A new player, Marianne, was with us tonight, along with Bill, Tim, Janet, Arlene, Ken, Jen, Scott, Sam and Vin, and we did songs about TRANSPORTATION.

1. The Wheels on the Bus, Raffi, 1982 (Ken)

Here was an appropriately simple start to the night, with D and A7 the only chords. I thought it was a bit dumb and repetitious, but when I mentioned the song to the Mrs., who, for several years worked in day care, she said that all the two year olds loved it, couldn't get enough of it. Very young children like repetitive things, apparently.

2. Yellow Submarine, Beatles, 1966 (Arlene)

Hey, all you young children, here's a sophisticated children's song, not nearly as repetitive. My message to all you two year olds: Grow up!

3. On the Road Again, Willie Nelson, 1980 (Arlene)

We rushed through the opening line. There's a hesitation of a couple of beats between "On the road again" and "Just can't wait to get on the road again." This is a nice one I didn't appreciate when it was popular. The last line has as the penultimate chord an Fm, an elegant way to finish.

4. Sloop John B, Beach Boys, 1966 (Arlene)

Fifty years ago we had this album, Pet Sounds, now held in critical acclaim. But the only hits on it were this, God Only Knows and Wouldn't It Be Nice, the first and last songs on Side One and the first on Side Two, and that's all we ever played. It took me thirty years to appreciate the other ten songs. I urge everyone to watch the movie Love and Mercy, about Brian Wilson as a young man and the making of the Pet Sounds album. The actor, Paul Dano, who played the young Wilson, deserves a medal. You get a glimpse of the creative process behind a masterpiece, always an inspirational thing. The other half of the movie is about Wilson (played by John Cusack) as he struggled with his demons later in life.

We did a decent job on the song, with everyone ending together. Take note that in the fourth line of each verse, it sounds a little better to substitute an Fm for the Dm which currently exists at the end of that line. Credit Scott with figuring out that one.

4. Sunny Afternoon, Kinks, 1966 (Arlene)

Those cheeky Kinks. Ray Davies does write some amusing lyrics. Scott brought us into the song by picking the individual notes of the intro.

5. Bad Time, Grand Funk Railroad, 1975 (Dan)

This was their last Top Ten hit. Excellent song, and we played it well, but it's tough to sing well. You have to go pretty high. These guys had a couple of Number Ones, We're An American Band and a remake of The Loco-Motion, and that's about all you ever hear, but they first got onto the charts in 1970 with the lesser-known song Closer to Home (I'm Your Captain). It got some airplay on AM radio in a shortened form, but more on early FM radio in its full ten-minute length. It would have been appropriate for tonight's theme of transportation, as it's about a ship's captain lamenting a mutiny by his crew. My sister had this album. It's my favorite by Grand Funk. Who knows this song? Raise your hands.

6. Folsom Prison Blues, Johnny Cash, 1968 (Janet)

A few sessions ago we did an Elvis song, That's All Right, and I thought it bore a similarity to this one. It was dead easy. The chords were G C D7. When I was first learning piano, there was a guy who was just learning guitar with whom I played, and more than once he said about his favorite guitar chords, "Good old G C D."

7. Row Row Row Your Boat, 1852 (Janet)

Oh boy, another repetitive children's song. Of course the two chords, C and G7, were no problem, but our several efforts to do it as a round descended into cacophony. Are children capable of doing it? Do they need lots of coaching?

8. America, Simon and Garfunkel, 1968 (Tim)

This is an interesting song, partly about the tedium of an endlessly long bus trip, but I never really got Paul Simon's bigger meaning. Who can help me?

9. It's All Over Now Baby Blue, Dylan, 1965 (Tim)

Tim did a good job on the vocals, leading us through.

10. Gone for Good, the Shins, 2003 (Tim)

I can't name a song by this band, but they were featured on the soundtrack to a terrific movie, Garden State (starring Zach Braff and Natalie Portman). We played along with a video of a woman doing the song on a ukulele. Very nice.

11. D'yer Maker, Led Zeppelin, 1973 (Dan)

This had the tried and true C Am F G7 going for it. I got to play the electric ukulele through an amplifier with all manner of noisy distortion. What fun. I had always pronounced this title as "dire maker," but it's meant to sound closer to "Jamaica," or a contraction of "Didja make her?" The joke is something like this. Two men are talking:

Man A: The wife and I took a trip to the islands.

Man B: Oh, really? Jamaica?

Man A: No, she wanted to go.

12. Sea Cruise, Frankie Ford, 1959 (Vin)

You can't miss with this song which we've aced on previous nights.

13. Space Oddity, Bowie, 1973 (Vin)

This was my favorite of the night. There's an instrumental part, just after he sings, "Planet earth is blue and there's nothing I can do," when you play these chords twice: C F G A A. Wow! That was exciting, like we were British rock stars. Go back to Vin's chords and play that part of the song and see if you aren't impressed with yourself.

14. Leaving On A Jet Plane, Peter Paul and Mary, 1969 (WendySue/absent)

We had this 45, their last hit record. Call it mawkish. Call it syrupy. It's still a great melody, from the pen of John Denver. I always loved it. We did a Ken-style happy-ukey version of it which turned out very well. It is, however, crying out for a minor to contribute to the melancholy lyrics. We played C F and G7, but there are several spots when the F would be better substituted with an Am. In the third line of each verse, above the "up" in "I hate to wake you up," above the "they" in "I tell you now, they don't mean a thing," and above the "I'll" in "Then close your eyes. I'll be on my way," change the F to an Am. It's not any harder, and it adds depth and somberness of tone.

Arlene came up with tonight's theme. There are so many possibilities that we're going to do the transportation theme again next week. We have a number of songs we didn't get to this week because they booted us out at nine o'clock. Sam could fill up a few hours all by himself with 15 or 20 Zeppelin songs-----not that I'm actually suggesting that. We do like a mix of artists and styles. Did we even do one car song? Is surfing a mode of transportation? Is hitchhiking? Be sure to post your selections.

-- Dan.