arrangements (0-9,A-J)

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The Irish song “Factory Girl” is often somewhat sad.  A pretty young woman – not ashamed to be a factory worker – is seen by the narrator.  In most versions, they don’t make a connection due to the stigma of differences in their class status, ’though in some versions they do get together.

You recall that 2013 news story:  “Next, at eleven, breaking news:  Singer-songwriter Rhiannon Giddens, currently deciding which version of ‘Factory Girl’ to arrange, has found the decision’s been made for her from half-way around the world.  Our sources confirm that she will have the narrator and the girl make a connection – being a wee bit closer in class (or caste) status, but that she’ll need to write new ending verses, making the song sadder than ever before. Why this had not been done by IWW songwriter Joe Hill 102 years earlier remains a mystery tonight.”

The 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire was a turning point in US labor rights struggles.  It led to widespread demands for change, resulting in improved safety in American factories.  US garment manufacturers really did learn their lesson...  No longer would American garment workers be crowded into such factory death-traps.  Companies such as Nike even came to learn how to make clothing for the US market by contracting out the labor to foreign factory death-traps.  (Hey, this is enlightened capitalism at its best, folks...)

The lyrics/chords/fretted-dulcimer arrangement PDFs below have links to Rhiannon Giddens’ performances of the song, as well as links to info on the 1911 Triangle Factory fire and both the 2012 Tazreen Fashion Factory fire and the 2013 Rana Plaza Factory collapse in Bangladesh. (The details of all three stories, and related ones, are very disturbing – but the 2013 Rana Plaza story is especially so.)

My arrangement uses an unusual fretted-dulcimer tuning [minor 3rd, root, minor 3rd] – either CAcc or DBdd.  Page 1 of the PDF shows the tuning and chord names for the key of Am – page 2 shows them for Bm.  (There’s also info about how to tune for Gm, a key often used by Giddens.)

     I steppèd up to her more closely to view her, when on me she cast a look of disdain,
    Saying, “Young man, have manners and do not stare at me.  I work for m’ livin’ and think it no shame.”
    ...
    The crowd gathered ’round, couldn’t hide the destruction.  I cast my eyes on it in such disbelief.
    A truth of the world settled into the ashes:  A rich man’s neglect is a poorer man’s grief.

Download:   .PDF   .PDF [print-area]   .JPG [pg1,print-area]   .JPG [pg2,print-area]   for 8½" x 11"

  · Also, watch my wife and I perform the song [+ illustrations during the break] on YouTube.

  · And, listen to an informal jam [with Joe Breskin] + illustrations on YouTube .

  · Also, watch an older performance it on YouTube.

Yes, the Taylor Swift song.  Think of it as a self-aware satire of (rather than a glorification of) a pattern of unhealthy relationships. (To gender-switch lyrics, I changed “suit & tie” to “to the nines,” etc.)

In a note about such lyrics changes I point out that “chorus2 rhyme patterns imply Swift did initially use the word ‘exes’ there.”  Finding clues about how a song developed is interesting. Getting a glimpse of a songwriting process is kinda like seeing the songwriter unclothed.  And, well, there are those who’ve thought about seeing this one that way...

The second page of the PDF has an enlarged view of the fretted-dulcimer arrangement’s finger positions for the chords.

      Got a long list of ex-lovers; they’ll tell you I’m insane.
        But I’ve got a blank space, baby ... and I’ll write your name.

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  · Watch me sing it here:  youtu.be/NZOHu3iZF2g   (recorded for KG-46) .

On Feb. 5, 2023,  Shervin Hajipour won the Best Song for Social Change Grammy for “Baraye,” the anthem of protests stemming from the death of Mahsa Amini.  Its lyrics came from Twitter responses to the hashtag #Baraye, all short statements of what the protests were “For” or “Because of.”
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baraye

This is my English version of the song.  I’ve tried to express the original intent of the tweets used for the lyrics.

Download:   .PDF   .PDF [print-area]  .JPG [print-area]   for 8½" x 11"

A fun traditional British bawdy ballad.  My fretted-dulcimer arrangement.  I reworked the lyrics a bit based mostly on the Roberts and Barrand version (which I first heard performed by Oak, Ash and Thorn), combined with a couple other versions and some original re-phrasings.  (And maybe you’ll find that I also at least try to do it just a bit, uh, more vigorously than the other guys...)

As I fancied her trim little carriage, she asked for a look at me whip.
She held it and viewed it a moment, and letting it go with a smile,
Said “I see by the length and the look of your slash, you can drive in the old-fashioned style.”

