

By Rusty Goodman

A mens quartet consists of a bass, baritone (me) tenor, and a lead singer. The Oakridge Boys, is a great example of that. "Elvira, Elvira" with their phenomenal bass, Richard Sturbin. We saw Richard sing with the Stamps quartet, once. We actually went to see J. D. Sumner, but he had stopped singing as "The World's Lowest Bass," and was doing all of the booking. Richard is a phenomenal bass, and when the Stamps sang with Elvis, both Richard and J. D. Sumner sang in the quartet.

Surely, you have heard Elvis. If you get his album that has, "Way Down Low" on it, that is J. D. hitting those incredible, low notes. No electronic gimmickry; he actually could get down there and sing that low.

Soul Spark, Holli's group, sang a song called, last night, "Give up, let Jesus, take oh, oh, over. Give up, ... let Jesus, take over." We had sang that song around the house, and in church as well. Well, the kids did. Generally, Dad wasn't given the opportunity to get up there and sing with them. Boo Hoo. But that is my kids.

At the bottom of the words of the song, that was flashed on the screen through an iMac, (Nathan's concoction,) there at the bottom of the song "(c) Copyright by Howard Goodman (BMI)."

What is BMI, and how does it help musicians all over the world. Your quest is to look it up on google and find out what it is. It helps artists get paid for their music.

The music business is like the writing business. Song writers, write songs. They don't publish songs, unless they have incorporated their own publishing company, ala, J. D. Sumner. Sumner has written over 500 Gospel Songs. He says, "Elvis encouraged me to write." Yeah, right! J. D. was writing and publishing songs before Elvis was born.

The point is, that at the end of the chorus thay sang, yesterday evening, it listed the author. So, ... before you paste a song on your blog, do some research and find out who wrote it. Then list it at the bottom or the top. But most singers, sing other writer's songs. For years, Boudleaux and Felice Bryant wrote specific songs for the "Everly Brothers." When they switched labels, their first label had Boudleaux and Felice Bryant contracted to write for them. Thus, the only song that the Everly Brothers ever wrote and sang which topped the charts was a killer song, "Kathy's Clown," and my older brother always claimed that song as his theme song.

2006-04-09T20:51:00.000-07:00

Red Wing
(Words Thurland Chattaway; music Kerry Mills)

There once was an Indian maid,
A shy little prairie maid,
Who sang a lay, a love song gay,
As on the plain she'd while away the day;

Red Wing is a beautiful song that is considered Public Domain. Look it up on google and see what you come up with. A person, CANNOT, claim a copyright on a song that is in public domain. They can, though, claim a copyright on a list that they have hunted for, on the net, and the can copyright any new lyrics by them. Go to some of the public domain sites and see how ignorant websites are

when they claim all of the public domain songs they have collected are now, copyrighted by them. There is a lot to learn about copyrights, and the US recognizes INTELLECTUAL COPYRIGHTS.

Again, don't get bent out of shape on song titles. Bob Dylan has a song he wrote called, "Red Wing," and it is about a prison. Not the same, song, and Dylan has the copyright to his lyrics and tune, but not the tune for the song below.

The first time I heard the tune, is when my Grandpa Cook played it on his harmonica. I only heard him play, at most, 3 songs. My mother says, "Don't be silly; he played more songs than that." Maybe so, but I can't remember any other, than this one right here.

Grandpa would play his harmonica at the school when they had special events. He also played it at his home. His kids gave him a Hohner chromatic harmonica, but he didn't know how to play it. He only played diatonic harmonicas, or if he played the chromatic, it was in first position only. If I have heard a song, I can play it. Even songs with several sharps or flats, I can pick it out, if, ... I can remember the tune.

The Theme For Sesame Street was played by Jean "Toots" Thielemans, who lives in New York City, and is often called upon, to do scores on movies. The Theme from Sesame Street, cannot be played, to my knowledge, except by maybe Howard Levy, on a diatonic harp. The song is played in a cross harp position on a chromatic harmonica. I understand that Toots only received $40 for that gig, and I think I received that information from the man's computer.

But, I think Grandpa's favorite song was "Red Wing," and I can understand why. It is a beautiful melody. When I get Garage Band Down, we will place the song as a MP3 tune on this blog and on my webpage.

Also, don't be surprised if you see the Red Wing song, moved to 2 lines and I will then put in the needed chord changes on each word that leads into a phrase.

This song is definitely in Public Domain.

RED WING

She loved a warrior bold,
This shy little maid of old,
But brave and gay, he rode one day
To battle far away.

