Nov 2025 – willowdot21

Song Lyrics Sunday: Because it’s there!

Good morning everyone it’s time for Jim Adams , or gracious host for Song Lyric Sunday . This week Jim has the delectable Di from pensitivity101. As his guest.

So without further ado let’s see what Di’s prompt was: This week the theme is to find a song that mentions either a Hill or a Mountain”

Well I have chosen two songs this week both by Artists I have used before. In fact my first song Mountain by Sam Ryder I have used before. But it’s such a great song and it’s so inspiring. Below Sam talks about the first TV showing of Mountain and what it means to him. Below that two videos of the song both including people from the Global campaign with Ottobock who Sam worked with. I know I go on about this young man but he is such a genuine person… I think he might be one of those angels in disguise that exist in this world to help us conquer our Mountains…mental or Physical.

Mountain” is a song by English singer and songwriter Sam Ryder. It was released on 12 May 2023 through Parlophone Records. It was written and co-produced by Ryder along with Jimbo Barry and Lewis Allen. Lyrically about perseverance and overcoming and conquering life obstacles, it received its first televised performance at the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool. The song peaked at number 35 on the UK Singles Chart, becoming Ryder’s second top 40 entry in his home country. The song was produced for a global brand campaign with Ottobock, and some of their disabled performers joined Ryder onstage at Eurovision.

“It was lyrically inspired by fans that Ryder had met through on his tour and how they overcame obstacles in their lives. “We often say that things in our lives are like mountains, you know, like with something we’ve got to overcome and hop over and conquer for life to get great again. But this song is flipping that narrative and saying that you are the mountain and down in the valley below is all that you’ve overcome.’ that was Sam Ryder talking about his new single on Virgin Radio UK.

Mountain

Song by Sam Ryder ‧ 2023

Rough seas might pull me under, and
Dark clouds might dim my days
But there’s always bright tomorrows when
I close my eyes and say

“Remember how you’ve made it through the fire?
Remember how you’ve come so far?
An unstoppable force of nature
Yeah, that’s what you are”

I know all that I have lost
Has given me the purpose of
Conquering my pain through love
I sing this hymn to rise above

I am a mountain, and down in the valley below
Is all that I’ve overcome, all that I’ve overcome, whoa
I am a mountain, and down in the valley below
Is all that I’ve overcome, all that I’ve oh-oh-overcome, oh

Oh-oh-overcome, oh
I’m a fighter, it’s like I was born to be one

Whatever life may throw, I’ll pass the test
Whatever fate might dream upon me next
I’ll stand with my head to the sky
Unshaken by thunder and winds and the tide

I know all that I have lost
Has given me the purpose of
Conquering my pain through love
I sing this hymn to rise above

I am a mountain (ah, yeah), and down in the valley below
Is all that I’ve overcome, all that I’ve overcome, whoa
I am a mountain (I am a mountain), and down in the valley below
Is all that I’ve overcome, all that I’ve oh-oh-overcome, oh (alright)

Oh-oh-overcome
Whoa

I am a mountain (hey), and down in the valley below
Is all that I’ve overcome, all that I’ve overcome, whoa
I am a mountain, and down in the valley below
Is all that I’ve overcome, it’s all that I’ve
All that I’ve, all that I’ve, all that I’ve overcome, oh, oh (yeah)

Oh-oh-overcome (it’s time that I overcome), oh, oh
Oh-oh-overcome (it’s time that I overcome), oh, oh
Oh-oh-overcome
I’m a fighter, it’s like I was born to be one

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Sam Robert Robinson AKA Sam Ryder along with Jimbo Barry and Lewis Allen

Mountain lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Ltd.

🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶

My second song is Blue Ridge Mountains from Fleet Foxes. A great group…. I know they are because my friend Clive says so and he should know!

“Blue Ridge Mountains” is a 4-minute and 25-second song by the American indie folk band Fleet Foxes, released on their 2008 self-titled debut album, *Fleet Foxes*. The track is the tenth song on the album, which is known for its blend of ageless folk and classic rock influences, echoing with vivid imagery of mountains, birds, and family.

Fleet Foxes is the debut studio album by American band Fleet Foxes, released on June 3, 2008, by Sub Pop and Bella Union. The album garnered wide praise from critics, many of whom named it one of the best albums of the 2000s and one of the greatest debut albums of all time.

