Jack Sorrow
Meets Death.
I made the character of Jack Sorrow up.
Death already existed.
That’s how creativity works. Taking existing materials, adding invented ideas, and mixing things up to make something new. In this case a song about accepting our limitations. Specifically our physical finitude.
I’m sorry to have to break that to you.
ps. I completely forgot in yesterdays blog that I had anglicised the spelling of some of the dutch words. This will mean that, if you tried, you would have struggled with the translation thing. The correct spelling is “Geen koe die koken kan”
Kan Koo Di Koken Kan
Puzzled? You will be.
WTF!!!! I hear you think.
”Kane Koo Di Koken Kan”?????
Don’t panic. It was just a bit of song writing fun I had a few years ago with a phrase that popped up in a Dutch lesson.
But you want to know what it means now, don’t you? Well that’s what your AI chat bot is for! Or the Google search engine if you’re old school. Mwaahah.
Don’t build your hopes up too much though. It won’t change your life. But knowledge is power, they say. So … you probably should find out.
Go on. Make my day. Random searches can take you anywhere or nowhere. But everywhere is somewhere.
ps. S’cuse me. I’m giggling to myself. I’d forgotten how much I enjoy writing complete nonsense occasionally.
pps. “Not so occasionally” I hear you whisper
ppps. The answer below please. Extra points for making a limerick out of the translation.
Bag For Life
A final request.
”They don’t make them like that anymore” said the actress to the bishop.
And we know exactly what she means. Built To Last!
Our modern version of the concept? Allow me to introduce the Bag For Life. Yes, you too sir can carry all your precious, disposable junk, home from the shops in a carrier bag that will possibly outlast its contents.
I say ”Possibly”. Because as well as throwing crap away, we seem to have developed the habit of stretching the meaning of some words. In this care the words “for life”. Yes, I’ve had to send the odd “bag for life” to baggy heaven. With the bishops blessing of course. You may have had to do the same.
Everything comes to an end. But it would be nice not to rush there so fast.
The Moon Will Be Big Tonight
Somewhere.
It appears.
It disappears.
It’s always there.
It stays the same.
It changes shape.
It changes size.
It changes tides.
It shines.
It reflects.
It obscures.
It is lifeless.
It has been visited by life.
It is a god.
It is made of cheese.
The cow jumped over it.
Yes, The Moon Will Be Big Tonight.
Somewhere. And depending upon the viewers perception.
Discover Fee Sitting On A Balcony
Change
Brings something new to the table.
“Every day’s a good day to be alive”.
That’s a very different line to:
”Every day feels like a good day to be alive”.
The feelings Change. And they always will. As do many other aspects of life.
But the good is always there to be found. It’s in the next breath we breathe.
Gravity Is Calling
...faster than we can run.
I’m imagining things being different. Of course I am. I’m a human.
”What if I lived in this house and not that one?” “If only the shower was a little bit warmer it would be perfect”. “If I’d done that they would have understood me”. “The weather should be better this afternoon”…etc.
Honestly, pretty much everything that is going on in my thought life … that incessant chatter that we have with ourselves in our heads, even though we are in fact “ourselves” and should really know it all already …. is about things changing.
And, when those imagined changes happen, I’ll be happy, right?
?
Well it’s true Gravity Is Calling, and things will inevitably change. Sometimes in ways I desire but sometimes, perhaps often … not. Sometimes because of things I do, but mostly … not.
And so, it turns out, that at all times my best option appears to be to let the noisy voices in my head drift by, and to accept the messy imperfectness of now.
Aren’t I The Lucky One
An appropriate song.
On days when everything goes wrong, the song to sing is…Aren’t I The Lucky One. Serendipity brought this tune to the top just now.
Trapped nerves, complicated financial transactions, digital “issues”, flat car batteries. All occurred today in a far flung land … technically the “Nether”lands … arriving along with todays title on my Fee Comes Fourth archival meander.
And you know it’s true. I am lucky. You’ve heard me say that a few times now, in different words. But the moment when it is most important to pull that notion out the bag is when the shit hits the fan.
Not through gritted teeth, or with overwrought positivism.
Just the simple truth … I have so much to be thankful for. And I am.
Discover Fee Singing A Love Song He Wrote About Being Lucky, For Somebody Else
Wounded Soldier
No obvious signs.
It’s impossible to really know what somebody else has been through. This song lyric was about the very real traumas that can happen inside somebodies head, for which there is no obvious or known reason. Thankfully mental health issues are a lot more talked about these days. And hopefully that openness leads to more understanding and empathy.
