Messing With Stuff
It changes the world.
“Last Sunday I gave you my heart
The very next day
Was Monday”.
That, in case you haven’t noticed, is me messing with the lines of a well known song. I think my first steps into songwriting as a child (long before I wrote an actual song) involved doing this kind of thing.
Singing a few notes differently to an existing tune.
And changing a word here or there.
That’s creativity. Messing with stuff. It’s what children do. But it doesn’t have to stop when we become adults. It shouldn’t stop. It’s sad when it does.
Messing With Stuff should be a way of life. The world changes when we do.
Discover Fee’s Mess
The Wise Owl
Worse for wear?
The Wise Owl
Sat on his stump
Thinking wise thoughts.
But Wise Owl rarely smiled.
However
Once in a while
The Wise Owl
Got drunk.
And though getting drunk is certainly not wise
To no one’s surprise
After drinking a few Whisky and Ryes
Like the good ol’ boys
In American Pie
A smile
Was seen
To appear
On the face of
The Wise Owl.
If only for while.
Then the hangover kicked in.
And Wise Owl returned
To his stump again.
The MOK Run
On the road to somewhere.
I did it once. The MOK Run. The 10km version of the yearly Mull Of Kintyre race. Personally I find walking to be a far more enjoyable and dignified pursuit than running.
Today, as more usually though, I was only watching. But, as usual I was inspired. To the point of tears in one moment. I don’t know why that is. It’s a very community orientated event in Campbeltown, with many coming to watch and support. And then the runners themselves. All ages, and sizes, and athletic abilities, and all getting a sweat on, and, let’s be honest, suffering, in order to…..?
Well, what is it all for? Not for the glory, for the vast majority. Perhaps just the simple sense of pushing themselves to the limit. And still coming out alive.
Anyway, well done to all. Particularly to our friends, regular blog reader Peter and his wife Linda Thompson. Great job guys! And thanks for stealing us some Danish Pastries from the contestants stash. ;-)
Discover Fee Singing The MOK Run
“Would I Lie To You?”
…about something like that?
So I’m giving up playing guitar and singing and writing songs. It’s a mugs game, and A.I. can do it far better now anyway. There are millions of songs out there in the universe already, and who in that universe is going to be disappointed if no more are ever written. By humans anyway. Also, it’s a constant battle to register any interest, even from people who like me and/or think that my songs demonstrate a modicum of talent. And though singing to myself is fun and therapeutic, it’s probably no more fun (or therapeutic) than watching old episodes of “Would I Lie To You?”
I am lying actually. But it’s probably true to say that variations on these themes flash through my head on occasion. In the darker moments.
And then I get an idea for another song, and the best laid plans of mice and men go belly up. I’m back on (or off???) the wagon again.
It turns out that, for better or worse, songs are my truth.
Discover Fee’s Music
The Kintyre Songwriters Festival
For original music.
I was in a pub for a wee open mic session. Got introduced to a fella there.
”Do you know each other?”
Well, I did recognise him.
”I know you. We were in that Feed The World video during Covid?”
”Oh aye, I mind you now”.
This was a local Christmas version of that song, which we all recorded in isolation because of the covid regulations. But I got more attention from that than I’ve ever got from one of my many original songs. In fact, I immediately got invited to play at the Co-op Christmas party off the back of it. A gig I turned down. I really wasn’t the kind of performer they thought I was.
Despite that brief glimpse of super stardom, all I really want to do is play my own songs and make my own connections with any group of people, that appreciate fresh original songs, delivered with heart and passion.
And occasionally I get those opportunities. One coming up soon if you’re in the Campbeltown area. I’m playing The Kintyre Songwriters Festival on Friday 7th June. It’s a fantastic weekend for hearing original music of all types from local artists and more well known acts.
Discover Fee’s Music
(It won’t feed the world but it is home made)
Four Parrots And A Three Song Pee
Seriously?
Last Saturday evening I played songs at somebody else’s wonderful gig/art exhibition. While they went for a pee. Three songs in fact. That’s a full bladder in anybody’s language.
One of the songs involved a wee (sic) introductory story involving some parrots. It was a serious song, but as soon as I said the word “parrots” people started giggling. Maybe they were expecting a Monty Python sketch. I dunno. But I found it hard to keep a straight face myself. Honestly sometimes it’s hard to be taken seriously as an artist.
But, anyway, that was me last Saturday night.
Four Parrots And A Three Song Pee.
These are the moments that stay in the memory.
Discover Fee’s Parrot Related Song
ps. Sorry, no actual parrots contained within.
Humble Pie
It’s hard to digest.
I’ve had kickback. So I would like to make a retraction. Apparently, not everybody has rhythm in their bones. Not so much as a foot tap in there, so they tell me. And I can only take their word for it.
Humble Pie is currently being eaten in this house.
It turns out I’m not right about everything. Dang. Some lessons hit hard.
Discover Fee’s Music
Rhythm Is In Our Bones
It wants out.
My mum and my sister were in an “expressive” dance group at the church we attended when I was teen. Yes, it was awkward. (And don’t tell my sister I’ve mentioned this here either!)
