Yippee Yee Haw! ( #BOTB Results )

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           Remember those cowboy heroes who were men of few words who just got down to doing what needed to be done?   Well, that's me on vacation--not necessarily heroic, but just gettin' it done.  Today I'm just delivering the results of my Battle of the Bands featuring the song "Cowboy Dreams"...


Battle of the Bands Results

   

       Some of you mentioned that this was a tough Battle and I agree.  I could go either way on this match as well, but since I've got to go with one of them then I'm going to cast my vote for Nigel Livingstone.   My reasons are much like some of you stated--the greater energy of the version and a preference for the instrumental back-up.  

      Jimmy Nails immediately ran off with the lead in this Battle, but Nigel Livingstone pulled up close behind in the final round of voting.   Good job Jimmy.   Not bad Nigel.

Final Vote Tally

Jimmy Nails              10 votes

Nigel Livingstone       7 votes


Next Battle on Sunday July 1st

          Since my next Battle is going to be a Sunday Battle then I'm going to take it to church--well, kind of church.   Hopefully I'll post it okay and as long as my computer cooperates I'm sure I will.

        Are you having a great summer so far?

Cowboy Dreams (#BOTB)

        John Wayne would probably not make it in today's entertainment world.  Like so many other screen legends, Wayne has become a relic of the past.  Too bad.  We could use more heroic heroes.  

This was part of my late step-father's John Wayne memorabilia collection.
 Maybe I should have kept that collection, but selling it all on eBay
wasn't a terrible idea either.

Childhood Fantasies

         We'd play lots of made up fantasy games when I was a kid.  Cowboys and Indians was a favorite.  I don't know that many kids pretend to be cowboys and Indians these days.  It might be considered culturally insensitive, too violent,  or something like that.  If kids do play fantasy role games now, maybe they pretend to be activists or lawyers.   Hopefully kids still have fun and stretch their imaginations, but I'm happy that I grew up in the time I did.  You could literally be anyone you wanted to be in your dreams and not be shamed for doing so.  But it was also a time of better morality in many ways.

         For me, the concept of cowboys takes me back to those childhood fantasies.   Today's Battle of the Bands song uses cowboy imagery in a metaphorical way:  A man in love seeing himself as a sort of romantic cowboy hero.   America and the world still has a certain fanciful image of cowboy life so I think that makes the romantic cowboy metaphor work.  See what you think...

Battle of the Bands

     Battle of the Bands is the blogging event started by Far Away Series and now hosted by StMcC Presents Battle of the Bands.   This event happens each month on the 15th and on some blogs there is also a Battle on the 1st of the month.  My blog is one of those with a second Battle on the 1st of the month.   The premise is simple:  Listen to the songs presented below and then in the comments vote for your favorite and tell us why you liked it.  Then visit the links listed near the bottom of this post for more Battle action.


Cowboy Dreams

         This song was written by Prefab Sprout's Paddy  McAloon for the 1994 BBC television series Crocodile Shoes.    Prefab Sprout has been one of my favorite pop/rock groups since I first discovered them back in the eighties.  In my opinion Paddy McAloon is one of the best of modern era songwriters.   Please don't vote on the original, but if you want to hear how Prefab Sprout does the song then you can click this link.  They released their version in 2001.  This is a lovely version with a nice video--please don't vote for it as much as you might be tempted to do.

       The current Battle looks at two other version of the song.   See which you enjoy the most...

Jimmy Nail   "Cowboy Dreams"  (1994)

          Jimmy Nail was the star of the BBC series Crocodile Shoes.  Here is his version from that show. 
       




Nigel Livingstone  "Cowboy Dreams"  (2016)

       In my brief search I didn't find much about this artist.   He appears to be from Ireland and mostly plays in pubs and such, though he does have several YouTube videos.  Nigel kicks up the tempo on his version..





Time to Vote!

        Okay pardner, time to saddle up and vote for your favorite version of the two that I've presented here.  Which song version do you like best? You don't have to know about music to have an opinion since it all comes down to your own personal taste.

         Please vote on your favorite by letting us know your choice in the comment section and tell us why you prefer the version you chose. Then after you've finished here, please visit the other blogs listed below who may or may not be participating this time around. And if you've put up your own BOTB contest let us know that as well so we can vote on yours.


