Song Lyric Sunday: That’s why they call it the Blues.

Good Sunday morning everyone ! This week our host Jim Adam’s prompt for Song Lyric Sunday is the Blues. So what are the Blues Wikipedia says:

Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the African-American culture. The blues form is ubiquitous in jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll, and is characterized by the call-and-response pattern, the blues scale, and specific chord progressions, of which the twelve-bar blues is the most common. Blue notes (or “worried notes”), usually thirds, fifths or sevenths flattened in pitch, are also an essential part of the sound. Blues shuffles or walking bass reinforce the trance-like rhythm and form a repetitive effect known as the groove.

My first choice and I didn’t really have to think about it is Rollin and Tumblin . There are so many versions of this song so I picked one of the originals by Little Walter. One from Cream from 1966 and my favourite version from Jeff Beck and Imogen Heap from the early 2000’s .

Rollin’ and Tumblin’” (or “Roll and Tumble Blues“) is a blues standard first recorded by American singer-guitarist Hambone Willie Newbern in 1929. Called a “great Delta blues classic”, it has been interpreted by hundreds of Delta and Chicago blues artists, including well-known recordings by Muddy Waters. Rock musicians usually follow Waters’ versions, with the 1960s group Cream‘s rendition being perhaps the best known.

In 1950, Muddy Waters recorded two early versions of “Rollin’ and Tumblin'”. On a session for the Parkway label, he provided the guitar with Little Walter on vocal and harmonica and Baby Face Leroy Foster on drums. Biographer Robert Gordon described the performance as a “standout track [which] could have easily have disintegrated into an overenthused party record”.The Parkway released the song as a two-part single (Part 1 backed with Part 2) and listed the artist as the Baby Face Leroy Trio. In 2022, this recording was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in the “Classics of Blues Recording – Singles” category.

For Aristocrat Records, Waters sang as well as played guitar with bass accompaniment by Ernest “Big” Crawford. Gordon called their version “exciting”, but felt that it did not have the power or passion of the one with Walter and Foster. In 1960, Elmore James recorded a different arrangement of the song and a year later, Howlin’ Wolf recorded “Down in the Bottom“, which employed a new set of lyrics and is credited to Willie Dixon.

My favourite version is by Jeff Beck featuring my very favourite Immie .

You Had It Coming is the eighth studio album by guitarist Jeff Beck, released in December 2000 through Epic Records.The album reached No. 17 and 110 on the Billboard Top Internet Albums and Billboard 200 charts respectively, as well as No. 96 and 123 on the German and French albums chart. “Dirty Mind”, went on to win the award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance at the 2002 Grammys; this being Beck’s third such award, after the albums Flash (1985) and Jeff Beck’s Guitar Shop (1989). Singer Imogen Heap is featured on “Dirty Mind” and “Rollin’ and Tumblin’“, and would later tour with Beck in 2004.

Also the Cream version is absolutely fantastic .

all information from Wikipedia

Well, I rolled and I tumbled
Cried the whole night long
Well, I rolled and I tumbled
Cried the whole night long
When I woke up this morning
Didn’t know right or wrong
Well, if the river was a whiskey
And I was a diving duck
If the river was a whiskey
And I was a diving duck
Well, I would dive to the bottom
I’d swear, I’d never come up

Well, I coulda had religion
In this bad old Sunday
I coulda had religion
In this bad old Sunday
But whiskey and bad love
Wouldn’t let me have my way

I rolled and I tumbled
And I rolled and I tumbled
I rolled and I tumbled

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Mckinley Morganfield

Rollin’ and Tumblin’ lyrics © Watertoons Music, Watertoons Music (bug)

HAPPY SUNDAY EVERYONE 💜💜

Ronovan Writes SIJO Wednesday Poetry Challenge #64. Use COMPLETION as your inspiration this week.

There is always a deadline, be it real or imagined.
Whether it’s the day you are born on or the day you will die the clock never stops ticking.
Nature measures the new seasons by the completion of the old ones.

THIS IS PART OF RONOVANWRITE’S WEEKLY SIJO CHALLENGE.

A river runs through lest we forget.

all photos © willowdot21

We celebrate our war heroes in November but we know and respect Memorial Day.

The Bloody Tower.

Pouring out of Poppies — Tower of London 2014 © willowdot21

On realizing my eyes opened wide

Each poppy was a soldier that had died.

