Tag: original song

Original Song: 8th Anniversary for Erika

So, here is how this happened.

Monday Night: I mention to my wife, Erika, that I'm thinking about playing some Call of Duty: United Offensive tomorrow night with the boys.  She asks, "Are we doing anything tomorrow?"  Instantly I get my sinking feeling in my gut.  What have I forgotten now?  Is tomorrow Valentine's day?  No, that doesn't make sense.... this is June.  Hrm.  So, I go ahead and hang myself by asking, "What's tomorrow?"   Yup.  You guessed it.  It was our 8th wedding anniversary.

Tuesday Afternoon: During an insanely busy day at work, I keep playing Ukulele between stabs of productivity at the keyboard.  It's time for the hail Mary pass.  It's time for an authentic anniversary love song for my baby doll.  But, more than that, it's time to deliver it on our actual wedding anniversary.  As you've seen in the past, I normally deliver these a day or so after the special event.  Come hell or high water, that was not happening this time!

So, here it is.  Four verses even!  Of course, there isn't a bridge yet, but I can work on that down the road.

If you are interested in the chords and words (Hay, maybe your life is exactly like mine so you can re-use the song for your wife?):

F# C#7 F# A# B C#

8 years ago, we got joined, in holy matrimony
then I took the band and left you while we toured around Estonia
In those two weeks I knew that I needed to be near ya
wherever you are I'll follow you and make your "there" our "here"-a

C# fiddly part

7 years ago, we told just about everyone who'd listen
that the world was too damn full for us to put any more kids in
well it turns out that we that last part wrong
you need at least 4 voices to sing our family's song (maybe just 4, eh?)

D#min B F#
C# D#min B C#7

We got engaged for all time
or at least the rest of our lives

And I'd be lying if I didn't admit
that I think I got the better deal by more than a little bit

6 years ago we got ourselves a towheaded something special
I thank my lucky stars that we weren't being careful
I can't imagine our empty lives without that tiny babe
Sure we'd get more sleep,  but we can do that in the grave

4 years ago, we decided to make our boy a brother
and even though they fuss and fight I know they love each other
who coulda guessed that ours hearts had holes inside
that our boys patched right up because they were exactly the right size

Chorus

 

Video: You Didn’t Have a Girl (the making of)

Hmm..  I totally thought I had posted this song already, but it looks like I was wrong.  So, here's the deal.  This Christmas, Erika (my wife) and I agreed to not spend very much money on presents for each other.  So, I had to sort of get creative.  Luckily, I'm the king of pulling a song out of my hat with a moment's notice.  And, this time I had helpers!

Or, rather, anti-helpers as the case may be.  You see, I decided to involve my two sons in the recording process.  In hindsight, this was a terrible idea, but the end result turned out great.  It was just incredibly painful.  They fight like cats and dogs on a good day and (as you can tell from their jammies) it was getting on in the day.

Anyhoo, I made the process even more painful by videotaping parts of the recording "session" with my Flip MinoHD.  I had actually forgotten that I had done this until I found the videos today.  So, I decided to finally give Adobe Premiere a shot and try and do some video editing.  This is my first editing attempt so please be gentle.  You should just be lucky I wasn't doing "star wipes" all over the place. Also, I guess I have to figure out how to edit it without that black border around the whole thing. If you are an Premiere genius, then I welcome your input.

If you want to hear the finished product, then give this a listen: Ukulele Guy - You Didn't Have a Girl

Oh yeah, and I was using my aNueNue Banjolele in this song.

NOTE: Of course, after I already uploaded this video and wrote the post I realized what I did wrong in Premiere.  The next video won't have those annoying black bars around it.  I'm not sure I'm going to re-do it, though, because I don't see a way to do that easily without starting all the way over.  And, I'm way to lazy for that.

Tabs: Trailer Park Moms

Well, John asked for chords for Trailer Park Moms so here ya go.  Don't spend it all in one place.  Hmm.. for some reason it didn't format right, but I think you can get the idea.  Just play along to the video.  Heh.