Now, the moon shines tonight on pretty Red Wing
The breeze is sighing, the night bird's crying,
For afar 'neath his star her brave is sleeping,
While Red Wimg's weeping her heart away.

She watched for him day and night,
She kept all the campfires bright,
And under the sky, each night she would lie,
And dream about his coming by and by;

But when all the braves returned,
The heart of Red Wing yearned,
For far, far away, her warrior gay,
Fell bravely in the fray.

The Caddo County Harpman!

2006-03-30T13:22:00.000-08:00

-----This is our granddaughter. She likes music, too, and enjoys getting up a singing in front of lots of people. She also likes to go to Indian gatherings and Pow Wows and dress up in her American Heritage dress. Her Indian name is "Girl in Red Dress." We go to pow wows, a lot and like them.

-----I have been singing all my life, and when I was little, I actually lead singing at the Marland Christian Church. That is why I love church music.

-----Fanny Crosby was a blind song writer. All of her stuff is Public Domain. Why? Duh! She lived and died in the 1800's and wrote a lot of great, great songs, that remain as the base for most hymnals. We can add verses to it, and copywrite that, but we cannot copyright her song nor the tune.

-----"The next time you sing an old, familiar hymn, look at the small print at the bottom of the page, and you probably will read the name of Fanny Crosby.
Throughout her long career, she wrote more than ....., gospel songs and hymns, many of which are still popular today. "To God Be The Glory," "Praise Him, Praise Him," "Tell Me The Story Of Jesus," "I Am Thine O Lord"—every song is a testimony of her love for Jesus Christ."

-----Notice, I put the above in quotes. Why? Because I didn't write it. It is on a webpage about Fanny, who was blind. Do a google search on Fanny Crosby and then make a post, paraphrasing her life of joy and trust.

-----In the 1800's many, many "church songs" were written. Why? No TV. No Radio. The main thing that people did was go to church and sing songs. Some times they would have howdowns and such, ... but the 1800s could be identified as a time that "Christian church songs ruled."

-----What are my favorite Fanny Crosby songs? Well, here goes a part of my list:

---------------"To God Be The Glory,"
---------------"Praise Him, Praise Him,"
---------------"Tell Me The Story Of Jesus,"
---------------"I Am Thine O Lord"
---------------"Jesus Is Calling,"
---------------"Nearer the Cross,"
---------------"All the Way My Savior Leads Me,"
---------------"Tis the Blessed Hour or Prayer."

-----When I sing these songs, I cannot keep from staring at Fanny's name and realizing that these hymns were sang in churches with wagons, pulled by horses, and horses, all scattered around the church house. Many times, they would bring their dinners and then would have "dinner on the ground," where the adults talked and the kids played "Red Light, Green Light."

-----I also think about helping my dad fix the little church up, in Marland, on the inside, shellacing the walls, and getting dizzy from smelling all the fumes. We had to raise the windows and then go out and wait for an hour, before we went back in.

-----Often times, preachers would hold church just one time a month, going from church to church preaching his sermons. Women didn't preach back then, but today, it is not uncommon to find women preachers. The church would still meet and have songs and local members would preach.

-----How many hymns did she write? I am not telling you. Do a google on Fanny Crosby+hymns, and you will find out how many she wrote. To say she was a prolific writer, is to short-change her, big time.

C-------C7--------F
Jesus, keep me near the cross,
C ---------------G7
There a precious fountain
C ---------------F
Free to all, a healing stream
C---------- --G7 ------------C
Flows from Calvary’s mountain.

Refrain

In the cross, in the cross,
Be my glory ever;
Till my raptured soul shall find
Rest beyond the river.

Near the cross, a trembling soul,
Love and mercy found me;
There the bright and morning star
Sheds its beams around me.

Refrain

Near the cross! O Lamb of God,
Bring its scenes before me;
Help me walk from day to day,
With its shadows o’er me.

Refrain

C----------C7---------- F
Near the cross, Near the cross.
C --------------------G7
Hoping, trusting ever,
C ----------C7----F-----------F
Till I reach the golden strand,
C -----------------G7 C
Just beyond the river.

(Chording by Dale Hill)

This song, I have, pretty much memorized. Is it not an incredible song? I love it. Down in the Wichita Mountains, they have a little church there made out of stones. Many people get married there, and I have been down there for weddings and actually sang in the church.

But, ... if there are no weddings, the church has a sound system where it pipes out Christian Hymnal Songs, just like this one all the day long. It's awesome and inspirational. I love to go in that church and just listen to the music. The music in the church wouldn't be called, today's Gospel Music, though it is. The songs, here, are all old hymns with which we grew up.