I was so shocked to see

The pouring out of red running into a sea.

Rows and rows growing into a river

Tumbling from the window pouring on forever.

Each one was a mother’s son, a husband or a brother

Such sacrifice displayed for all to see , cousin, uncle even lover.

I humbly prayed for God bless them all

Each soul represented by a red poppy growing tall.

Such a sacrifice for what gain

They said a war like that would not come again.

Sadly now we know the great They lied.

For along came world war 2 and more people died.

War goes on and never stops, no matter how we try

It will always raise it’s ugly head and more men and women will die.

This is part of Terri Webster Schrandts Sunday Stills.

Two songs to lift our spirits.

Well good afternoon everyone, I feel like raising spirits today …. Not Bacardi, I shall leave that to Morgarna , though at the moment she may have to make do with Dark Rum.

Right I am sliding off piste here. I want to actually raising our spirits as in realising we are all special we are all heroes . I know many of us have problems, illness, mental and physical, money worries of many kinds, relationship problems and everything fate wants to throw at us.

So here is today’s lesson coming to us straight from our Sam Ryder. Two songs both with wonderful messages for all of us.

“I am a mountain and down in the valley is all that I’ve overcome”

Below is the story of one of the young dancers from Sam’s video like all the others she has a disability and over come it.

The video is up lifting as are the lyrics so do have a look at them if you can’t make them out.

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”

[Pre-Chorus]
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

[Chorus]
I am a mountain
And down in the valley below
Is all that I’ve overcome
All that I’ve overcome, woah
I am a mountain
And down in the valley below
Is all that I’ve overcome
All that I’ve oh-oh-overcome-ome
Oh-oh-overcome-ome
I’m a fighter, it’s like I was born to be one

[Verse 2]
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

[Pre-Chorus]
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

[Chorus]
I am a mountain (Ah, yeah)
And down in the valley below
Is all that I’ve overcome
All that I’ve overcome, woah
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-ome (Alright)
Oh-oh-overcome
Oah

[Chorus]
I am a mountain (Hey)
And down in the valley below
Is all that I’ve overcome
All that I’ve overcome, woah
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)
All that I’ve oh-oh-overcome-ome (Yeah)
Oh-oh-overcome-ome (It’s all that I’ve overcome)
Oh-oh-overcome-ome (It’s all that I’ve overcome)
Oh-oh-overcome-ome
I’m a fighter, it’s like I was born to be one

Lyric Genius written and co-produced by Ryder along with Jimbo Barry and Lewis Allen.

What the second song is about in Sam’s own words .

“This is a song for the hope seekers & the faith keepers. The ones who foster the dream and keep its fire burning regardless of the knock backs, the almosts, the falls & the failures.”

Fought & Lost”
(feat. Brian May)

Congratulations on your jubilation
Our hearts are breaking underneath all the applause
This devastation is of our own making
But we’ve never tasted this much bitterness before

And everybody falls
But some of us are born to fight, and fight, and fight some more

So, we will see you here
Same time, same place, next year
And you may win this battle but you’ll never win the war
Better to have fought and lost than never fought at all

Go take a bow
Your audience is waiting
We’ll take the shadows since the limelight isn’t ours
We wanted it so bad
Gave it all we had
Oh, but wanting, it doesn’t always make it yours

This time was ours to lose
But fortune favours those who ride the storm and make it through

So, we will see you here
Same time, same place, next year
And you can take this battle ’cause we’re gonna win the war
Better to have fought and lost than never fought at all

So, here on the same ground
When the tables have turned around
Oh, and your tears fall as your world is crashing down
I hope, when you see me
You remember that feeling
Oh, ’cause we’ve both seen the world from both sides now

And everybody falls
And life will tear you down to show you what’s worth fighting for

Oh, we will see you here
Same time, same place, next year
And you may win this battle but you’ll never win the war
Better to have fought and lost than never fought at all
Better to have fought and lost than never fought at all

Ato Z Lyrics

Music and Lyrics by: Tom Howe, Jamie Hartman and Sam Ryder
Vocal: Sam Ryder

HAVE A Great Day all of you and remember we are mountains.

Ronovan Writes SIJO Wednesday Poetry Challenge #63. Use PET as your inspiration this week.