Wounded Soldier
Well you’ve never dodged a bullet in Bagdad baby
You’ve never hidden, cold, in the rain
You couldn’t even shoot a rabbit in the dunes
And you cry when you’re in pain
You reach for your inhaler when you catch the bus
And hold it like a live grenade
They won’t ever pin a medal on your uniform
And all your dreams will fade
See the lamp light shining through the curtain gap
Can’t sleep and you’re getting older
No you’ve never been carried off the battlefield
But you’re a wounded soldier
Friend of mine, Friend of mine
The Shells are falling now
Rest your soul
Coz you’re a wounded soldier
It's a bitter kind of battle when the world's gone crazy
And you're the only one who's sane
The medicine they sell, is sending you to hell
On a flat line runaway train
You wrestle with your troubles like a heretic saint
Shouting out The Truth is a Lie
No we can’t see the wars that you're fighting here
The bleeding inside
See the lamp light shining through the curtain gap
Can’t sleep and you’re getting older
No you’ve never been carried off the battlefield
Coz you’re a wounded soldier
Friend of mine, Friend of mine
The Shells are falling now
Rest your soul
Coz you’re a wounded soldier
Dadada dadada dadadada
The sun sets over your hilltop target
You’ve been trying to get there forever
But you’re tripping through the brambles and the dirty dishes
Just holding it together
There’s a reason for the battle but you sometimes forget
And your body's getting colder
You’re a stranger to the winning line
Coz you’re a wounded soldier
Friend of mine, Friend of mine
The Shells are falling now
Rest your soul
Coz you’re a wounded soldier
Friend of mine, friend of mine
I’ll be here when the nights get colder
Rest your soul
Coz you’re a wounded soldier
God rest your soul
Coz you’re a wounded soldier
When I Come Back To Earth
A Haiku
A Slightly More Plausible Teenage Haiku Excuse Than The Usual Ones
“Visiting Pluto
But When I Come Back To Earth
I’ll tidy my room”
I’m A Dinosaur
Extinction rebellion.
This month’s release (link at the bottom) is the shortest song I’ve ever written. It’s a tongue in cheek response to the times when my songs didn’t cut it for the pub audiences who just wanted me to “play something I know”. I’m not knocking the sentiment at all.
But hey, it’s all grist to the mill :)
I’m A Dinosaur
I don’t want to hear
A new song anymore
Play those songs of yesteryear
The songs that I adore
Put ‘em on a loop
Play em back to back
Sixties, seventies, eighties, nineties
Let me hear those super tracks
Coz I like living in the past
Life was better then
I don’t want to be here
Anymore
Coz I’m a dinosaur
We’re All Doomed
In the words of the prophet.
We’re All Doomed. I mean everything will keep going wrong. Just like it always has done. Forever and ever. Everything is coming to an end!!!! Sooner or later. It’s all falling apart. We’re gonna die someday. Oh, my God!!!! We can’t change very much at all. What the hell are we gonna do?
Meanwhile, it’s quite a pleasant day out there, I’ve got most of my faculties, I’m not short of food (food is bloody brilliant, isn’t it?), I have friends who appear to enjoy my company at least some of the time, a lovely family, etc, etc…
It’s really not a bad deal, this being doomed malarkey.
Discover Fee Giving Davey Jones A Shout Out
Tulips
For the one I love.
This song title comes up just as I’m away from my lovely Ineke for a week.
Tulips is a mushy love song I wrote for her, inspired of course by her Dutch origins. That’s all you need to know really. (If you listen don’t be confused by the use of her birth name Catherina, which I don’t sing correctly anyway … I actually prefer my original lyric anyway which is similar to the one written below the song). I’ve written better songs for her since to be honest. Ok that’s the excuses out the way.
Love is lots of things. The most important ones don’t sound particularly romantic - commitment, loyalty, dedication, patience, accountability.
But you’ve still got to add a bit of mush sometimes. Mush oils the wheel of love. Give her some flowers now and then. Give HIM some flowers now and then.
Won’t find many tulips around now. I got the best one anyway :)
But other blossoms are available.
Everything I Ever Wanted
It's not taken for granted.
The song “Everything I Ever Wanted” puts a big smile on my face. You’re allowed to say that about your own songs. It’s OK.
The reason is mainly because of an accompanying video, which I will link to below, and you may well have already seen if you’ve ever been on my website or my Youtube channel. My daughter-in-law, Susanna, put it together a few years ago, and it features lots of the family members I love. Most of my boys, my wife, some of the grand weans.
Hence the smile.
They’re all doing OK. Including later additions to the family. And of course by that I mean, that they’re experiencing life, with all it’s up and downs. But without too much undue suffering.
It’s not a lot to ask on the surface. But we know that things could be different. Our present “OK” is somebody else’s heaven on earth.
So not taking any of that for granted is top of my to do list most days.
Including today.
Discover Fee Being Lucky
The Book
...and other words.
In the beginning was life. I was a baby, then a child.
Later, I tried to read The Books of life. But they were all written for someone else, by someone else.
So I recycled them and tried to write The Book myself. For myself.
But I wuddled up the mords, slaughtered the sentences, and grotesquerised the grammar!!!!!