Here are some other places where you might find BOTB posts:

 StMcC Presents Battle of the Bands

  'MIKE'S RAMBLINGS'

'Curious as a Cathy'

Sound of One Hand Typing

Angel's Bark  

Debbie Doglady's Den

Jingle, Jangle, Jungle 

Cherdo on the Flipside 


Winner of this Battle Announced on Friday June 22nd

        I'll be visiting family in Florida about this time so I hope I can get these results up in a timely manner.  Then I'll be in Jersey for several days so I'll likely have limited internet time during my trip.  Please bear with me.  I'll try to make some blog rounds, but I can't guarantee much.

         Hope you have a great summer!

          Did you play cowboys and Indians when you were a kid?     Do kids today still play cowboys and Indians?  Do you think playing this fantasy game is culturally insensitive or politically incorrect or something like that?

This Speed I Don't Need (#BOTB results)

         Oh, for those days of childhood when time would last forever and forever was a day.  
          And holidays and birthdays always seemed a million miles away.
         But now my today is tomorrow and I seem to be missing a lot of yesterdays.
        Yes, such is life.  There's not much more that I can say.
   

Time to pack up...

          Time really got away from me this week, but I guess that happens every week.   I do have somewhat reasonable excuses like getting ready for our summer trip and working on that song that I mentioned on earlier posts.

           If you missed those mentions, the song is called "Let's Run" and my friends and I finished a reasonably decent demo considering the rush job that we put on it.   I think I will have a surprise of sorts concerning this song in August or thereabouts. 

          For now, though, I do need to "run" in order to get this results post out for the Friday appearance.

Battle of the Band Results

        I'm going to be doing a couple of summer-themed Battles in June and my recent Battle was one of those.   The song was "Tom Sawyer" originally by Rush.  The covers were jazzed up versions by an acoustic guitar trio and a heavy jazz piano trio whose specialty seems to be covers of heavy rock songs.

        I like both of these a great deal, however I think Bad Plus captured the spirit of the song best.  As John and Sixgun noted, any re-creation of Rush should have a massive drummer.  The interplay between the musicians in both bands is amazing, but I felt that The Bad Plus version was more spontaneous and wild flowing as opposed to calculated precision playing--which is not a bad thing by any means.

        In any case, my vote is going to The Bad Plus.   

Final Vote Tally

Montreal Guitar Trio      11

The Bad Plus                    4

Next Battle on Friday June 15th

        Another summer daydream song in the vein of "Tom Sawyer" as I would envision the barefoot boy in Hannibal, Missouri with his pals.  My next song has to do with a boyhood fantasy that Tom and his buddies might have played and I know that I did too.  I don't know if kids still play this, but I'll bet more than a few readers probably did when they were young.

          What was your favorite fantasy game to play when you were a kid?   Do you like to hear artists performing in one genre doing cover versions from very different genres?   Do you prefer precisely composed music or improvisation?  

Playing the Name Game ( #IWSG )

     If I didn't know people's names then I wouldn't know who was who using an easy identifying label.  However it's all a rather moot point since I usually forget someone's name shortly after they've told me.  So I guess that much of the time even with the names I still don't know who is who...

Join us on the first Wednesday of each month in Alex J. Cavanaugh's Insecure Writer's Support Group--a forum of writers who gather to talk about writing and the writer's life. For a complete list of participants visit Alex's Blog. 

Co-hosts for the June 6 posting of the IWSG are Beverly Stowe McClure,Tyrean Martinson, and Ellen @ The Cynical Sailor!

June 6 question - What's harder for you to come up with, book titles or character names?

          Coming up with titles is one of my favorite parts of the writing process.  On many occasions I've come up with a title first and then built from there with a story, essay, or song.  In fact, I have lists of titles waiting for something to be created for them.

           Titles come from many sources for me.  It might be something I hear someone saying, a reference to a current or historical event, or some phrase that seems to pop into my head for no reason.  I'll get a title and then start thinking up something to go with it.

        For example, my most recent focus has been on a song that I've written (which I mentioned here and here).  The song idea started with a chord progression, a rhythm, and a somewhat odd melody--no lyrics or title.  As I worked with the song in my head. the concept of running came to me--that's what the music reminded me of.   From there I started with a working title of "Run" which almost immediately changed to "Let's Run" partly because it was a two syllable phrase and it suggested a corporate venture between singer and listener (or writer and reader).  The title came quickly and stuck because it was logical, simple, and I thought it sounded good in context with the song feel.

