This was the month-long return to our Theme Night Jam after a couple of Xmas practice sessions, a concert, and an Xmas break. Our topic tonight was GEOMETRIC SHAPES. We had Jen, Ken, Arlene, Larry, Vin, Joe, Liz, Tom, John C., Nathan, Wendysue, Chris, and two new guys, John, an accomplished player, and Tim, who got his first uke a couple of weeks ago as a Christmas present. Here's what we played.

1. Can the Circle Be Unbroken, Carter Family, 1935 (Joe)

2. Jailhouse Rock, Elvis Presley, 1957 (Nathan)

"Hey buddy, don't you be no square."

3. Wagon Wheel, Bob Dylan, 2004 (Chris)

A wheel is a circle.

4. Red Rubber Ball, The Cyrkle, 1966 (WendySue)

A ball is a sphere and Cyrkle is a deliberate misspelling of circle.

5. Box of Rain, Grateful Dead, 1970 (John C.)

A box could be a cube.

6. Wooly Bully, Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs, 1965 (Ken)

"Let's don't be L7." L7 is a slang expression for square.

7. (You're So Square) Baby, I Don't Care, Elvis Presley, 1957 (Vin)

8. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, Beatles, 1967 (Vin)

9. Bad Bad Leroy Brown, Jim Croce, 1973 (Jen)

"He likes to wave his diamond rings under everybody's nose."

10. It's A Long Way to Tipperary (Key of F), 1912 (Tom)

11. Like a Rock, Bob Seger, 1986 (Chris)

What shape is a rock? Here's where the theme broke down and we did shapeless songs to pass the last half hour.

12. Ruby Tuesday, Rolling Stones, 1967 (Nathan)

13. I Wanna Be Like You, from The Jungle Book, 1967 (Arlene)

14. Ukulele Swing, Jive Aces, 2011 (Arlene)

15. Science Fiction Double Feature, from the Rocky Horror Picture Show, 1975 (Dan)

16. You're Sixteen, Ringo Starr, 1973 (Ken)

17. Mrs. Robinson, Simon and Garfunkel, 1968 (Jen)

18. Karma Chameleon, Culture Club, 1983 (Dan)

19. End of the Line, Traveling Wilburys, 1988 (Ken)

This was a tough topic. There are no popular songs about parallelograms or obtuse triangles. This leaves mainly circles and some diamonds. We stretched a bit to get squares in, such as the mention of Leicester Square in It's A Long Way to Tipperary. (On this one we only knew the chorus.)

The most interesting song for me was Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds due to these chords: A, A with a G (or an A7 cheat), F#m and the unusual A augmented. It was a little bit difficult but it was a cool sound.

A great song, Ruby Tuesday, was partially ruined for me because of one (or maybe two) incorrect chords. It's not enough to make the whole song sound bad, but it makes me crazy that it could easily have been perfect and beautiful but for some lazy or inept person who put out this version on Ultimate Guitar or some other website. Doesn't anybody proofread anymore? What's the world coming to? (I'm practicing to become a curmudgeon when I'm in my seventies.)

We've done Karma Chameleon several times in the past. Ken pointed out that we falter on the bridge. Gonna hafta practice that. It's a crowd pleaser.

New John dazzled us with a couple of instrumentals: Moondance and Paint It Black.

This night was the eleventh birthday of Nathan and the eightieth of Elvis. We celebrated with Arlene's cupcakes.

There were a few worthy suggestions as to what to play next time: songs of the Rolling Stones or folk songs. But I had to interject to point out that the very patient Liz suggested months ago the theme of GIRL'S NAMES. There are so many song titles with Donna, Mary, Judy etcetera in them that we could do two or three sessions on this topic. If you're stuck for an idea, Wendysue posted a whole mess of possibilities on the NEXT CLUB JAM page. Have a look and post your own favorites.

-- Dan.