It was a pretty big cast of characters tonight, including Vin, Suzan, Arlene, Artie, Wendysue, June, Siobhan, Jen, Ken, Margaret and Bill Hong, Bill Hoffman, Jack, Larry, Sam, Scott, Dave (for the second time), and newcomers Anne, Christy, Lydia and Angie, all here to play songs about the sun, earth and the moon, to celebrate the recent SOLAR ECLIPSE (8/21/17).

1. Brain Damage/Eclipse, Pink Floyd, 1973 (Dan)

The last song on the Dark Side of the Moon album fit in perfectly with this theme, but it's usually paired with the song just before it, Brain Damage, so we played them both. Brain Damage was the first song Sam learned on the guitar. Scott, if you taught him this, it was an excellent pick. The Eclipse part has an interesting message, repeating the theme of the song which starts the album: Breathe. The main point is that what you do, who you see, what you say, what you hear, touch and taste, and all the experiences in your existence is what constitutes your life. Why look for some out-there, mystical, intangible thing? I think that's what Roger Waters was going for. For a band that is often castigated as being druggie long-hairs, it's quite a down-to-earth message.

I must give an honorable mention to one of my picks which did not make the cut. (No one knew it.) It's a song by Lou Reed's Velvet Underground titled Who Loves the Sun (1970). I came upon this song only a couple of years ago. It stands out as one with a nice melody and nice singing, because lots of Lou Reed stuff can be hard on the ears. I like him, but he's not everyone's cup of tea. Get this on YouTube. You won't be offended. It's not one of his harsh odes to heroin or anything like that, but rather a simple lament about a broken-hearted fellow.

2. Bring Me Sunshine, Jive Aces, 2012 (Arlene)

We've used this for so many themes. I wonder if it was written for the ukulele.

3. Moonshadow, Cat Stevens, 1971 (Arlene)

We started off at a breakneck pace and it was a bucket of noise. Ken had to put a halt to the madness and we slowed it down to its proper speed. Thenceforth it played well.

4. I Can See Clearly Now, Johnny Nash, 1972 (Arlene)

All the chords sounded good, even the somewhat difficult thing in the middle where he holds one syllable through many chord changes. (I'm sure there's a perfectly good musical name for that.) We did surprisingly well on that bit. It could easily have been a mess. Johnny Nash's high voice is great on this.

5. You Are the Sunshine of My Life, Stevie Wonder, 1972 (Arlene)

We've done this before, and I think I'm going to repeat myself: the Gdim7 at the end of the first line was a knockout. What a cool sound.

6. Space Oddity, D. Bowie, 1969 (Ken)

Let us all sit quietly in a chair for 30 seconds and give silent praise to the great Bowie and his brilliant body of work. This was THE cool song of the night. What a top-notch chordsheet. (Thank you, Ken.) I thought the intro would be tough (Fmaj7 to Em7), and I was prepared to substitute a plain F for the Fmaj7. But it turned out the Fmaj7 was doable, even though it was way up there on the fifth fret. It was a lot better than the plain F, and these simple two chords repeating were beautiful. The real rock star bit, though, came as we played C F G A A two times. You would be forgiven if after doing this a few times on your own, you believed you could now audition for a hard-rock outfit. Terribly exciting.

8. Good Day Sunshine, Paul and the Beatles, 1966 (Bill Hoffman)

McCartney probably had an old-time music hall number in mind when he wrote this. That's the kind of stuff his father played. The last chord of the song, a C#7, is fun and different.

9. Moon Medley (Bill Hoffman)

This consisted of Shine On Harvest Moon, Moonlight Bay, By the Light of the Silvery Moon, Blue Moon, then back to Shine On Harvest Moon. It was a fun mix and went pretty smooth once we were in the groove. We got stuck for a few seconds on the transition to Blue Moon. Though Blue Moon is a standard, I know it from the Marcels 1961 doo-op version. I've come to like this song anyway it's played by anyone at all, but the fast doo-op style with the excellent bass backup singer is still my favorite.

