New Book Meeting: I am wanting to see all who would be interested in meeting up at my house next month…

I am wanting to start a “book club” that has no particular theme.  I will send out my street address as that becomes necessary.  I and the members need a couple of weeks to read the book(s).  The theme can be anything of interest to the group members. Send out an email to get things started.  Lend some ideas as to what would work for you…

Thanks for all you do…  Steven

Shawn’s Famous Friends — THE BEATLES

Okay, I know. This is really becoming annoying, huh? Addictive personality, WHO ME? Yes me. I admit it, freely. So instead of working on that defect of charcter here at PrariePops for all to see, maybe I can try to twist it into something positive.

Those of you who know me here know that I’ve been shamelessly promoting my favorite artist Shawn Phillips http://www.shawnphillips.com/. That can’t be all bad, The Friggin Loon has started listening to Shawn. So instead of doing a disservice to him, (by making you all bitter through my own obsessive behavior) I’ll take a different approach. A series of videos featuring Shawn’s more well known friends. Gauranteed to blow your mind!  ~sekanblogger

 “I was invited a couple of times to Paul McCartney’s and George Harrison’s house. We were on a very friendly basis. Paul invited me to a session, and I ended up singing background vocals on “Lovely Rita Meter Maid”, and we saw each other socially many times after that, at the Moody Blues house, and various clubs around London. I gave George some basic lessons on sitar, before he ever actually met Ravi Shankar. It was basically the same with John and Ritchie (Ringo). Although, I never went to their houses.” 

“Very nice guys, every single one of them. John Lennon and I got along very very well. George was really the quietest one. He was quite an introvert. He didn’t really finger pick, but he was a much better guitarist than a lot of people give him credit for. When we sat around jamming, he would play things that just absolutely amazed me! It wasn’t what he played; it was the speed at which he’d play them. He never really showed off that side on any of the Beatles’ records. That guy could jam and he’d play these amazing runs.”  – Shawn Phillips

LYRICS HERE

Grandpa Was A Carpenter by John Prine

This is one of my favorite John Prine tunes, reminds me of my Grandfathers. And the very different world they raised my parents in. ~sekanblogger

Grandpa wore his suit to dinner
Nearly every day
No particular reason
He just dressed that way
Brown necktie and a matching vest
And both his wingtip shoes
He built a closet on our back porch
And put a penny in a burned out fuse.

CHORUS:
Grandpa was a carpenter
He built houses stores and banks
Chain smoked Camel cigarettes
And hammered nails in planks
He was level on the level
And shaved even every door
And voted for Eisenhower
‘Cause Lincoln won the war.

Well, he used to sing me “Blood on the Saddle”
And rock me on his knee
And let me listen to radio
Before we got T.V.
Well, he’d drive to church on Sunday
And take me with him too!
Stained glass in every window
Hearing aids in every pew.

(REPEAT CHORUS)

Now my grandma was a teacher
Went to school in Bowling Green
Traded in a milking cow
For a Singer sewing machine
She called her husband “Mister”
And walked real tall in pride
And used to buy me comic books
After grandpa died.

Final chorus
Grandpa was a carpenter
He built houses stores and banks
Chain smoked Camel cigarettes
And hammered nails in planks
He was level on the level
And shaved even every door
And voted for Eisenhower
‘Cause Lincoln won the war.

GET UP by The Kinks

This comprises the Motivational Speech for this weekend at PrariePops. 

The Kinks always were POPULIST by nature. These lyrics reflect how they always wrote for the common man.  ~sekanblogger

Here’s a song for all the little men, who get forgotten
Trodden time and time again
Here’s a message for the little guy, don’t let this situation pass you by
You’re in the middle while the big mouths fight
You get it from the left and the right, ain’t it crazy
So get out of your easy chairs, we’ve got a lot to do out there
Well ain’t we
Good’s gone bad but right is wrong and I don’t know which side I’m on lately
Get up from the down you are in
Come out of your homes and let’s see your faces
Get up out of your easy chairs, get up and show ’em that you’re there
Get up it’s your one salvation
Wise up to the situation
Somebody gotta get up and shout
Somebody gotta give us some clout
You’re the ones to make it all work out
It all depends on you
Get up off your arses men
Don’t let ’em think you’re getting lazy
Get up out of your easy chairs
We gotta lot to do out there, well ain’t we
Get up, Get up, Get up,
Get up, Get up, Get up