Bb                                                                                               C           F          Bb
Oh trailerpark moms are the funnest moms because they let you smoke weed
Bb                                                                                            C                                   Bb
trailer park moms are the funnest moms cause they get drunk and yell at the tv
Bb                                       Eb                                          F                                       Bb
trailer park moms are the funnest moms cause they let you pet the cat with cherry bombs
Bb                                                                                     C            F         Bb
trailer park moms are the funnest moms cause they let you smoke weed

Eb                                                                                       F
and the only thing better in the world than dating a trailer park girl
Bb                                                     Gm
is dating a girl with a trailer park mom
Eb
cause she's guaranteed to be hot
F
and if she's not
Bb                                                    Gm
she's like 100% likely to try and make it with you
Eb
like maybe she walks out of the shower topless
F
cause she "forget" that you were there
Bb                                                                                 Gm
yeah, that's the kind of shit that a guy could get used to
Eb                                             F                             Bb
and I used to.  I used to get used to you.  Oh trailer park mom

Bb - 3211
C   - 0001
F - 2010
Eb - 3331
Gm - 0231

Original Video: Trailer Park Moms

I wanted to keep my momentum going, so I recorded this little video today.  Before I get into the song, I wanted to bring something up.  See, I guess when it comes to music and art, I'm sort of a Marxist.  By that I mean, if you are telling someone they can't appreciate art correctly unless they know Art History then you are basically saying, "You can't appreciate art because you are poor and didn't go to college".  That's lame.  By the same token, sure if all you can afford is a $20 ukulele, then that shouldn't mean you can't make art with it!

Now, let me get off of my soapbox because I'm pretty sure I just called my song "art".  Heh.  It isn't.  It is, however, a goofy novelty song and that's plenty good enough for me.  I wrote this song for a project with my brothers Colin and Bryan and we were going to call it "Those Damned Hickey Brothers".  But we never practice, so I'm not sure if we're really a band or not.  You know how sometimes you get drunk with your friends and talk about ridiculous things like road trips to Mexico that you are never going to take?  Well, I guess our band is like that.

I'm playing my wife's purple Mahalo ukulele in this video.  I bought it for her because I was already buying two Mahalos for my little boys and she expressed an interest.  For $20, it's pretty much the best Ukulele you can get, if you ask me.  This is especially true if you are buying a ukulele for a younger kid.  Sure, in a perfect world you'd buy Jr. a Kala, Ohana, Pono or other bitchin' ukulele.  But, let's be honest, they are going to break it in like 6 weeks... tops.

So, get them a Mahalo because it's inexpensive and totally playable.

Now... on to the song and possible offensiveness.

Original Song Video: Victorian Farm Failure Love Song

Yeah, say that title three times fast.  I dare ya!  Heh.  Well, I'll let the video do most of the talking on this one since I, apparently, can't record a Ukulele video without talking through half of the damn thing.  I really like the sound of my own voice, I guess?

If you are intersted in the chords or words, I've posted them below.

F
The plowhorse went lame
Gm
the wheat crop failed
F
when the well went dry
A#dim (0202)
I knew that the rest was sure to follow
Bb                     C
looks like the pretty life we planned yesterday
A7         A     Bb
gonna turn to dust tomorrow
Bb                              C              A7
and the day after that is gonna be more of the same
Bb                              C
Well you said that it wasn't my fault
A7         Dm
but I know that was a lie
Bb                              C              A7                      Bb
it's just that you couldn't bear to let all that pain and sadness back inside
Gm                C
You just couldn't admit
Gm                C
that maybe it was wrong
Gm                         C                  F
to fall for a guy cause he wrote you a pretty song.

F
The roof still leaks
Gm
The Barn's collapsed
F
It hasn't rained for weeks
A#dim
and I know that the worst has yet to get here

Bb           C
You said youy'd stay with me forever
A7            A          Bb
but we both know that's not right
Bb                              C              A7
Why you and the children run off the farm tonight
Bb                              C
Well you said that it wasn't my fault
A7         Dm
but I know that was a lie
Bb                              C              A7                      Bb
it's just that you couldn't bear to let all that pain and sadness back inside
Gm                C
You just couldn't admit
Gm                C
that maybe it was wrong
Gm                         C                  F
to fall for a guy cause he wrote you a pretty song.
Gm                  C
So baby, if this is it
Gm                  C
If this is the very last so long
Bb                            C                 F
I'm still glad it was me what wrote that pretty song

P.S.  This video was made with my Lanikai CK-TEQ Tenor Ukulele.