     Oh, she was such a charming young lady all in the height of her bloom.
      And me being the dashing young coachman, I drove her ten times ’round the room.

Download:    .PDF   .PDF [print-area]   .JPG [print-area]   to print on 8½" x 11"

  · Also, listen to (or download) an MP3 of my performance of the song (from my album Vortex) here.

  · Or, listen to it on YouTube here.

Peter Krug was best known for his song “Woman With a Chainsaw ,” (covered by various folks) and for “Fire in the City ,” (covered by the Grateful Dead).  But my favorite song of his is “Bubble-Up Economy,” (which he unfortunately never put on a CD and [although a couple live recordings do apparently exist] is not yet on YouTube).

I like to think that Ronald Reagan was best known for the movie “Bedtime for Bonzo ,” and for espousing the “trickle-down economics” myth.  Using the latter, he dismantled tax brackets for the most progressive taxation, vastly increasing the inequality between the rich and the poor.  This caused (and is still causing) great suffering – and Peter Krug knew this.  For some reason, the more progressive taxation levels he dismantled have never yet been restored by Clinton, Obama or Biden. (Even after Peter’s death [Nov. 2016], Trump continued lowering taxes for the rich.  And Biden has not yet even been able to restore the modest pre-Trump tax levels.) 

Robert Reich is best known as Clinton’s Secretary of Labor, for being under 5 feet tall ...and – most importantly, I think – for more recently championing progressive ideas in books, talks and film.  But I don’t think Peter knew that (at roughly the same time he was writing his largely-talking-blues song) Robert Reich was saying things like this about trickle-down economics.  (And even earlier, Reich was saying this .)

And yet, Krug & Reich were on the same page.  When it comes to rhyme scheme and rhythm, tho’, Peter’s phrasing wins...  And Peter’s term “bubble-up economics” has actually caught on – despite the fact that it’s so-far impossible to hear this song online.  (A google search shows people are using the term – for example here.)

   I’m seein’ people with no shoes on their feet, hungry babies in the ghetto with nothin’ to eat,
      And a lot more folks livin’ out on the street, since we gave that trickle-down a try.
    ...
      Come on people, now gather ’round, all you victims of the trickle-down,
          I wanna tell you of a brand new economic philosophy.
      If you’re not a millionaire, ya know that trickle-down con’s just a lotta hot air.
          What we really oughta have is a bubble-up economy.
    ...
    And as soon as these poor folks have some dough, straight away to the shopping mall they’ll go
      To buy clothes an’ shoes – things they need, ya know, like furniture an’ groceries.

Download:    .PDF   .PDF [print-area]   .JPG [print-area]   to print on 8½" x 11"

An earlier write-up of the song which shows the chorus melody:   .PDF [print-area]

Another Peter Krug song, one I mentioned above.  In 1965, an issue of “Rag Baby” magazine included an EP for the first time.  It had two songs by Country Joe on one side and two songs by Peter Krug, including “Fire in the City”, on the other.

In 1967, jazz vocalist Jon Hendricks (of Lambert, Hendricks & Ross), backed by the Grateful Dead, recorded a shortened version of Krug’s long song for the documentary film “Sons and Daughters”.  I’ve written up a version of the song which I do, based on the Hendricks/Grateful Dead version, (using the Hendricks music, but with some of Peter’s lyrics restored).

Come on with me, let me take you down there,  [There’s fire in the city]
    To the hate-haunted canyons of human despair  –  [There’s fire in the city]
Over the dark invisible wall,  [There’s fire in the city]
    Through the sickening stench of the tenement hall.  [There’s fire in the city]

How can I tell you, in terms clear as black and white, why there’s fire in the city tonight?

    So tell me the thoughts   that race through your brain  –  and mess your mind up  –
        At the sight of a city   gone completely insane.  –  Where will it wind up?

I know by your face that you don’t know the sound,  [There’s fire in the city]
    Of a club that’s beating a man to the ground,  [There’s fire in the city]
...
A mad whirling cyclone of hate against hate.  [There’s fire in the city]
    In this time o’ darkness, let’s hope it’s not too late.  [There’s fire in the city]
...
For as long as a wall stands between black and white...   there’ll be fire in the city tonight.

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Scottish singer-songwriter Ruairidh Greig’s song “Amphitrite’s Warning” is about the Greek goddess of the sea.  Amphitrite is the wife of Poseidon.  Now the Roman goddess of the sea (Neptune’s wife) is Salacia. So, in an etymological sense, this could be seen as a salacious song.