Lyrics

Lie down with me, my dear
Lie down
Under stormy night
Tell nobody

My brother, where do you intend to go tonight?
I heard that you missed your connecting flight
To the Blue Ridge Mountains, over near Tennessee

You’re ever welcome with me any time you like
Let’s drive to the countryside, leave behind some green-eyed look-a-likes
So no one gets worried, no
So no one gets worried, no

Blue Ridge Mountains lyrics © Foxes Fellowship, Spit Comet Music

But Sean, don’t get careless
I’m sure it’ll be fine
I love you, I love you
Oh, brother of mine

In the quivering forest
Where the shivering dog rests
Our good grandfather
Built a wooden nest

And the river got frozen
And the home got snowed in
And a yellow moon glowed bright
‘Til the morning light

Terrible am I, child?
Even if you don’t mind

In the quivering forest
Where the shivering dog rests
Our good grandfather
Built a wooden nest

And the river got frozen
And the home got snowed in
And a yellow moon glowed bright
‘Til the morning light

Terrible am I, child?
Even if you don’t mind, no

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Robin Pecknold

Blue Ridge Mountains lyrics © Foxes Fellowship, Spit Comet Music

HAPPY SUNDAY EVERYONE 💜💜💜

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Nov. 29, 2025

Ping went my phone it was LindaGHill letting me know that her prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday had arrived. Here is what what it said! “Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “crumb.” Use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!“

Crumbs, can mean : Crumbs from food. It can be an explanation of fear, joy, surprise or fear.

Crumbs from the table : means you get the leftovers or are given rubbish begrudgingly.

Crummy can mean rubbish, damaged original cheap goods. To be treated crummily means you were treated shoddily or unkindly.

To Crumble down or fall apart, fall down, a building due to age,damage or bad workmanship. If a person crumbles they fall apart emotionally.

A crummy mystery

Crumbs! All over the worktop and the kitchen floor.
A neat trail leading to the back door!
Where was the crumble she’d cooked the night before.
Is that a mark of a paw or a claw
Was it the dog or was it the cat
Who stole the crumbly crumble off the oven mat?
“Oh Crumbs ” what am I to do
Talk of crumbs from the table and everywhere else too!
Well it’s no crumble for me or you too.

Oh goodness me what can I do
This crummy mystery is making me blue.

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Sam Ryder to Star in Jesus Christ Superstar 2026.

News about Sam and a couple of Christmas songs .💜💜

Thats our boy… And next year he’s is going to play Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar! …guess who is going! Yes we are!

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Wordless Wednesday . Energy power up.

Part of Wordless Wednesday with Melinda and poetisatinata.

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Cinquain Poetry Prompt 28: SURVIVE is your inspiration.

I would like to wish all our American friends a very happy Thanksgiving and I have combined my wishes with RONOVANWRITES CINQUAIN Poetry Challenge .

Gather
Close together
Family united
Foods of the seasons,Thanksgiving.
Loving.

Survive
Life was so hard
Weather, illness, hardship.
They struggled so hard and still they
Made it.

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One-Liner Wednesday – What did you do yesterday?

We visited our eldest son, he lives by the coast about an hour and a half away from us. We drove there in our fully charged E.V. Just before we got to his house we topped up our car so as not to have to do so on the way home at night. When we’d charged, it took twenty minutes,great, but then we could not unhook the car. That took two phone calls and three quarters of an hour?

The drive home was a challenge too with Motorways closed and tricky diversions. Good job we had lots of electricity…we needed it!

Moral of the story: Don’t trust anything he prepared for the unexpected.

Part of LindaGHill’s One Liner Wednesday

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#TankaTuesday Poetry Challenge No. 40, Double Ennead, 11/25/2025

Welcome to another edition of Tanka Tuesday. This week your host is Melissa, from Mom With a Blog. Melissa says “Here in the United States, this Thursday we celebrate Thanksgiving. Really, every day is a good day to give thanks.” Today, let’s write Double Enneads. The Double Ennead is a form created by Colleen Chesebro for 99-word stories at Carrot Ranch. The Double Ennead is composed of three stanzas of 33 syllables each, for a total of 99. Each stanza has lines with the following syllable counts: 6/5/11/6/5. For an example of a Double Ennead poem, click here.

The first Thanksgiving

She sits at the table
Hands joined in prayer
Food on the table that everyone will share.
The natives had helped them
Thank God they’d survived.

The winds were against them
Blew them off of course.
Harsh conditions and desease killed half of them.
The Wanpanoag people
Were a caring race.

