Random Music

Somehow, there are days when certain songs and pieces of music run through my mind. Today was one of those days. Here is Ghost Town Orange's interior soundtrack for May 7, 2004:

A Day in the Life (Beatles)

I saw a film today oh boy
The English Army had just won the war
A crowd of people turned away
But I just had to look
Having read the book.

Dig those cacophonous layers of sound!

Cucamonga (Chill Wills)

I found this forgotten song at UCLA's 'friends of the library' [or whatever they call it] sale about 20 years ago. It was a single piece of mimeographed, folded and faded sheet music. [If they recognized that it was by Chill Wills they probably would have kept it for the Library's Special Collection!] I don't have the lyrics handy, but I made a neat Latin American-sounding arrangement of it in a MIDI editing program. Maybe I'll share it with you someday. :-)

UPDATE

7 May 2004 11:10 pm CDT:
Here is an MP3 of my Simtunes arrangement of 'Cucamonga' [just 1 verse, no lyrics yet]:

Right-click on the button, 'Save file as . . .'
It's a little too stacatto, but Simtunes doesn't have a good way to sustain notes. I'll test the link in the morning when I should have bandwidth available to try a download. [I'm at 83% of capacity today--this mp3 takes up over one fifth of my daily download bandwidth!]

Southern Man (Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young)

I saw cotton and I saw black, tall white mansions and little shacks.
Southern man, when will you pay them back?
I heard screaming and bullwhips cracking, how long? How long?

Southern man, better keep your head. Don't forget what your good book said.
Southern change gonna come at last, now your crosses are burning fast, Southern man.

This song uses the American South as a scapegoat for the racism prevalent everywhere in the country at the time. Listen to that high-pitched guitar chord shrieking over and over--all that tension building up--when and where will it be released?

Let There be Light, Lord God (William M. Vories, lyrics 1909 and Charles H. C. Zeuner, music 1832)

Let there be light, Lord God of hosts!
Let there be widom on the earth!
Let broad humanity have birth!
Let there be deeds instead of boasts.

Within our passioned hearts instill
the calm that ends strain and strife.
Make us your ministers of life.
Purge us from lusts that curse and kill.

Give us the peace of vision clear
to see each other's good our own,
to joy and suffer not alone:
the love that casts out all fear.

Let woe and waste of warfare cease,
that useful labor yet may build
its homes with love and laughter filled!
God give your wayward children peace!

[I altered the wording a little to eliminate some of the obsolete language. I do not find 'thees' and 'thous' especially holy.]

Father, let me dedicate All this year to you
In whatever earthly state You will have me be
Not from sorrow, pain, or care Freedom dare I claim;
This alone shall be my prayer: Glorify Your name.
--from New Year's Hymn by Lawrence Tuttiett, 1864 (alt.)