web analytics

Stephen Pickering

Tag: Song of the Day

  • Song of the Day: A Lot Like Magic – Josh Rouse

    Well, I was cleaning off one of my counters this morning, all the paper and junk mail had piled up. And as I was sorting what I needed to keep from the rubbage, there it was: the hand written lyric sheet for “A Lot Like Magic” that Josh had mailed me last fall. Now, to be fair, I don’t know Josh, but he had been doing these “StageIt” shows on the internet in which audience members could participate as well as donate to the artist. And the highest bidder won a hand written signed lyric sheet. So there it is.

    I’d been meaning to get this song down. The first time I heard it, it blew me away. I was like “Damn, that chorus is as good as Van Morrison!” The music, the words, the theme of the song, everything attracted me. But I couldn’t pick out the chords by ear. Then by chance, in March, when Josh was at SxSW, Rhapsody filmed him singing this very tune. I love the production and the sound quality of the video, and what’s even better, most of the video shows his chord frettings, enough that I could pick out the entire arrangement with each chord.

    If you’re wanting to learn to play this, then this Rhapsody Video should be all you need:

    As you can see from the video, he puts a capo on the fifth fret. The song starts out with a Bm shape. The opening riff, which is the same as most of the verse is: Bm – F#m – G – A – D (That’s not transposed up 5 half steps like it should be. I’m just thinking of the open names for these shapes.) There is one little twist in the verse: On the third line the progression switches to: G – A – G – A – Bm. The Chorus progression is: Em – A – Dmaj7 – Gmaj7 – Em – A – Bm – A. On the solo part it’s almost exactly the chords of the chorus, except it begins on the Gmaj7. So it’s like Gmaj7 – A – Dmaj7 – Gmaj7 – A – Bm – A. You can pick it up pretty fast from that video.

    Since I took the time to type out the lyrics (Josh’s handwriting isn’t very legible) I’ll go ahead and publish them:

    Lyrics for “A Lot Like Magic” by Josh Rouse from The Happiness Waltz album.

    Well I met a man and he gave me advice
    I didn’t want it at first then I said alright.
    He said you live each day like a very last one
    So I took that line and I wrote this song
    And he said:

    Chorus:

    It’s all in the air it’s a lot like magic
    We make do with the best that we have
    You sit still or you roam something’s bound to happen
    So I just shook his hand, forgot about my plans…

    So I rode my bike up to Sycamore Hill
    I thought long I thought hard on the right way to live
    I had a lot of fun with a long legged girl
    And we threw our arms ‘round this humdrum world

    Chorus:

    Forget about those plans, the future’s here a last…

    Solo Bars (Over Chorus Chords)

    Yeah, the days turn to months and the months into years
    My children have grown and I’m still standing here
    I still live each day like a very last one
    I rise with the birds and I set with the Sun

    Chorus

    Forget about those plans, forget about those plans…

    A few bars of Chorus progression end it out, and finally it end on a slow melody line over the G and A chord.

     

  • Song of the Day: Ain’t Even Done With the Night – John Mellencamp

    Update 9/26/20 — Hey Friends! I will eventually get around to posting a video me performing this song, but I have to admit my vocals are too weak. I have been since last summer taking singing lessons, practicing exercises, and they do work! I believe anyone can learn to sing as long as their ear is hearing the right pitch, but at the same time there are varying degrees of success, and I, even though maybe softly,  I still can’t sing this song at full volume anywhere near the ability of John. I’m getting better everyday, so I’m sure I’ll release something within the next 6 months even if it’s not as good (how could it be?).

    But in the meantime, I wanted to introduce you to something even more exciting. You’ve probably already heard of it: Chordify. It’s an app on your mobile devices and a website on your desktop. But especially for learning covers, it’s amazing! It analyzes every song and spits out a chord chart! From the standpoint of learning covers, nothing could be more easy and fun. I have no financial interest and so far I have not paid anything for it. They do have a premium offer but I’m not sure what that gets you. Let me know in the comments what you think! Anyway, you can find it yourself, but here is the Chordify representation of “Ain’t Even Done with the Night.” Hit this link. You’ll have a lot of fun, especially if you’re wanting to learn covers. It’s amazing!

    Original Post:

    Well, every once in a while I start making lists of songs that I could actually play live. I always have this romantic notion of being a troubadour, traveling the world with just his guitar, serenading everywhere he goes. Never gonna happen. Well, at the very least it is fun to have a repertoire, so that you can just play, spontaneously, out of exuberance, enjoyment, and to tell you the truth, even in your own house, when you actually get the mics out, the stool, and the PA system, and you play a collection of songs for an hour or so, it really gives you the physical and psychological release do I call it? Therapy? Whatever, like a work out, or going to “Yoga” or a “Spin” Class.

    At any rate, I thought last night that, you know, if I made a certain song off one of my lists a “Song of the Day” and spent the time learning it, actually playing it with a mic an PA as if I were performing live, that you know, after a month or a few months, certainly a year (and we know how fast these years go by) I’d have a pretty decent little setlist, repertoire, whatever you want to call it, that I could play for myself or for others.

    So hear goes: Last night I suddenly had the urge to listen to John Mellencamp on Spotify. So I listened to his top hits. Really almost any of them I could have chosen. This one was about 5th or 6th down on the list.

    So I came home and picked out the chords pretty fast. I mean it’s not a hard song, musically, but I’d like to think that that’s one of the benefits of learning covers: you start to see similar patterns, and the more you learn, the easier and more fun it seems to be to learn new ones. It’s kind of fun,  like figuring out a puzzle.

    (An hour or so later)

    Well, if nothing else, I’ve managed to drag out all the chords and mics and re hook up my PA system, along with a spot and a stool to simulate playing live in a small room. I went through this song a few times. I think I about have it. I don’t think I would be too impressive in front of a real crowd. It felt like my already weak voice was even weaker than usual. That bummed me out. But I know that at least in part some of that has to do with being able to hear yourself and the monitoring system, of which I have none.

    And then some other songs that I knew well enough came up, along with some original riffs sort “popping” out of the guitar. That’s another benefit of playing and learning cover songs: Gets your “juices” flowing and you’ll start spontaneously “hearing” and playing your own riffs and progressions that could become original songs.

    I guessed that a few years ago and had it confirmed by different “real” artists that I’ve read in interviews: For instance, if you want to be a poet, the best thing you can do is constantly be reading new poetry. Same with fiction, and I suppose with other arts.

    Well back to the subject at hand. I don’t know if I’ll keep this up. Knowing me, probably not. But anyway at least I have an official “Song of the Day” for May 8th, 2013, and it’s John “Cougar” Mellencamp’s “Ain’t Even Done with the Night.”