I will talk about other old Public Domain song writers whom had an incredible influence on my and my family's life. I could not get along well in his life, if it wasn't for Christian songs.

Watch the movie directed by Robert Duvall and staring him named, "The Prophet." He had wanted to shoot that movie for 10 years, before he had the money to produce it. June Carter starred in that movie as his, ol' time mother, and believe me, you will laugh at how she tried to always keep his attention.

You don't have to be a Christian, to appreciate the music. If you were to study professional piano, you would be forced/required to learn from some of the old masters who wrote all this classical stuff, which was written as Christian music.

Caddo County Harpman.
Dale 9 -)

(C) Dale Hill 2006

2006-03-26T18:37:00.001-08:00

-----Howdy From Oklahoma! This time of year, the Red Buds are blooming and our pear tree is full of blossoms. My neighbor has started a garden, when he distinctly told me he was not going to make one. I will be successful, this spring, if I can get the Roto Tiller running again. I need to clean out the carburator, empty the gas, and put on a new throttle, and, of course, do other mundane things to the Troy Built, like adjust the new throttle, change the oil, and put in new gas.

-----Red Bud blossoms mean that the white, sand bass are biting at Fort Cobb Lake, and the walleye have moved into the rip-rap areas of the dam to spawn, feed, and move to the surface, around sundown. I've been fishing once, this year, but it is my goal to get over there and do some bait fishing.

-----I have been married to Marcella a long time. We have 5 kids who are all grown, 3 grand kids, not including a foster daughter and grandaughter, and two informally adopted grand children, who otherwise would not have grand parents. My daughter, Holli, is a Nationally Certified Music Educator, with a degree in Performance Piano, and has her own business in Lawton, Holli Hill Piano Studio, while Nathan plays the guitar and the bass, as he goes to Wesleyan Seminary, in Washington, DC. He is a free-lance writer and is considered a staff writer for DisciplesWorld Magazine. He has two books published and writes and performs music in Washington, DC at "open mic" venues in the area.

-----My oldest son, Darrin and his wife, Jill, both are interested in music and musical wordsmyths. Darrin works for the Oklahoma Wildlife Division of our state government, and Jill teaches Social Studies in the Edmond School System. Our youngest daughter, Drema, is an Oklahoma Certified Beauty Operator. She is breastfeeding, successfully, her baby, Seth, and works inside of one of the local WalMarts, cutting the hair of Army men and women from Ft. Sill, the US's artillery range.

-----I am a 34 year retired teacher. Marcella works at a hospital and is an Internationally Board Certified Lactation Consultant. She spent one year at Ozark Bible College and then received her Licensed Practical Nursing degree from Emporia, Kansas Vo-Tech.

-----I graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 1968 and received my masters degree in 1976, from Fort Hayes University in Hayes, Kansas. While we were in Kansas, we lost our first child and then had a boy and a girl. So we have 3 Sooners and 2 Jay Hawkers. You can find out all about me by going to www.dalehill.us. You can also hit my web page by putting "googlezapp" (c) 2004, or "zelaxx" in google. A googlezapp is a word put in google's search machine, that leads to one web site and one only. I have a copyright on the name "googlezapp." In the United States, the instant you write something for publication or non-publication, it is instantly copyrighted. I want to dwell on that topic as we delve into the musical heritage of Oklahoma, which is diverse and significant, when it comes to the genre of Americana Music History.

-----Woody Guthrie migrated from Okeema, Oklahoma in the '30s and '40s, to protest work-place abuses, and supported worker causes. Just finished watching a movie about him. He caught trains to move from one place to the other. Back then, train-hoppers were called "Hobos." Jimmy Rogers, a prolific writer, who was from Mississippi, and was influenced by Guthrie as well; and Rogers' significant contribution to Americana music was, Country Blues. I sing a lot of Jimmy Rogers' songs and couldn't live without pulling much from his influence in my life.

----------Looky yonder coming, coming down that railroad track.
----------I said, "Lookie yonder coming, coming down that railroad track.
----------See the black smoke roling, roling out that old smoke stack.

----------If you don't love me baby, then I just don't need you.
----------If you don't love me baby, then I surely don't need you.
----------I'll just pull out my ax, and sing the hobo blues.
----------Yo De La De Lo De Lady O De Looo.