Also, in an entomological sense, I think it wise to avoid bottoms or beds where crabs might be caught. (It’d be a lousy idea to do otherwise.)

After three or four lines in each stanza, there’s a refrain which an audience might enjoy singing along on.

“My name’s Amphitrite, the queen of the sea.
      Poseidon’s fair bride..., so you listen to me –
Go tell all those sailors that this is what I said:
      Keep your hands off my bottom, stay out of my bed.”

“Stop dredging my scallops with your rotten troll.
      You’re wrecking the seabed, you’ve left bugger-all.
My winkles are wonky..., and my whelks are half dead –
      Keep your hands off my bottom, stay out of my bed.”

Download:    .PDF   .PDF [print-area]   .JPG [print-area]   to print on 8½" x 11"

My fretted-dulcimer arrangement of Christina Perri’s beautiful song, which tells of intense personal changes in her life driven by her metaphorical fire.  With a few small lyric changes (most notably in the third line), I’ve tried to put the song in a larger context – how such personal change can drive social struggles, such as the fight for economic justice.

The PDF has two pages.  Page 1 shows the chords for the key of F with the dulcimer arrangement I currently play.  Page 2 shows chords for the key of G and an older arrangement.

I’ve had enough.  I’m standing up.  I need, I need a change.
...
I’m setting fire to the life that I know.  Let’s start a fire everywhere that we go.
We’re starting fires, we’re starting fires, till our lives are burning gold.

Download:    .PDF   .PDF [print-area]   .JPG [print-area]   to print on 8½" x 11"

  · Also, watch me perform the song (my old arrangement, in G) on YouTube.

Known for his work with the Bonzo Dog Band, Monty Python and the Rutles – as well as for his various British TV shows – Neil Innes recorded this song [here] with a post-Bonzo band of his, The World, on the album “ Lucky Planet.”  (It’s sometimes misidentified as a Bonzo Dog Band song due to its inclusion on The History of the Bonzos.)  He later recorded it in a very different style [here] for a video on an episode of his BBC TV series Innes Book of Records .  Page 2 of the PDF has an arrangement in a different key, primarily for fretted-dulcimer players who don’t have a 4½ fret.  

My armpits smell; my breath is bad.  I look like hell; I feel so sad.
Rotten fruit between my toes, in my suit I decompose.
...

    9 to 5 pollution blues, only got my soul to lose.
    Wish I didn’t have to choose; standing in a dead man’s shoes.

Download:    .PDF   .PDF [print-area]   .JPG [print-area]   to print on 8½" x 11"

  · Also, watch me perform the song on YouTube .

Another Neil Innes song.  First done for BBC’s Rutland Weekend Television (and its record album, where I first heard it), and redone later for BBC’s Innes Book of Records .  Decades before the word “mansplaining” was ever used, Innes deftly showed his ability to do just that in this song.

The PDF’s page 2 has background lyrics sung by doo‑wop back‑up singers.  This song strives to boldly go where no doo‑wop has gone before.  Its chords use all 12 tones (tho’ by the technical definition, it’s not really dodecophonous as I imply in my silly note on page 1.)  And Innes expands the role of doo‑wop back‑up singers to the point of absurdity.  (Absurdity is something he was quite adept at...)

      Darling, believe me:  I’m incredible.  Whenever life becomes inedible,
      You know you can rely on me to provide an alternative recipe.
      ...
Open your eyes to the energy of ugliness.  It’s the same thing as beauty, all things being equal.
      ...
      Let me explain the inexplicable.  Then let me solve the inextricable.

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Yes, a third Neil Innes song in a row.  This is from the early Bonzo Dog Band era.  (The PDF has links to three Bonzo Dog Band videos.)

In a way it could be seen as an early step toward Innes’ later creation of the Rutles.  This came out in late 1967 and I think you can feel an echo of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper in the song.

Another “chords over syllables” format lyrics sheet.  I still don’t like this format as much at the format I’ve used for most of my write-ups, but it is a bit easier...

      Here comes the Equestrian Statue, prancing up and down the square.
      Little old ladies stop ’n’ say “Well, I declare!”

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A classic recording by Loreena McKennitt.  She says she found this traditional Celtic song in an old songbook and was struck by its expression of the reverence the Celts had for nature.  It tells of the destruction of an Irish forest by the English.  (The song’s expression of the ecological effects of habitat destruction seems like a quite modern understanding for a traditional song.  I sometimes wonder if McKennitt might have added that bit...  I can’t find any version of the song on the internet which is not based on McKennitt’s version.  And because of that I even sometimes wonder if maybe she wrote the song and presented it as “traditional.”)