How could she ever know
These harsh times would flow
That people would thrive and tame the wilderness.
God guided them to there.
Praise be to the Lord

🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁

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Song Lyrics Sunday: Water Courses.

This week the theme for Jim Adam’s Song Lyric Sunday is to find a song that mentions a River/Stream/Creek/Brook. The prompt is suggested by Di of pensitivity101.

Our weekly host Jim says “Take some time to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this music challenge, and even better, read as many of them as you can as you will probably find many enjoyable songs and it is quite possible that you will learn a thing or two. “

My first song this week is a great song written in 1974 by Al Green. This was three years after getting married . We were living in Devon, we had had our eldest he was a year old and I was expecting our second lad.

“Take Me to the River” is a 1974 song written by singer Al Green and guitarist Mabon “Teenie” Hodges. Hit versions were recorded by Syl Johnson, Talking Heads, and Delbert McClinton. In 2004, Green’s original version was ranked number 117 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Green’s 1974 recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2011.Al Green originally recorded the song for his 1974 album, Al Green Explores Your Mind, produced by Willie Mitchell and featuring musicians Charles, Leroy and Mabon “Teenie” Hodges (of The Hodges Brothers), drummer Howard Grimes, and the Memphis Horns. Green and Mabon Hodges wrote the song while staying in a rented house at Lake Hamilton, Arkansas, for three days in 1973 in order to come up with new material. According to Mitchell, Green wrote the words and Green and Hodges wrote the tune together.nGreen dedicated his performance on the record to “…Little Junior Parker, a cousin of mine, he’s gone on but we’d like to kinda carry on in his name.” According to one writer, “Green’s song squares the singer’s early religious convictions with more earthly interests”, but when the singer became a pastor of the Full Gospel Tabernacle Church in 1976, he dropped the song from his repertoire.

Writing in The Independent in 1994, Tim de Lisle wrote: “Musically, it was much like any other track sung by Green and produced by Willie Mitchell, the Southern-soul maestro who ran Hi Records, the Memphis Horns and the Memphis Strings: R’n’B with lashings of subtlety, a light, easy, late-night sound, in which the strings, the horns, the organ, the guitars and that wild-honey voice blend into a single swinging, winning thing. It doesn’t sound like a band playing: it sounds like a lot of instruments humming.”The song was released as a single in the U.S. in 1982, in the “Motown Yesteryear Series”.

There have been many versions of this song and here is my favourite from Annie Lennox. Medusa is the second solo studio album by Scottish singer Annie Lennox, released on 6 March 1995 by RCA Records. It consists entirely of cover songs. The album entered the UK Albums Chart at number one and peaked in the United States at number 11, spending 60 weeks on the Billboard 200. It has since achieved double platinum status in both the United Kingdom and the United States. As of 2018, Medusa had sold over six million copies worldwide.

I don’t know why I love you like I do
All the changes you put me through
Take my money, my cigarettes
I haven’t seen the worst of it yet

I wanna know, can you tell me?
I’d really like to stay

Take me to the river
Drop me in the water
Take me to the river
Dip me in the water

Wash me down, wash me down
Wash me down, wash me down

I don’t know why you treat me so bad?
Think of all the thing that we could have had
Love is an ocean and I can’t forget
My sweet sixteen I’ll never fret

I wanna know, can you tell me?
I’d really like to stay

Take me to the river
Drop me in the water
Take me to the river
Dip me in the water

Love me, squeeze me
Love me, tease me
Till I can’t, till I can’t
Till I can’t, till I can’t

I don’t know why I love you like I do?
All the trouble that you put me through
Sixteen candles blowin’ on the wall
And here I am the biggest fool of all

I wanna know, can you tell me?
I’d really like to stay

Take me to the river
Drop me in the water
Dip me in the water
Drop me in the river

Dip me in the water
Drop me in the river
Push me in the water
Drop me in the river

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Al L. Green / Mabon Hodges

Take Me to the River lyrics © Jec Publishing Corp., Jec Publishing Corp, Al Green Music, Inc.

