Steven Tyler: Sing With Me, Sing For The Laughter

"Every time I look in the mirror
All these lines on my face getting clearer
The past is gone
It goes by, like dusk to dawn
Isn't that the way
Everybody's got their dues in life to pay

Yeah, I know nobody knows
where it comes and where it goes
I know it's everybody's sin
You got to lose to know how to win

Half my life
is in books' written pages
Lived and learned from fools and
from sages
You know it's true
All the things come back to you
Sing with me, sing for the year
Sing for the laughter, sing for the tears..."
(Dream On by Steven Tyler/Aerosmith)

I grew up listening to Dean Martin, Johnny Ray and Cliff Richard. The King was always standing by. But middle of the road stuff like Beautiful Sunday, Killing Me Softly and Mother And Child Reunion were also my cuppa in the mid 70s (having listened to them on New Zealand radio day and night in 1973).

But I began to appreciate Badfinger's Come And Get It and Steven Tyler's Dream On after having been introduced to them by younger college mates who were around me in the 70s. The grounding of course came much earlier from Deep Purple, with their heavy guitar drawl that was metal.

These songs gave me that extra edge for what I term kick music, songs with that extra under the jaw punch. But Tyler's composition was one that I kept in the back drawers of my mind. I never appreciated the screaming man and his harmonica although I like the song.

Now that I see him week after week on American Idol, I thought I'd open the drawer again and take out the crumpled paper that had part of the lyrics of Dream On. And when I read the words again, they made a lot of sense. "The past is gone, it goes by like dusk to dawn" but "sing with me, sing for the year, Sing for the laughter, sing for the tears." Thank you Steven Tyler and house mates.

Image: Google images.
Original article: Andy Lim.

'Come And Get It' - Badfinger, Burns - Dunedin

FOR unk DICKO, daughter and son-in-law:

The Banks o' Doon
YE flowery banks o' bonnie Doon,
How can ye blume sae fair!
How can ye chant, ye little birds,
And I sae fu' o' care!

Thou'll break my heart, thou bonnie bird,
That sings upon the bough;
Thou minds me o' the happy days
When my fause luve was true.

Thou'll break my heart, thou bonnie bird,
That sings beside thy mate;
For sae I sat, and sae I sang,
And wistna o' my fate.

Aft hae I roved by bonnie Doon,
To see the woodbine twine;
And ilka bird sang o' its luve,
And sae did I o' mine.

Wi' lightsome heart I pu'd a rose
Upon a morn in June;
And sae I flourish'd on the morn,
And sae was pu'd or' noon.

Wi' lightsome heart I pu'd a rose
Upon its thorny tree;
But my fause luver staw my rose,
And left the thorn wi' me.

Robert Burns

Image: Burns Statue, Dunedin.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/99/BurnsStatueDunedin.jpg/250px-BurnsStatueDunedin.jpg

Reference: http://uncledicko.blogspot.com/

Badfinger, Robert Burns, Christchurch, Dunedin (A Tall Travel Tale To Tell?)

NZNZNZNZNZNZNZNZNZNZ....SONGS I LOVE

It's a tragedy that New Zealand's Christchurch has been hit by an earthquake. The city brings back memories, having been there way back in the early 70s, when I was on a three week attachment from my one year stint in Wellington.

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The people are truly a lovely lot; they are warm, polite, hospitable, kind and mostly generous. My short stay had been a memorable one. I know the situation in Christchurch will improve and hope the people well.

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During the second weekend in this floral city, our group decided to travel south for a two day fun trip to Dunedin. As I wandered alone downtown on the second day, I met a lass gazing at the statue of *Robert Burns. We struck up a conversation and she told me she was Scottish. During our chat, we realised our interest were in Burns' poetry and pop music. Since the latter was more interesting, we whiled away our time exchanging songs and melodies we loved.
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So amidst discussion about Elvis, Cliff, Donegan, Donovan, Marmalade, Connie Francis, The Beatles and Russ Hamilton, she asked me if I knew a song by **Badfinger (image). I was struck dumb. "Bad who?" I asked surprised as I heard loudly the ego-bubble bursting. So as the Brit group was revealed, I learnt a song.

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To this day, Come And Get It (1970) will always be associated with Christchurch and Dunedin. Although it was many tears ago, I still recollect that the coffee we had was hot and me bonnie lassie was prettier than Dunedin's southern skies.

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But I had never really taken advantage of what was offered and we parted good friends. Now Audie Ng will understand why I love to sing, My Bonnie on stage.

The lassie from Dunee taught me the expressive introduction to Badfinger's hit:

If you want it, here it is come and get it
Mmm, make your mind up fast
If you want it anytime I can get it
But you'd better hurry, cause it may not last...

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*Robert Burns, The Bard, was a Scottish poet and a lyricist (1759 – 1796).
**No matter the tragedy within their ranks, Badfinger was one of the greatest Brit bands ever.