So I stopped writing and went back to the beginning.
The Beginning
The End
Now The Summer Has Gone
Again.
Now The Summer Has Gone … but, hang on, when does that happen?
Up here it never came, then it went away anyway. And then it came back.
Things (and people) not doing what they’re expected to, at the time they’re expected to do them, is the bane of everybody’s life. Including mine.
I’m not being a sad old cynic, a pissed off pessimist, or a bitter realist, when I say that my expectations have lowered considerably. In actual fact, not having expectations has been a route to greater happiness.
When the Expectation Meter sits at zero, every moment tends to be a little bit more special.
And surprising.
Lift Me Up
The way we were.
There will almost certainly come a time when we are completely dependent on other people.
We will desire something very simple then. For our humanity, the person we once were and whom, to ourselves at least, we perhaps still are, to be acknowledged and dignified.
”Don’t look down on me. Lift Me Up.”
The song of this name was written in memory of my mum, who had quite significant dementia. It lasted for a number of years, longer than the norm. And it was a hard watch. My Dad in particular dealt with this well. For all his faults, he treated her the whole time as simply the women he had married. It was his finest achievement in my eyes.
There is no adequate glory sometimes, in the most glorious actions that humans carry out. The ones in which we give ourselves , when there is nothing at all that we can or will receive back.
Discover Fee Trying To Understand
The Gathering
It's a wild thing.
Back in the days when I was a Tweeter, twittering away, The Gathering became the nearest thing I ever had to a viral hit (not very near) when it got ReTwitted by a fairly well known Tweeter called George Monbiot. (He’s a well known and fairly radical environmentalist fella if you’ve not come across the name).
The song was actually inspired by a story I heard him tell, about the animals at Yellowstone Park in the USA. Apparently when wolves, an apex predator, were re-introduced there, it had the beneficial effect, over a period of time, on the good well being of not only the animals that they fed upon but also the actual physical geography of the area. The courses of rivers changed.
And everything improved.
Our environment has evolved very slowly over a long period of time, and some human actions (like chasing or hunting our competitor predators) can affect it all in a bad way.
But … it turns out … we can still do something about it.
While we can do, we probably should.
Before things become X.
Discover Fee Getting Wild About Wolves
Blow The Flame
....and cheat if you need to.
A while ago I tried to start a fire from scratch.
I bought a fire-stick which, with a bit of technique, creates sparks. And then if you’ve got the right sort of dry tinder, you’ve got the beginning of flames.
Like a lot of things that look easy on a youtube video, it’s harder to achieve than it looks. After a lot trial and error I was managing to get good sparks happening. But those sparks were not lighting those carefully shaved bits of dry driftwood that I was attempting to ignite.
I tried for a long time. And in the end I used a small cheat. I put a small bit of cotton wool soaked in vaseline. The cotton wool lights fairly easily, and the vaseline causes it to stay alight for a good while.
So, in the end Man Make Fire.
I’d like to be able to do all of that properly. But getting a little bit of success, even with help, is what keeps us trying. We need to know that thing we’re trying to do is possible.
Impossible doesn’t have a big following, unless your name’s Tom Cruise.
Discover Fee Attempting To Displace The Most Popular Song In The World
Droom Je Al
Sleep tight.
Are you dreaming already? Or as they say in Dutch…Droom Je Al?
It was a wee lullaby I wrote in Dutch for my grandchildren. My daughter-in-law used to play it to them when they were littler than they are now. And it worked. I sent another audience to sleep!
Here’s the English translation:
The wind, she sings a song for you
So that you can fall asleep
You are tired, but she is flying
Blowing across the whole of the world
Are you dreaming already?
Are you dreaming already?
And the moon is your guardian, right?
When he is sailing by your window
You’re yawning like a big cave
As he circles the planet
Are you dreaming already?
Are you dreaming already?
Are you dreaming of high mountains
With snow lying on top?
Sleep without a care
Until the sun knocks upon the door.
Dream with me
Dream with me
The stars are in the heavens
A guide for seabirds and for people
And love will never leave
We will always love you
Are you dreaming already?
Are you dreaming already?
Are you sleeping already?
Are you sleeping already?
Dream with me.
Dream with me.
Are you sleeping already?
Are you dreaming already?
Discover Fee Getting Sleepy
Making Bacon
Suitable wedding material?
Making Bacon was the slightly odd song I wrote for the wedding of my eldest son and our daughter in law, over ten years ago. It was intended to be light hearted and funny, to those in the know
There’s a story behind it of course, but I won’t bother you with that here.
My youngest son is getting married next year. He’s vegan, and the wedding will be vegan too.
I’ve written their song.
Horses for courses though. Not even the slightest whiff or sizzle of bacon in this one.
No lentils either, to be honest.
Discover Fee Messing Around With Food
(worth a listen if only for Mr Sam Hales increasingly and amazingly fast guitar licks)