-----Merle Haggard's parents moved from Oklahoma to California in the 30's, and Hag grew up to be a petty thief and spent time in Folsom Prison, where he heard Johnny Cash, who came from this part of the country, Dias, Arkansas. "The Hag's" influence on Country Music is unquestioned, as a great singer, song writer, guitar player, and fiddle player. We will spend one blog topic on The Hag and possibly more, whose one song, "Okie From Muskogee," put him in the Country Music history book.

-----"If I were to die," said Merle. "I would want to be remembered as a great fiddler."

-----He actually learned the fiddle later on in life. A fiddle and a violin are exactly the same instrument, except in Country Music and Blue Grass Music, the violin is called a "fiddle." The fiddle does not have frets - a fretless musical instrument, which it shares with the tall, upright bass. Again, a part of the Americana Music History.

-----I have played with many bands, but none on a regular basis. I consider myself as an entertainer, rather than part of a band. I have the most fun, though, when I am playing my harmonicas with a band. Few people in Oklahoma have mastered the harmonica, and right now, it is a big part of Gospel Music and Country Music. Bob Dylan used it as the bridge between the chorus and the verses, as well as a bridge between the full verses and at the end of each phrase. Of course, Dylan took Woodie's harp and put it to use in most of his songs, including "Like A Roling Stone." My grandpa played the harmonica, and I was influenced, certainly by him. Once I learned to play the harmonica, I moved on to learn to play the guitar. And, dig this, I didn't really learn to play the guitar until I had graduated from college.

-----Yes, I have used my guitar extensively, over the years, in the classroom settings. It means that you can pick up the guitar at any age, and learn to play it. You can't play basketball the rest of your life, but you can die, playing a musical instrument, which has happened to two of my friends. David, in the Old Testament played musical instruments and soothed King Saul when the king was overcome with depression. Playing a musical instruments, like writing, helps those of us who are depressed.

-----Walking through Sears a few weeks, ago, I spotted a Vinci ukulele, which was made in China, and bought it, and within two weeks, I would not be scared to get up and play it in front of a group. In fact, ... considering the time that it took me to learn to play it, I would suggest that a guitar player, might be better off learning the ukulele first and then graduate to a guitar later. I actually knew a guy that did just that at the University of Oklahoma.

-----While in college, I had little time to learn to play the guitar, and the guitar that I had was worthless. When buying a guitar, we need to look at the distance between the strings and the frets. The frets are the little pieces of steel that go across the neck of the guitar. The higher they are apart, the less likely a student would be able to play the guitar. I have taught hundreds of people to play the guitar, and my advice has always been, if you want to play the guitar, then invest a couple of hundred dollars on your first guitar. Why? Well, a 200 dollar guitar would be considered an intermediate level guitar, which has potential for a first timer, to learn to play on it. Secondly, ... if you spend 200 dollars or more on a guitar, then you have a significant investment in the guitar and will be more likely to learn to play it.

-----I have taught students, individually, but the main way I have taught guitar is in a group setting or class for adults at Caddo-Kiowa Vocational Technical Center. I taught for over 20 years, until my blood pressure forced me to say goodbye to doing anything in the evenings, when my pressure tends to creep up. It was fun, over the years, and I have made a lot friends doing just that. My son, Nathan, and his friend, John, both signed up for the class, and I paid their tuition. They were beyond motivated to play the guitar, and by the second semester in the 7th grade, after one semester's work, they formed their own band and played throughout high school. John is the only student from his entire family to get a college degree, Social Studies major and a minor in Music.

-----Now go back to the Jimmy Roger's style verses, listed above. The second verse is mine, and the song would be an example of 12 bar Blues*. It is virtually impossible to write a 12 bar Blues song and not engage in this traditional form of the song, and I do believe that a copyright for any song that adheres to this style is still possible, in the aura of the groove and the nature of the new words. If you listen closely, there is a relationship between the 12 bar Blues and Rock and Role Music.

----------You ain't nothing but a hound dog, crying all the time.
----------I said, You ain't nothing but a hound dog, crying all the time.
----------You ain't caught a rabbit and you ain't no friend of mine.

-----Now, as we study this basic form of Blues, please note that each line receives its own line. This is the traditional method of pasting a song's word on paper or on the Internet. The words are not just jumbled together, but are published in a poetic form. Generally, too, the lines have two full spaces, with a space between each line. If you are interested in learning to play the guitar or Uke, then, on that blank line, we would place the chord above the chord changes. Virtually all songs written, start on one note and will end on that same note, with little exception.