My lyrics / chords sheet for this song uses a different format, partly because it’s a short song.  Some people might prefer chord names written above syllables.  I am still using the small fretted dulcimer fingering numbers for the chords, though.

  All the birds in the forest, they bitterly weep, saying “Where shall we shelter, and where will we sleep?”
  For the Oak and the Ash, they are all cutten down.  And the walls of Bonny Portmore are all down to the ground.

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I knew I’d need to learn this song from the moment I first heard it.  I do have original songs with a Buddhist theme.  My first one was based on my translation of three poems from a thousand years ago by a rather eccentric Chinese hermit monk named Han-Shan, in the tradition which became Zen.  One more is based on two poems from two hundred years ago by a rather eccentric Japanese hermit monk named Ryōkan, also in the Zen tradition.  And I now have another song based on Ryōkan poems, as well.

But really, I thought that would be the extent of Buddhist-themed songs I’d regularly do.  I mean, I’m not even a Buddhist...  But then I heard this song (Call the Lamas!) by a rather eccentric Nashville singer-songwriter named Marshall Chapman related to the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.

  Call the lamas!  I saw little Buddha in the checkout line at the grocery store today.
  Call the lamas!  He was sitting like a prince in his grocery cart with a perfect smile on his face.

His mom and dad preoccupied with paying for their food.
  They could not see him smile at me with calm beatitude.  (Ah.)

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An inspirational song for those with a dream.

When first heard on the Stephen Colbert show on TV, it came across as a straight-up rock song.  I was surprised to find that Gabby Barrett is known more in the Country market.  The Colbert performance and the official release (both on YouTube) are similar, but the official recording’s intro is indeed more country-sounding, and the voice is more prominent.

  Voices in the night, in your head, ah, they’ll beg you to quit.
  They’ll tell you that it’s hard, ’cause it is.
    But you can do anything, anything you want to.
    There’s footprints on the Moon!

Download:   .PDF  .PDF [print-area]  .JPG [print-area]  for 8½" x 11"

In the mid 1980s, cartoonist Bill Griffith wrote a blues for his character Zippy the Pinhead to sing (in his book Are We Having Fun Yet?).  In the late 80s I performed it with my band.

But I later misplaced the book and the lyrics to my favorite blues song – even as I prepared to teach a “Blues in A on Dulcimer” virtual workshop.  So I asked Bill Griffith for a copy of the lyrics, which he kindly provided by email.  (I also promised to record the song and provide a link he could use for his site.)  You can fulfill all your Zippy needs at zippythepinhead.com !  (And if you get Are We Having Fun Yet? , you can experience the song in the context of the book... With Zippy, though, the concept of “context” does involve quite a few things which are out of context...)

The second page has an enlarged view of the song’s blues-in-A chord progression, and finger‑position fret numbers for its fretted dulcimer arrangement.

I got the Ding Dong Blues; head’s about to bifurcate.
I got the Ding Dong Blues; don’t know what it was I ate.
Could’ve been the sushi caused me to hallucinate.

One and one is four.  Six and four are nine.
My favorite orthodontist skipped to Liechtenstein.
Oh, baby, I’m gloomy as Pagliacci.
The only thing’ll save me’s two weeks with Liberace.

Download:   .PDF  .PDF [print-area]  .JPG [pg1,print-area]  .JPG [pg2,print-area]  for 8½" x 11"

  · Watch me sing it here:  youtu.be/3drIa2RzU2Y .

In the 1980s, I heard Gwion (an Oregon harpist) perform this song.  I asked him for the lyrics, and I’ve playing it on fretted dulcimer since.

Blood and bones in the desert sun, little bits of skin with the hair still on;
      ...
There’s plenty good food on the supermarket shelf. Now what’ve you got to say for yourself?

      It was already dead.  No I didn’t kill nothing at all.
      ...
      But I could see down into its soul, and it was already dead.

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My favorite Holly Tannen song...  Have you heard it said that the species most closely related to humans is the chimpanzee? Well, bonobos (Pan paniscus) are at least as close. (Pan prior [direct ancestor of humans, chimps and bonobos, and probably close-to-direct ancestor of gorillas] looked more like a modern bonobo than like either a modern chimp or human.)  Bonobos & chimps have very different behaviors and social structures.  A chimp meeting a new chimp will fight – but two bonobos meeting often have sex.

So why haven’t you heard much about our “make love, not war” relatives?  Well, uh, look at it this way:  We humans don’t usually banish relatives or ignore them simply for fighting at the Thanksgiving table.  But have sex at the holiday table just one time...  Well, turns out you become that relative no one invites or talks about ever again...