When I get off of this mountain
You know where I wanna go?
Straight down the Mississippi River
To the Gulf of Mexico
To Lake Charles, Louisiana
Little Bessie, girl that I once knew
And she told me just to come on by
If there’s anything she could do

Up on Cripple Creek, she sends me
If I spring a leak, she mends me
I don’t have to speak, she defends me
A drunkard’s dream if I ever did see one

Good luck had just stung me
To the race track I did go
She bet on one horse to win
And I bet on another to show
Odds were in my favor
I had ’em five to one
And that nag to win came around the track
Sure enough we had won

Up on Cripple Creek, she sends me
If I spring a leak, she mends me
I don’t have to speak, she defends me
A drunkard’s dream if I ever did see one

I took up all of my winnings
And I gave my little Bessie half
And she tore it up and threw it in my face
Just for a laugh
Now there’s one thing in the whole wide world
I sure would like to see
That’s when that little love of mine
Dips her doughnut in my tea

Up on Cripple Creek, she sends me
If I spring a leak, she mends me
I don’t have to speak, she defends me
A drunkard’s dream if I ever did see one

Now me and my mate were back at the shack
We had Spike Jones on the box
She said, “I can’t take the way he sings
But I love to hear him talk”
Now that just gave my heart a throb
To the bottom of my feet
And I swore and I took another pull
My Bessie can’t be beat

Up on Cripple Creek, she sends me
If I spring a leak, she mends me
I don’t have to speak, she defends me
A drunkard’s dream if I ever did see one

There’s a flood out in California
And up north it’s freezing cold
And this living off the road
Is getting pretty old
So I guess I’ll call up my big mama
Tell her I’ll be rolling in
But you know, deep down, I’m kinda tempted
To go and see my Bessie again

Up on Cripple Creek, she sends me
If I spring a leak, she mends me
I don’t have to speak, she defends me
A drunkard’s dream if I ever did see one

Source: LyricFind

My second song is Up On Cripple Creek from The Band. Released two years before hubby and I were married and I was working as a window dresser.

“Up on Cripple Creek” is the fifth song on The Band‘s eponymous second album, The Band. It was released as an (edited) single on Capitol 2635 in November 1969 and reached No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100. “Up on Cripple Creek” was written by Band guitarist Robbie Robertson, with drummer Levon Helm singing lead vocal.

Robertson said of writing the song:

I had some ideas for ‘Up On Cripple Creek’ when we were still based in Woodstock making Music From Big Pink. Then after Woodstock, I went to Montreal and my daughter Alexandra was born. We had been snowed in at Woodstock and in Montreal it was freezing, so we went to Hawaii, really as some kind of a way to get some warmth, and to begin preparing for making our second album. I think it was really pieces and ideas coming on during that travelling process that sparked the idea about a man who just drives these trucks across the whole country. I don’t remember where I sat down and finished the song, though.

“Up on Cripple Creek” is notable as it is one of the first instances of a Hohner clavinet being played with a wah-wah pedal.^[2] The riff can be heard after each chorus of the song. The clavinet, especially in tandem with a wah-wah pedal, was a sound that became famous in the early to mid-1970s, especially in funk music.

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Happy Sunday all 💜💜

#TankaTuesday Poetry Challenge No. 39, Shadorma Prose, 18/11/2025

It’s my turn to be host on Tanka Tuesday. My challenge is for you is : For your challenge this week, I would like you to create either a Shadorma Prose or an any type of prose, including a syllabic form. The subject or theme can be of your choosing.

I used a prose paragraph with an Abhanga this time.

Perfidious Autumn 🍁🍂 🍂🍁

Huddled by the fire I dream of the warmth of a couple of months ago. Even last week there was only need for a light jacket. The sudden drop of temperature has woken us all up to the fact that Winter may still be a month away yet Autumn 🍂 🍁 is a pafidious month! She is treacherous, not to be trusted. Beware the weak sun that holds no warmth.

Autumn avoiding facts
Not meeting your glances
Sneakily she dances.
In rings

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Song Lyric Sunday: The Trophy Cabinet!

Good morning and welcome to Song Lyric Sunday. Jim Adams our indupitale and very gracious host has sent us this request.”This week the theme is to find a song that was released on an album titled Greatest Hits or Best Of. ” Thank you Jim for, as ever, organising and producing this prompt every week!

Now with a name like Alabama 3 you’d expect these guys to be from the US. Deep south even but no they are from Brixton London England. A great group introduced to me by my eldest son who’s a fan. ..Techo and garage / warehouse were his scene being a seventies child he discovered them early eighties. He has often been to see them in Brixton and lots of other places too. Now the word Hits is in the title of this Album and it does have a plethora of their best tracks so I am going with the Album Hits and Exit Wounds.

Here is a playlist !