BLACK MESSIAH by The Kinks

Since it’s Juneteenth, and the Senate formally apologizes for slavery, well…. all us crackers may as well admit it. The picture in the hall at your local church is all wrong. THE MESSIAH IS BLACK! Read lyrics, listen to song, comment. ~sekanblogger

 Everybody got the right to speak their mind
So don’t shoot me for saying mine
Everybody talking about racial equality
‘Cos everybody’s equal in the good Lord’s eyes
But if I told you that God was black
What would you think of that
I bet you wouldn’t believe it

There’s a self made prophet living right next to me
He said the Black Messiah’s gonna come and set the whole world free
He looked at me with his evil eye and prophesied
And he really believed it

He said a Black Messiah is gonna set the world on fire
And he no liar, ‘cos he has truly heard the word
Everybody talk about racial equality
But I’m the only honky living on an all black street
They knock me down ‘cos they brown and I white
Like you wouldn’t believe it

They say a Black Messiah is gonna set the world on fire
A Black Messiah is gonna come and rule the world
Everybody talk about racial equality
Everybody talk about equal rights
But white’s white, black’s black and that’s that
Everybody got the right to speak their mind
So don’t shoot me for saying mine

Everybody talking about racial equality
You hear everybody talking about equal rights
But white’s white, black’s black and that’s that
And that’s the way you should leave it

Don’t want no Black Messiah to come and set the world on fire
A Black Messiah is gonna come and rule the world
Everybody got to show a little give and take
Everybody got to live with a little less hate
Everybody gotta work it out, we gotta sort it out
Everybody got the right to speak their mind
So don’t shoot me for saying mine

Hie Away

“I like to write songs that make you feel different from the way you felt before you started listening,”- Shawn Phillips

  I have actually heard of critic’s reviews about Shawn where they complained that he used “The entire English language.” WHAT? How shallow have we become as consumers? The remarks about using the entire language reminded me of the scene in ‘Amadeus’ where some aristocrat is complaining that Mozart’s new composition was awful because “there were just too many notes!” Boy would he ever hate this cut, Hie Away. I was at one of his shows (in Tulsa I think?), where Shawn said something like: “Show me an artist who plays for the art of it, he’ll be the next guy without a major label.”

 For those of us who lose at scrabble; Hie -Pronunciation:\ˈhī\ -Function: verb -Inflected Form(s):hied; hy·ing or hie·ing -Etymology:Middle English, from Old English hīgian to strive, hasten. Date:12th century -intransitive verb: to go quickly : hasten -transitive verb: to cause (oneself) to go quickly.

Hie Away

 Tongues are rattling and multiprattling, the thanatoid elite
That call the noisome, remorseless horsemen, we pray they into sleep
For when they’re riding there is no hiding your face

Instant ambrose for distant decades, the same must speed relief
For tolls too briefly the sounds of mercy
I shall not hie to grief
In fear we ponder the use of thunder for peace

Moving rages divide the phases converging toward belief
That’s being proven in all its union, there is no more retreat
And blind delusions maintain illusions too deep

Now flows the hour of cringe and cower, the strong become the weak
Negate your power and all to flower,
In pain we all are meek
In light beholden the ages golden we seek

~~~~~~~~~~

Just one reason I like Shawn is exactly that attitude of doing his own thing. Rebel hippie musicians just have a soft spot in my heart. I could carry on for a while with rebelious quotes from Shawn, but I risk the chance of carrying on so long you lose interst. So instead of quelling your interest, let me try to spike it by presenting something completely different than PrariePops is used to me posting by SP. 

 

  I’ve always shared Shawn’s more mellow/acoustic numbers in the past, if you enjoyed those, check out this short clip of him at home practicing acoustic guitar.