Examples of systemic ignoring of bonobos as a species:  Three Wikipedia pages that discuss our relation to apes: Human ,  Chimpanzee‑human_last_common_ancestor and Timeline_of_human_evolution . Chimps are mentioned there 20 times as often as bonobos. If you edit the pages to change “evolutionary split of humans from chimps” to “split of the line leading to humans from the line leading to chimps and bonobos” – or try making human genetic comparisons be with chimps and bonobos instead of with only chimps – your edits will be quickly removed...  (The Human_evolution page isn’t quite as bad, but still has many more mentions of chimps than bonobos.)

We could learn a lot about ourselves from these highly-endangered close relatives.  Studies of bonobo behavior can shed light on how humans could become less chimp-like and more cooperative.  (The idea of “human nature” from the 1920s – that we’re genetically prone to fighting – came from thinking chimps were our only close relatives, and from a mistaken idea that prehistoric human ancestors were violent.)  Holly not only wants us to stop ignoring bonobos, she wants to be one.  I agree.

With DNA analysis, biologists have been correcting some old genus and family classifications.  Interestingly, using these newer classification rules, Homo (modern humans & Neanderthals), Australopithecus (older prehistoric ancestors of humans) and Pan (chimps & bonobos) [and maybe even Gorilla] should all really be one genus.  So we’re not really Homo sapiens, we’re Pan sapiens!

Check out Bonobo Handshake by Vanessa Woods.  Its story of the “make love, not war” apes at the Lola Ya Bonobo sanctuary (and the author’s relationships with them) is intertwined with stories of her bonobo and chimp research, her personal life and the human violence in the Congo – because they are really all one story.  I recommend it – and its website bonobohandshake.com .  Or watch the Nova episode “The Last Great Ape.”  Donate to the Lola sanctuary at friendsofbonobos.org or to the Bonobo Conservation Initiative at bonobo.org .

Holly does this as an a capella song in the key of A♭.  My fretted-dulcimer arrangement [unusual for me, in a traditional style] is in the key of D. Not a good key for me, so I might, like Holly, sing it a capella in a key close to hers, between G and C.  I also sometimes capo on the 4th fret to play my arrangement in the key of A.  That’s right – capoing a dulcimer usually does not work to simply change the key of a song, but capoing a dulcimer (one with a 6½ fret) to the 4th fret will actually work (much like capoing a guitar) to play a song up a fourth.  If you don’t have a dulcimer capo, use a pencil and rubber band. (The only caveat:  While the 5th fret does become what you’ll think of as the first fret, it’s the 6½ fret which becomes what you’ll think of as the second fret.  You just need to ignore the 6th fret – or think of it as an unused “1½”...)

Download:    .PDF   .PDF [print-area]   .JPG [print-area]   to print on 8½" x 11"

  · Also, watch Holly perform the song on YouTube.

I first heard of the urban legend of the Microwave Poodle in the mid 1970s, and so did Joellen Lapidus.  She felt that such an important legendary event deserved to be chronicled in song, and come up with a draft of this ballad.  I made a few small changes and additions.

According to snopes, the story is not true.  They explain that since legends about accidental cooking of pets (often by an elderly woman) have been around for a long time, then any new one must be a retelling – so it can’t be true.  But according to this report, its author explains that a paramedic working for him in Texas in 1970 really did respond to an emergency that seems to have evolved into this story!

This is in more of a traditional Appalachian dulcimer style than either Joellen or I usually play...

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Frank Turner’s song of celebration (“There is no God!”) arranged for fretted dulcimer:

Well I’ve known beauty in the stillness of cathedrals in the day;
I’ve sung “Glory Hallelujah!  Won’t you wash my sins away?”
But now I’m singing my refrain and this is what I say:
I say there never was n’ God.

There is no God.  So clap your hands together.

Download:    .PDF   .PDF [print-area]   .JPG [print-area]     to print on 8½" x 11"

~«☆»~ 

Vivian Stanshall’s song (on the Bonzo Dog Band’s “Let’s Make Up and Be Friendly” album) about a life wasted in seeking revenge...  Or somethin’ like that, anyway...

    Then he bummed around from town to town, “Has the stranger passed this way?
   The man I’m lookin’ for has two eyes, but he’s a one-breed dirty dog.
   When I find him I’m gonna shoot him...  Don’t you laugh!
   Man!   ...I’m really   furious.”

Download:    .PDF   .PDF [print-area]   .JPG [print-area]     to print on 8½" x 11"

~«☆»~