By: Annna
[2001-04-30]
Ukulele Week: Day One
my super-origin
Image stolen from Carol Lay
My first contact with the ukulele happened when I was about seven or eight years old. My family used to have a cheap tourist uke floating around the house. My younger sister, too young to resist the powerful compulsion of the ukulele, hit me over the head with it.
(The ukulele is a musical instrument designed perfectly for hitting people over the head. Go to the music store and ask them to let you hold one; you'll feel it. The twin challenges of the ukulele player are resisting the urge to hit someone over the head rather than continue playing, and preventing onlookers from grabbing the ukulele and hitting the player over the head with it.)
A few days after she hit me over the head with it, she did it again. Then Pop glued the neck back on. Then she hit me over the head with it. At some point, the neck came off for good. I'm pretty sure it was thrown away after that, but it might easily be lurking behind a dresser or something.
My attempts to actually
play the ukulele came much later.
For Day One of Ukulele Week, please enjoy two file downloads of my...
unique ukulele stylings.
My
demo tape, such as it is. Recorded in Windows Sound Recorder and hence 59 seconds long, it's the first verse of
Psycho Killer, by the Talking Heads. 938 KB.
The
main offering for today is my rendition of Devo's classic
Gut Feeling/Slap Your Mammy. 1.63 MB - I managed to keep it much, much shorter than the Devo version by not bothering with such trifles as "intros" and "solos" and "musical ability."
Stay tuned all this week for more good times and great oldies on thingsihate.org, your number one destination for ukulele/punk fusion.
Let me be the first to say, brilliance. Sheer brilliance. At the elementary school I went to in Langley, from grade 5 on, everyone had to learn the uke, it was our music class, until band started in grade 6 or 7. Anyway, yeah, thirty ukeleles twanging out "Popeye The Sailor Man" and I don't even remember what else. Having missed the rudiments that were taught in grade 4, I could only excel at holding the uke, and pretending, I could never hope to become part of the internationally renowned Langley Ukelele Ensemble. Maybe if we had played Talking Heads and Devo, tho, who knows? But you!! Why, you could've written the book!!
I await more. Are there requests? "Mongoloid" would be good, but I think I'd like to hear you sing "Peekaboo"!!
My first exposure to uke was Aurthur Godfrey. He wore Hawaiian shirts all the time, played uke, and would say "How are you?" as "Hawaiya?"
I became Hawaiian, affecting Hawaiian dress, deeply tanned skin, carrying a uke, drinking out of a coconut, and making poi out of tapioca. Spike Jones' version of "Hawaiian War Chant" gives me a frisson, still.
a woman named...
LA CABONG!
I should like to hear Peekaboo as well, but Big Mess is my favorite.
or, Bamboo Bimbo. not the greatest song, but it would translate well to uke.
When does the background change back? The blue was nicer -- respect for Joey is good (of course), but this is like Manuel in "Fawlty Towers" ("He put Basil in ratatouille??"). Hey Annna, how about some Ramones? I think "Rockaway Beach" would work well on a uke.
But I wouldn't recommend JSBX, for your own personal safety.
1. Maybe, if I can find tabs somewhere. Peekaboo is probably not happening - it sounds better if I play early Devo, before they could all afford synths.
2. I like Big Mess, too. I have a delusional fantasy that it's about Puzzling Evidence and J.R. "Bob" Dobbs' assassination, though it's much more likely to be about Hinkley. Still, I don't think it'd translate well.
3. Hmmm. Probably easy to play.
"chord BAMBOO BIMBO! chord BAMBOO BIMBO! Those hook marks really show! He's a chord BAMBOO BIMBO! It just goes on and on and on! chord BAMBOO BIMBO!"
I think Spider might throttle me before I could finish.
4. If you want the background to change back, yell at Sean. He said he'd do it last Wednesday. Be sure to suggest other colors you'd like better. Sean loves that.
5. Ramones of course, but later.
I think it's probably a big mess itself, with obscure references to all kinds of stalking and assasination and good stuff.
I'm a lot less down on the SubG when I manage to avoid Discordia for a while. I still have the comic book with the traditional po'bucker song lyrics and accompanying illustrations, and "Care Dog Meets Pee Bear."
hey, if you want to depart from punk/new wave covers, you could do the po'bucker song! that just SCREAMS ukelele!
"the 'frop in the pipe he smokin, you try, you drop down daid,
you seem him grinnin' and jokin', his joke explode you haid."
with twanginess.
I've been reading Wilfrid Berridge's translation of "The Battle of Maldon" and I've been reading about the battle itself, and it's really interesting, I'm looking forward to owning my own copy (of lines 2-113). I've a friend who took Old English last term, now I can engage her on a new topic of mutual interest.
There aren't a heck of a lot of Devo tabs on the net. Like, four. I think
Mississippi John Hurt would translate really well on the uke (sound-wise, good luck with the four strings), "Ain't No Tellin'" or "Nobody's Dirty Business" would be good.
Yes, suggest some other colors 'cause blue ain't comin' back. It's time to move on. I believe we have now done blue, black, wheat and green.
perhaps dark grey, espresso, or burgundy... the old blue was a bit powder/cyan blue, so maybe something darker (royal or navy) would be good, too.
I'd like to hear some over-amped uke, with some screeching feedback and looped overlays. When all the background colors are used up, there are patterns, too! 3D Cafe has some free tiles based on the stuff from the guy who did artwork for "Alien"
http://www.3dcafe.com/asp/textures.asp
Go
here for Uke Til U Puke.
Very funny covers of Talking Heads' big hits... I'll put a link from my site...
Love your DEVO cover - I found your site while searching for DEVO tabz. If you have stuff on mp3.com, inform Alien Loveseat Refreshment Zone Radio
-bugsy, LNI