        The names for characters in stories is a bigger challenge to me.  Since I often picture actual real life people whom I know, it is difficult to disassociate my character with that real person whose name just seems to make sense.  Changing a real name to a fictional moniker rarely feels right to me so I'll try to come up with a name that is similar to that real name or suggestive of something about that real person.  Maybe I should avoid modeling characters after real people, but I think most writers probably come up with characters this way.   After all, it's easier to write about a character whom I can clearly picture in my mind.   That's the way it works for me.

         By the way, regarding my song "Let's Run":   I've been putting together some rough recordings with the help of a couple of my neighbors.  Hopefully, by the end of the summer I'll have something to share with my readers.  I'm writing about it on my blog for legal purposes since I don't know the first thing about getting a song published or recorded.  So this is notice that I've written a metaphorical song with the title "Let's Run."    I'm probably doing this all wrong, but we'll see where this all goes.

          What do you think makes for a good title?   Do you base your fictional characters on actual people?   Do you have any favorite fictional names that other authors have used?


           My most recent Battle of the Bands can be found here.  If you haven't voted yet, please do.  Voting closes Thursday June 7th with winner announced on Friday the 8th.

Tom Sawyer (#BOTB)

      Summertime hearkens back to memories of a childhood roaming barefoot, exploring caves and woods, and floating on a raft downriver.  Those aren't my memories of anything I did, but I saw it in movies and read about it in books.   My summer memories are of going to an air-conditioned theater to watch movies. Yeah, I guess that sounds bad and it's not totally true either...

Drawing of Huckleberry finn with a rabbit and a gun,
 by EW Kemble from the original 1884 edition of the book.。
 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

         There are so many songs that are about summertime.   I'm sure you have a few favorites in this genre.   Add to those the songs we associate with summer vacation because of memories those songs bring to us.   I think of songs that were on the charts and being played on the radio.   Then there are songs about concepts or cultural references.  Can you think of any examples of songs that might fit into this category?  One that comes to my mind is the song I'll be using in this episode of...

Battle of the Bands

        Battle of the Bands is the blogging event started by Far Away Series and now hosted by StMcC Presents Battle of the Bands.   This event happens each month on the 15th and on some blogs there is also a Battle on the 1st of the month.  My blog is one of those with a second Battle on the 1st of the month.   The premise is simple:  Listen to the songs presented below and then in the comments vote for your favorite and tell us why you liked it.  Then visit the links listed near the bottom of this post for more Battle action.


Tom Sawyer

         I've always liked the Rush song epic "Tom Sawyer" (click to be reminded, but please don't vote on this version).   For years I'd heard this song and others by the Canadian band, but I never jumped on the Rush fan-wagon until I saw a concert video of them on television back around 2003 I'm guessing.  After that I was sold on the band and went and bought a large part of their library on CD.

         For this Battle I've chosen two interesting acoustic covers of the Rush song.   To some extent I think these covers are equal to the original.  I have no doubt that  some of you might say they are even better.  Take a listen and you be the judge...

Montreal Guitar Trio  "Tom Sawyer"  (2014)




The Bad Plus  "Tom Sawyer"  (2007)







Time to Vote!

        What d'ya think?  What's your favorite between these two choices? Which song version do you like best? You don't have to know about music to have an opinion since it all comes down to your own personal taste.

         Please vote on your favorite by letting us know your choice in the comment section and tell us why you prefer the version you chose. Then after you've finished here, please visit the other blogs listed below who may or may not be participating this time around. And if you've put up your own BOTB contest let us know that as well so we can vote on yours.

Here are some other places where you might find BOTB posts:

 StMcC Presents Battle of the Bands

  'MIKE'S RAMBLINGS'

'Curious as a Cathy'

Sound of One Hand Typing

Angel's Bark  

Debbie Doglady's Den

Jingle, Jangle, Jungle 

Cherdo on the Flipside 


Winner of this Battle Announced on Friday June 8th

      On Wednesday the 6th I'll have my post for the Insecure Writer's Support Group, so be here for that. And by all means see who won this Battle on June 8th. It's been busy for me of late and it looks like things might get busier. I'll try to keep the pace.
       
        What are some of your favorite childhood summer memories?   Do you ever look back with some wonder that you survived intact?   What was your biggest summer adventure in your adult years?