Yes honest and true and loyal were you always by my side.
You taught me so much , through thick and thin you respond to my touch.
I miss your brown eyes, the feel of your soft coat and wet nose so much.

Part of Ronovanwrite’s Weekly Sijo Challenge.

#TankaTuesday Weekly #Poetry Challenge No. 321, 5/23/23: Acrostic.

WELCOME TO #TANKATUESDAY!

短歌火曜日

Colleen, our mentor, said:This week’s challenge is to write a specific form with a twist! And I messed it up, I did not use the words she provided for us. Which are:

MAGICAL CHARM, SPECTER, FANTASY, CONJURE, UNICORN, IMAGINATON, ORACLE , MALEVOLENCE.

Write an acrostic poem with a syllable count of 8, 9, or 10 syllables per line (all the same, or a mixture of syllable counts, is fine).

Now I did not read the challenge properly and used my own word , Space… Well Colleen pointed this out to me. So here is my second and correct entry .

I chose SPECTER and used the syllables in each line of Eight, Nine, Nine, Eight, Eight, Ten, Ten.

Spirit of the dark a ghostly
Phantom swirling through the woods at night
Ethereal and ghostly you fill
Completely my soul and body
Tread carefully for my nerves are
Electric and I am wired to fly
Reveal yourself specter and spare my soul

This is part of Colleen Chesebro’s Tuesday Tanka Challenge.

Lost. A Tricube.

This week Kat at Like Mercury Colliding is writing Tricubes…. as always her poetry choices amaze me and I have to try one …or more this is my first attempt. Thank you Kat.

Tricubes
Here are the rules of tricubes:

Each line contains three syllables.
Each stanza contains three lines.
Each poem contains three stanzas.

So we’re talking cubes in mathematical terms (to the third power). No rules for rhymes, meter, etc. Just three, three, and three.

**********

The painting below is by Dorothea Tanning

Silence reins
No one hears
Me screaming

My smile broad
My eyes dead
Senses cut.

My body
Continues
I give in.

Sunday Stills: Ruby, Grandchildren and Play Parks

This is part of Terri Webster Schrandts Sunday Stills.

A Landay for Ruby.

Ruby has gone but not from our hearts.
She taught us, love and kindness in equal parts.

Learning to live.

We’re born to the treadmill, step by step we toil.
Some work till they die, others have lives of leisure. Gaia just moves on with the seasons.
We should work to live not live to work, that’s the nature of things .

#writephoto: Galleon.

After helping a young soldier and his loyal “explosive sniffer dog” pass from one life to the next Morgarna and Gail were hoping for an uneventful jump home. As usual there is no accounting for circumstances of the time and space continueum especially if Merlin is involved. So they jumped but not home … No they ended up on a archiological dig.

“Hi babes how are you guys?” Merlin was in the kitchen drinking coffee with his fingers crossed behind his back”
“Oh! Fine as your asking a tad blown away perhaps!?” Morgarna replied gritting her teeth. ” Gail and I were ready for a nice break…. Why are we here Merlin”
“How are my chickens ” asked Gail…there was silence and then Merlin replied, they are well and I am on my way out to feed them in a second” Merlin said crossing more fingers.
“Okay why are we here, it’s obviously not for our health!” Morgarna lit a cigarette and wondered where she could get a hot coffee.

Morgarna and Gail sat outside on the grass by the refreshments caravan that had been set up for the archiology volunteers sipping coffee. “So what did Merlin have to say about us being here?” asked Gail as she tucked into a huge bacon bap dripping with brown sauce.
“Well it appears that there is a time tunnel at this site and we need to find it and close it up A.S.A.P. otherwise there’ll alsorts of mayhem caused! “
Gail wiped her face and her jeans which she had spilt brown sauce on and replied.” Well then you had better have that cigarette then then we can get cracking. “
Morgarna lit her cigarette and smiled at Gail “You know me so well girl, then fishing in her bag she pulled out a small square device with three lights on it , blue, green and red. This Gail is a neat little time tunnel / wormhole/ rift finder Merlin has only just modified it.”

Later armed with trowels and scrapers they mingled in with the students and archologists Morgarna surruptitously checking the area with the T.T.W.R.F. As the day went on Gail found she was really interested by the excavating and got just as excited as everyone else when anyone turned up a small find.
The sun was going down when Morgarna signalled to Gail that she had found the rift.