10. Skinnamarink, Sharon Lois and Bram, 1986 (Arlene)

Apparently this is from a children's TV show from 30 years ago. We watched a video of Arlene sitting in a field of sunflowers in Mattituck singing and playing this with enthusiasm, and a great job it was. I heard the melody once and liked it right away.

11. Put On a Happy Face, 1963 (Arlene)

Dick van Dyke sang this in Bye Bye Birdie to Janet Leigh. (Hadn't she just been stabbed to death in a shower three years previous?) This was not too difficult, was interesting to play and sounded good.

12. We'll Sing in the Sunshine, Gale Garnett, 1964 (Arlene)

This didn't seem that hard. I'm not sure what happened, but it fizzled half-way through.

13. Earth Angel, Penguins, 1954 (Jen)

Here we had the common four-chord old rock and roll song, the easiest one in the book, and STILL the blackguard who posted these chords got some of 'em wrong. There we were, cruising along beautifully, enjoying our collective mastery of a standard, when out of the blue comes a clinker. How jarring. I've worked with guys who were ex-sanitation and highway workers who did snowplowing. They told tales of driving these big old beasts through the snow, barreling down a road when suddenly the plow hit a slightly raised sewer cap. Bang! It almost knocked some of their teeth loose. That's what it feels like when these criminals put in the wrong chords. How dare they so thoughtlessly wreck these great songs for us? Would a little proofreading kill them? By the way, one pronounces blackguard as "blaggard" (rhymes with haggard), and it means a scoundrel or disreputable fellow. Hey you blackguards, stop messing up our songs.

14. Harvest Moon, Neil Young, 1992 (Bill Hong)

Gorgeous stuff. The key is to get the intro down. The D to D6 to Dmaj7 might seem tough, but I seem to have perfected a cheat for it (which I'm willing to disclose for a modest fee). Don't let that A7sus4 scare you. It's a one-finger chord, and with the plain A7 it sounds so good and it's so easy that it appears too good to be true. But it's for real! This is why Neil Young is a millionaire rock star and deserves every last dime of it, while we peasants toil away at our humdrum nine-to-fives. If only we were musical geniuses like old Neil.

15. Moondance, Van Morrison, 1970 (Bill Hong)

(Normally I would credit this pick to Bill, or Bill H., but since there were two Bill Hs present this night, I have to spell it out.)

Here was one which alternated from Am to Bm7, for much of the verse. Very easy and "groovy," in the sense that you could stick yourself into that two-chord groove and not make a mistake. I love that. It reminded me a little of the Santana grooves of Am to D on Oye Como Va and Evil Ways.

16. Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me, Elton John, 1974 (Jen)

I was excited to see that Jen picked this one. Elton John shows off his vocal skills. It may seem like a slow ballad at first, but is soon a work of high drama. I blasted this two times in the late afternoon in eager anticipation of playing it in the evening. Then it seemed as if we were going to pass it over. I insisted/pleaded that we do it. Jen was reluctant to proceed. Why, for goodness sake? I thought it was a wonderful end to a wonderful session. There was one incorrect chord (a G7 which should have been a C7) at the end of this line: I'd just allow a fragment of your life to wander free, yeah. Over the "yeah" was the G7 mistake. In an otherwise correct song, that would have been the snow plow hitting the sewer cap. Luckily, I averted disaster by shouting out C7! in the nick of time.

At 8:30, Arlene halted the proceedings, invoking the necessary "8:30 rule," forcing all in attendance to pick a theme for next time. I mentioned a couple I heard from WFUV's Question of the Day. One was songs which could have been used for commercials, such as the Everly Brothers All I Have to Do Is Dream to sell mattresses. The other was songs which asked the question WHY. Sam and Scott wanted Eric Clapton songs. Bill Hoffman suggested Disney songs. We voted and Disney won. I raised my hand in favor of Clapton. We could do songs by Derek and the Dominoes (Layla), Cream (Sunshine of Your Love, White Room) or Clapton's solo stuff. Nope. I was voted down. We'll do brilliant rock songs another night. For next time, we shall do DISNEY songs.

-- Dan.