But I wasn’t too traumatised. I’ve come to appreciate dancing in all it’s many forms. And I have been known on many occasions to “go for it” on the dance floor, after a couple of shandies. Free form expressive Dad dancing is the category I think.
It’s hard, even for the most repressed of personage, to avoid tapping their toe when a good beat starts up.
Rhythm Is In Our Bones. It will out. And even if it won’t, it wants to.
Now and then, at least, you’ve gotta let your bones have a say. Even though it takes a drop or two of the hard stuff to give them a voice.
All It Is
Keep an eye on those neurons!
Keeping things simple is harder than it looks.
Suddenly, without much effort on our part, there are tangles. Clutter. Too much of everything.
And yet 100 percent of that everything is made up of a few neurons sending messages around in our brains. That is, in fact, All It Is, as far as our own experience is concerned.
Which might not make anything easier, but it is simpler. We just need to keep an eye on what those neurons are up to.
Discover Fee’s Music
To Doubt Ourselves
An unexpected gift.
I’ve got a lot of admiration for the person who whole heartedly makes a Big Announcement to the world - one that changes their direction completely, and changes the perception that people have of them, sometimes for the worse.
Most of us, if we are brave enough to make the original change, will keep going along that new path once we’ve started. We may well do this simply out of a sense of embarrassment, derived from the public nature of our new journey.
And, in fact, often that is a good reason to make our Big Announcement. It helps us to commit to the path. We put ourselves in a position where the social pressure will help to keep us moving forward when uncertainty arises.
But what if the uncertainty was telling us something. What if the path does turn out to be wrong? What if it was wrong all along?
It takes particularly large cajones, and a great deal of humility, to then turn back. Kudos to those who can, when it’s the right thing to do, change their minds twice about the big decisions.
The ability To Doubt Ourselves can sometimes be our biggest gift.
Discover Fee’s Music
HomeSONG
Forgetting the purpose.
I was listening to the song of a friend yesterday, and I suddenly realised that, on this blog called HomeSONG, I really haven’t put up very much music recently.
So I’m going to start posting songs again of live performances from home. Preferably from people I know or have a connection with mostly. I’ve had a few false starts with this idea previously I know. But you gotta keep on trying huh?
I know there are a few songwriter/performers reading this blog, so don’t be shy if you’ve got a live home performance you’d like me to put up. Or a recommendation for somebody else’s song.
For the moment they’ll just be appearing on the Facebook Homesong page in a separate post to the blog post.
Discover Fee’s Music
“Be Still”
It’s enough.
One of my favourite bible verses during my christian days was this little phrase: “Be still and know that I am God”. Psalm 46 verse 10.
It was helpful because I had a very active and restless mind, and this verse helped me to slow down, to calm down, and to simply let things be. Sometimes at least.
But over the years I stopped believing in a specific “God” guy, and found my spirit lifted, far more in fact, by the simple but mysterious wonder and beautiful privilege of mere Life itself. The experience of life as we see it, is more than enough for me now. All of the conjecture and anxiety about the who’s, what’s, why’s and wherefores, a thing of the past.
I still adhere to a part of that bible verse though. A honed down version.
”Be Still”.
The Streak
Not quite daily…
I’ve been a little bit inconsistent recently with my “Daily” blog.
These things happen. Life happens. It’s not all about keeping The Streak going, though that’s a nice challenge sometimes.
Every streak comes to an end at some point though.
Still, I’m very thankful that I have got a few streaks on the go. Particularly the breathing streak. I can’t tell you the exact amount of inhales and exhales, but I continue to appreciate that one most of all.
Discover Fee’s Music
The Northern Lights
Somebody else’s experience.
There have been some really good sighting of The Northern Lights in our part of the world over the last few years. And we’ve missed all of them. Apart from a very distant flicker of green one time a few years ago.
Last night they were everywhere apparently. And we missed them too.
There’s a slight sense of disappointment of course. But we will only ever actually experience a tiny fraction of the available experiential options in life. And there are some really good ones available right now. So we’re going for a walk we haven’t done in a while up Deer Hill in our old stomping ground near Carradale. It’s a lovely day for it. No point living with regrets about the past.
Hope you enjoyed the lights if you saw them though. Jammy buggers! :)
Discover Fee’s Music
Learn To Smile
Songs lost and found.
I sometimes find forgotten songs or lyrics that I’ve written. Bumped into the lyric below a couple of days ago, and then found a recording of the melody. It’s got a kind of ugly/pretty, darkness and light, contrast thing going on.
I like it. But I can’t remember writing it. It reveals echoes of a place I’ve come from, while I was reaching out for some wisdom on the journey.
Also it reminds me of a quote I read yesterday. I can’t find the source now, but it was something like: “A wise man is always cheerful”. Well, if that’s so, I’ve not been very wise for much of my life. Never the less, I’m undoubtedly starting to….
Learn To Smile
The Song Thrush sits
Top of the highest tree
Singing for you and me
She’s singing for you and me
And we can learn to smile
What do you do when you break
Do you start again?