-----I've sung or studied songs all my life, and both, rather intensely, since I was 24 years old. So, if you are interested in a specific song's "lyrics," and that is what they are called, and have purchased a Uke, I will do my best to post the chords for the song. But remember, virtually any song ever written, by now, can be found on the Internet. So to save me time, be sure to put the words of a song, as written, and paste them into google. You should find a hit with the words and the chords published somewhere. I will also spend some time on tablature.

-----Then, I would love it, if you would repaste that song onto your blog in the form it is posted in the manner that you found it. It should be fun.

-----The amazing thing about the Internet, now, is that there are sites everywhere that help you learn to play a stringed instrument. So, ... as we work through this examination of Americana Music and indigenous music of Oklahoma, here in the United States, we should have much fun. And, remember too, that the crafter of song writing uses his craft to write songs that can reach each of us in an inclusively, different way.

-----So, let us plow forward, as we have fun studying the Music of Americana. Remember, always give credit to the song writer, and not the singer, only. The song writer makes more than the singer, when it comes to the retail value of the CD.

OLD RIVERS
Walter Brennan
Words and music by Crofford (that's all I wrote at the time I transcribed
it -- years ago)

HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN SINCE I FIRST SEEN OLD RIVERS?
WHY, I CAN'T REMEMBER WHEN HE WEREN'T AROUND.
WELL, THAT OLD MAN DID A HEAP OF WORK;
SPENT HIS WHOLE LIFE WALKING PLOWED GROUND.

HE HAD A ONE-ROOM SHACK NOT FAR FROM US,
AND WE WAS ABOUT AS POOR AS HIM.
HE HAD ONE OLD MULE HE CALLED "MIDNIGHT",
AND I'D TAG ALONG AFTER THEM.

HE'D PLOW THEM ROWS STRAIGHT AND DEEP
AND I'D TAG ALONG BEHIND,
BUSTIN' UP CLODS WITH MY OWN BARE FEET --
OLD RIVERS WAS A FRIEND OF MINE.

THAT SUN WOULD GET HIGH AND THAT MULE WOULD WORK
TILL OLD RIVERS'D SAY, "WHOA!"
THEN HE'D WIPE HIS BROW, LEAN BACK IN THE REINS,
AND TALK ABOUT A PLACE HE WAS GONNA GO.

(CHORUS)
SAY, ONE OF THESE DAYS I'M GONNA CLIMB THAT MOUNTAIN;
WALK UP THERE AMONG THEM CLOUDS,
WHERE THE COTTON'S HIGH AND THE CORN'S A-GROWIN',
AND THERE AIN'T NO FIELDS TO PLOW.

I GOT A LETTER FROM BACK HOME THE OTHER DAY --
THEY'RE ALL FINE, AND THE CROPS IS HIGH --
AND DOWN AT THE END MY MAMA SAID,
"YOU KNOW, OLD RIVERS DIED."
I'M JUST SITTING HERE ON THIS NEW-PLOWED EARTH,
TRYIN' TO FIND ME A LITTLE SHADE.
AND WITH THE SUN BEATING DOWN, 'CROSS THE FIELD I SEE
THAT MULE, OLD RIVERS...AND ME

(repeat CHORUS) From: "Roy T. O'Conner"

Caddo County Harpman (ccharpman) google "googlezaapp"

NEWEST BLOG

http://okharpman.blogspot.com/2006_03_01_okharpman_archive.html
*

The most common musical form of blues is the 12-bar blues. The term "12-bar" refers to the number of measures, or musical bars, used to express the theme of a typical blues song. Nearly all blues music is played to a 4/4 time signature, which means that there are four beats in every measure or bar and each quarter note is equal to one beat.

A 12-bar blues is divided into three four-bar segments. A standard blues progression, or sequence of notes, typically features three chords based on the first (written as I), fourth (IV), and fifth (V) notes of an eight-note scale. The I chord dominates the first four bars; the IV chord typically appears in the second four bars (although in the example below, Elmore James introduces it in the first four bars); and the V chord is played in the third four bars.

The lyrics of a 12-bar blues song often follow what's known as an AAB pattern. "A" refers to the first and second four-bar verse, and "B" is the third four-bar verse. In a 12-bar blues, the first and second lines are repeated, and the third line is a response to them—often with a twist.

(blues.com ... I think.)

Oklahoma Music

Is this public domain or what!

1) Red River Valley

The Flaming Lips

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Artist/Band: Sons Of The PioneersLyrics for Song: Tumbling TumbleweedsLyrics for Album: Rca Country Legends

Artist/Band: Sons Of The Pioneers
Lyrics for Song: Tumbling Tumbleweeds
Lyrics for Album: Rca Country Legends