I couldn’t let Pete Seeger week pass without writing up this song in some form. In the spirit of the song I’ve kept the arrangement super simple. I go through the verse three times. Getting more strident each time.
First Time Through
I’m just playing the melody. Picking it out with my thumb.
Second Time Through
Harmonising the melody. I’m picking this with my thumb on the lower string and index finger on the higher string.
Third Time Through
Playing the melody back with the chords. I’m just using my thumb here. Strumming up to the melody note.
The nominations are i, they’ve been fed through a highly complex algorithm and a final list of candidates has been spat out. Now it’s time to vote for you favourite. If you’re reading by email or feed reader and can’t see the voting doodle click here to be taken to be taken to the blog.
Rules
– Voting closes at midnight at the end of 23rd February.
– You only get one vote.
– Even if you already know who you’re voting for check out the other videos.
– Use whatever criteria you want. I’ll be voting for the one I like the most. (Who wins isn’t as important as getting some exposure for excellent videos)
Voting Closed
Here are the results:
Sanford and Friends: 476 votes 41%
Jontom – Born to Run: 408 votes 35%
Walk off the Earth – Royals: 163 votes 14%
Elof & Wamberg – Øresundreel: 37 votes 3%
Little Miss Higgins – Early Morning Thief: 28 votes 2%
James Clem – Big River: 27 2%
Sarah Humphreys – Why Don’t We Just Stay Home: 15 votes 1%
Dingus Khan – Knifey Spooney: 8 votes 1%
Moselele – Do They Know It’s Christmas: 3 votes 0%
When I heard about the death of Pete Seeger I knew I’d have to dedicate a week to him. He was a massively important figure in music and important in a way you don’t see very often. As a musical middleman.
None of the Seeger pieces I’m featuring are entirely his own work (even Turn, Turn, Turn takes its lyrics from Ecclesiastes). And Seeger’s versions of these songs aren’t the best known (or necessarily the best versions). But he had an amazing knack for taking songs from across the globe that had been overlooked and presenting them in such a compelling and accessible way that they were begging for others to take the song and run with it.
He was also unusual in how strongly he knitted music and politics together. And he did it so effectively he was dragged before the House Un-American Activities Committee to answer for such Un-American activities as singing at the “May Day Rally: For Peace, Security and Democracy.” How many musicians today could you imagine being called before government for their political opinions?
This song has a tortured and unpleasant history. There’s an overview of the song’s history here (including a link to the brilliant Rolling Stone article by Rian Malan on the subject).
The short version: The song Mbube was written and performed by South African Solomon Linda in 1939. Folk song collector, Alan Lomax heard the song and suggested it to Pete Seeger. Pete Seeger adapted it under the misheard name Wimoweh with none of the royalties going to Linda. That was adapted again for the startling song The Lion Sleeps Tonight with none of the royalties going to Linda. Most profitably it was using by Disney in The Lion King without any royalties going to Linda’s family. Initially. After legal wrangles the family eventually got some money. But not before Solomon Linda died in poverty and his youngest daughter contracted AIDS and died, unable to afford retroviral drugs.
But despite its disheartening back-story the song has produced three incredible records (it’s the Disney one I don’t think is up to much).
Suggested Strumming
For the strum start of like this:
d u x u d u x
Then change to the next chord for the final upstrum and play the pattern again:
It’s just three chords so not hard to bust out during those many times when you’re gathering stones together.
Suggested Strumming
You can use this as the main pattern:
d – d u
In the chorus: Once for each chord in the first two lines. Then four times for each chord on the last line.
In the verse: Twice for each chord.
Twiddly Bits
In the chorus it sounds good if you replace the first down strum with plucking the C-string.
For example for the Bb you pluck the C-string, second fret then strum twice. Because you stay on the F chord for two goes round I like to pick the E-string the second time.
It’s just two chords all the way through so dead easy.
Suggested Strumming
You can use this as the main pattern:
d – d u d u d u
In the verse, chorus and solo: On the first line play it three times on D and once on the A. Then vice versa (three A, one D) on the second. Here’s how that sounds:
The one tricky bit is the intro. The timing is a bit strange. It’s like the verses but with a extra bar of 2/4. Which may have been a mistake. Anyway, I’d recommend getting rid of it for your version.
Twiddly Bits
Pay Me My Money Down Solo (Tab)
The second solo works really well on ukulele. Here’s a quick tab of that.
Some of these videos – like the James Hill and Elof and Wamberg – are eligible for Ukulele Video of the Year. So if you see something you like there’s plenty of time to make you nominations.
Another arrangement from the ever-excellent David Beckingham. This time a ukulele arrangement of the guitar instrumental made famous by Reverend Gary Davis.
Last year was another golden year for ukulele music. And it’s time again to spread the love for your favourites in this year’s vote.
For the first stage, everyone gets to nominate up to 5 videos – leave them in the comments (click here for the comments section if you reading by email or RSS). From those nominations, I’ll cobble together a list of ten (ish) that will be voted on in the next round. Use whatever criteria you like. I went with whichever videos/songs I enjoyed most.
The Rules
The rules remain as ramshackle as ever:
– There has to be a ukulele in there.
– Videos must have been originally uploaded in 2013.
– Videos must be publicly available online.
– Maximum of five nominations per person.
– Post your nominations in the comments (I might edit comments to make things easier to add up).
– Nominations close midnight Friday 7th February.
– The 5 – 10 acts with the most nominations go into the final vote with their most nominated song going forward.
– No prize. Just the love and admiration of the heaving masses.
– No sucking up by nominating me.
Don’t panic if your comments don’t show up right away. First time commenters and comments contains a few links can get held back for spam checking. Also, comments were acting a bit wonky. If you submit it and the page just spins then your comment will have been submitted.