Fight the same fights in the night
Till the story ends
It’s not a good game to play
In the echo chambers of your mind
Pushing that rock to the top
Rolling it back again
Rolling it back to the start
Where it all began
Try ’n unravel the truth
Like a crazy man
Not a good game to play
In the echo chambers of your mind.
Push that rock till you drop
Still the Song Thrush sits
Top of the highest tree
Singing for you and me
She’s singing for you and me
And we can learn to smile
It’s not the pain that hurts, it’s the hope
It’s not the faith that kills, it’s the Pope
Or the President, or the Papers who
Sell all their chloroform soap.
The chicken crossed over the road
Coz the News is a joke
Jesus is after your vote
Lives in a castle, high walls and a moat,
And he sits and he gloats
At the sinners
Who swing from a rope.
Push that rock till you drop
And still the Song Thrush sits
Top of the highest tree
Singing for you and me
She’s singing for you and me
And still the Song Thrush sits
Top of the highest tree
Singing for you and me
She’s singing for you and me
And we can learn to smile
We can learn to smile
We can learn to smile
We can learn to smile
Discover Fee’s Music
Let’s Not Fight
May the fifth be with you.
Yesterday I released this month’s song. Which quite clearly got trumped by Ineke’s Triathlon. So here is:
Let’s Not Fight
Across the universe
A photon of light is doing the kind of thing
That a photon of light would do.
Lighting up a little part of everything that’s making up the universe
That you and I and everybody else pass through
And it doesn’t take a genius to realise there’s nothing we can do
Because everything is happening on it’s own
And we have got the privilege to watch it all
And be a part of everything and everyone
And it’s alright
Coz we’re all light
And there’s a part of you in me
So let’s not fight
Across the planet earth
A woman you don’t know, is doing the kind of thing
That a woman you don’t know might do.
She’s planning to make a new dress for the daughter of her sister
For when she celebrates her birthday
She’ll be turning seventeen in just a week or two
And it doesn’t take a genius to realise there’s nothing we can do
Because everything is happening on it’s own
And we have got the privilege to watch it all
And be a part of everything and everyone
And it’s alright
Coz we’re all light
And there’s a part of you in me
So let’s not fight
Across the living room
A friend of yours is doing the kind of thing that
A friend of yours would do.
Right now he’s thinking anxiously about something that he just said
Which might have not come out in quite the way
That it had been intended to
And it doesn’t take a genius to realise there’s nothing we can do
Everything is happening on it’s own.
And we have got the privilege to watch it all
And be a part of everything and everyone
And it’s alright
Coz we’re all light
And there’s a part of you in me
So let’s not fight
Inside my tiny mind
Eighty six billion neurons are doing the kind of thing
That eighty six billion neurons would do.
Connecting this to that and that to this
And me to you, and you to me
And everything that ever was
To everything that ever was likely to.
And I'm not a genius, rhere’s really nothing I can do
Coz everything is happening on it’s own
And we have got the privilege to watch it all
And be a part of everything and everyone
And it’s alright
Coz we’re all light
And there’s a part of you in me
So let’s not fight
Yes it’s alright
Coz we’re all light
And there’s a part of you in me
So let’s not fight
Coz it’s alright
And we’re all light
So let’s not fight
Sixty Eight
Smashing through brick walls!
They say you shouldn’t reveal a woman’s age. I’m going to break that rule out of gushing pride. I know the woman in question won’t mind. Because, at the grand young age of Sixty Eight, my wife, Ineke Fee, has just swum, cycled and run from the start to finish of her first ever Triathlon.
Ineke is a force of nature. She would be the first to admit that she’s not an athlete. But give her a brick wall to get through, and she’ll be the last human being standing.
The running was always going to be the tough part. She’s got a leg issue which makes it painful. But she did it. Because doing it is what she does!
We’ve all got our brick walls to face. And there are different ways to face them. Ineke smashed hers. And that brought a tear to my eye.
Getting through, is sometimes just a case of getting up again.
Discover Fee’s Music
Spock And Captain Kirk
Aye, aye, Captain.
Spock And Captain Kirk needed to learn to get along.
In our heads we are Spock. Our rationalising is faultless. We are so convincing that we cannot help but believe every word we tell ourselves.
Even if what we tell ourselves amounts to…
”This is what I believe, and nothing you say is going to change my mind”.
Maybe we simply need to acknowledge that about each other.
Maybe we need, more often than not, to say a big fat YES to whoever the other person in front of us is, and instead of trying to change them, help them to move in the direction they want to go. To become the best version of the complex hybrid of obviously wrong opinions mixed with well meant intent, which most of us in fact are.
”Aye, Aye, Captain'“.
Completo
Decisions to make.
“Completo” is a spanish word which means….Full. No more room.
“You can’t get on this bus, mate. It’s completo”.
Which is clearly related to the English word “Complete”. But the English word is commonly used in a different way. It alludes to a sense of accomplishment.
”I’ve finished what I was doing. It’s completed”.
In either language though, it’s time for a new direction:
-Kill some time and wait for the next bus perhaps?
- Go home?
-Start the new project?
-Hang around, feeling lost?
The decision has been made for us. But we still have to decide.