Alabama 3 are a British musical group founded in Brixton, London, in 1995. Their track “Woke Up This Morning” was used for the opening credits of the TV series The Sopranos. In the United States, the band is known as A3, to avoid legal conflict with the country music band Alabama.

The band formed when Jake Black (born in Glasgow, Scotland; 27 April 1960 – 21 May 2019) met Rob Spragg (from Wales) at a rave in Peckham. They decided that a fusion of country music with acid house was a musical possibility. Other members of the band were added later: Nick Reynolds is the son of one of the Great Train Robbers; Rob Spragg was at university with Piers Marsh, the harmonica-player and synthesiser programmer for the band; while Orlando Harrison, the group’s keyboardist, used to live with Jake Black.

Forming initially under the name the First Presleyterian Church of Elvis the Divine (UK), and having been dismissed by the mainstream media as a novelty act, the group switched names to Alabama 3. As with their performances under the previous name, their sound fuses electronic pop with elements of country and blues styles. They signed with One Little Indian Records in 1997 for the release of their debut album, Exile on Coldharbour Lane. Every member of the group has an alias, the band’s founding members adopting the personas Larry Love (Rob Spragg) and The Very Reverend Dr. D. Wayne Love (Jake Black). Their second album, La Peste, featured bassist John “Segs” Jennings of the Ruts under the stage name Frank Zappatista.

In August 2007, the group toured under the name of Alabama 3: Acoustic and Unplugged, with Harpo Strangelove and Devlin Love, to promote new album M.O.R.. Bassist John “Segs” Jennings left the band, saying he was “busy elsewhere and [he doesn’t] have the time”. M.O.R. included a cover of Jerry Reed‘s 1970s hit “Amos Moses”, and features The Proclaimers on the track “Sweet Joy”. Having recorded and toured with the band in the early days, Aurora Dawn rejoined the band in 2009. Between late 2010 and early 2011, programmer, harmonicist and founding member Piers Marsh left the band.

Jake Black, a founding band member and songwriter, died of Addison’s disease on 21 May 2019, several days after falling ill during a show at Highest Point Festival in Lancashire. He was 59.

This is the Track I want to highlight.

Ain’t Goin’ To Goa”

Larry Love, do you remember when I came upon you in that place of suffering in the Valley of Darkness? I took away all your pain and put love in your cold, cold heart. And from that day forward told you to go out and spread my word through music, sweet, pretty, country-acid-house music. Well that day Larry, you not only joined my church, you embraced my whole philosophy, my whole way of life. Because remember little man, don’t you go to Goa

I believe I’m gonna shut down my chakra, shift Shiva off of my shelf
Take down my tie-dyes, my Tibetan bells
Cool down my karma with a can of O.P.T
Ain’t no call for Casteneda in my Frontline library

‘Cause there’s one thing I know, Lord above
I ain’t goin’a go
I ain’t goin’a Goa
Ain’t goin’a Goa now
I ain’t goin’a Goa
Ain’t goin’a Goa now

Yeah, people in the house

I ain’t dancing Trance, no thanks, no chance to t-t-tranquilise me
I ain’t sipping no Smart Bar drinks, yo, that don’t satisfy me
Dosing up my dharma with-a a drop of gasoline
I ain’t down with Mr McKenna, tantric mantra talking don’t move me

‘Cause there’s one thing I know, Lord above
I ain’t goin’a go
I ain’t goin’a Goa
Ain’t goin’a Goa now
I ain’t goin’a Goa
Ain’t goin’a Goa now

I don’t need no freaky-deaky fractal geometry, crystal silicone chip
I ain’t walking ‘long lay-lines, reading no High Times, put me on another bad trip
Ah well, Timothy Leary, just check out this theory, he sold acid for the FBI
Well, he ain’t no website wonder, the guru just went under, you can keep your California sunshine

Yeah, I believe you D-Wayne

‘Cause the righteous truth is there ain’t nothing worse than some fool lying on some third-world beach in spandex psychedelic trousers smoking damn dope and pretending he getting consciousness expansion. I want consciousness expansion, I go to my local tabernacle and I sing!

I ain’t goin’a Goa
Ain’t goin’a Goa now
I ain’t goin’a Goa
Ain’t goin’a Goa now
I ain’t goin’a Goa
Ain’t goin’a Goa now
I ain’t goin’a Goa
Ain’t goin’a Goa now

Writer(s): Robert Spragg, Simon Edwards, Jake Black, Piers Watson Marsh A to Z Lyrics

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