“We can’t seal it here it looks as if we need to go through and seal it from the other side. ” Morgarna told Gail.
“How can we do that without causing a stir, someone is bound to spot us disappearing. ” Gail looked around at all the people milling around.
“Yes” Morgarna knodded we’ll have to wait until they all knock off for dinner”

It was midnight and the only light was from the moon, a couple of guys were sitting guard on the dig after all the fresco that had been found was amazing and they really didn’t want any halfwits breaking in and spraying graffiti all over it.
Gail threw some stones to the side of them to distract them for a second while she and Morgarna slipped in behind the dust sheet.

Once inside Morgarna got out the T.T.W.R.F scanning the wall to make sure the had the right place.
She just got the three lights sincronizing when three wide eyed and slightly worse for wear sailors appeared through that very spot.
Without missing a beat Morgarna grabbed the loudest an whispered in his ear. ” Not tonight me hearty, no your comming with me..”
The noise of this meeting bought the the two guards in but they just found an empty room with just an echo of footsteps.

“Well Simon there’s no one here , time for a cuppa and a biscuit I think ” then turning away they both left, missing a slight shimmering on the wall which vibrated for a moment then firmed up and settled.

*For visually challenged writers*, *the image shows a galleon out at sea.*.

It was a beautiful day as the five of them emerged onto the deck of a Galleon. Looking behind her Morgarna could just see the white cliffs of Dover.
Looking around Morgarna could see that they were back in the 16th century and on board an Elizabethan Galleon.
The three sailors were sobering up …they were confused they had stumbled upon a rift in time, accidentally slipped through it into the future…then been herded back to their own time by these two strange women… One in black and looking for all the world like a beautiful and dangerous witch!
Morgarna read their thoughts. Quickly she waved her hand gently took hold of their minds.
“You have not left this deck, you found us hiding behind the barrels and we will be good help for the cook and gengeral help around decks.

A small crowd had gathered around them now, a tall man was striding toward them.
“What’s this he demanded banging his cutlass against a mast to draw attention from the crew who were getting very excited and unruly at the sight of two women. “What have we here Mr Greg, women? two of them indeed. ?”
“Aye captain, two stowaways”
“What am I to do with them , they aren’t known for their good luck for any crew! Are they and they are no good for pleasure as there are not enough of them to go around.”
Gail drew closer to Morgarna and took her hand. This did not go unnoticed by the crew…
“It okay Gail, I can handle the situation just don’t show any more fear, we are okay I promise you.”
Taking a deep breath Gail smiled at all those around her.
The captain was speaking again, “Mr Smith, take our uninvited guests to the brig and lock them up.”
A huge giant of a man came along and picked Gail and Morgarna up one under each arm. Gail took Morgarna’s lead and they both kicked up a fuss.

Gail was not impressed with the brig and started to complain , Morgarna cut her short. “Would you rather be out there pray to that lot of tars? At least here we are safer and under lock and key .”
Gail thought about this and agreed they were safer for now. “How can we seal the rift” she asked Morgarna.
“I have sealed the end at the dig, I did that as we left , and I shall seal this end as soon as we next go up on deck. Don’t worry it’s all in hand and the C.O.TA.S is signalling our exact coordinates in time and space to Merlin . Once he sees the rift is sealed he’ll send the Anomaly for us to escape. So take it easy girl .. it might be a long night. Here ” Morgarna said handing Gail a warm cloak from her bag.
“Oh! Thanks” said Gail smiling and cuddling into the cloak. ” I do love that bag , can I have one?” she tentively asked .
Morgarna lit two cigarettes and handed Gail one as she replied .”NO!”

This is part of K.L.Cakey’s #writephoto: Galleon.

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS May 20, 2023

Hi everyone LindaGHill is here with our prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday. This week she said: “Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “stick.” Use it as a noun or a verb; use it any way you’d like. Have fun!“

So I have decided to write a few of the Landay – The Landay is the poetic form of Afghan women. The poem is 22 syllables long and contains 2 lines. 9 syllables in the first and 11 in the second. Rhyme is not specifically called for but a great many do rhyme at the end of each line. Subjects can include, but are not limited to, war, separation, homeland, grief, or love.

I learned of this form of poetry from Kat Myrman at Like Mercury Colliding.