It was another crowded conference room this week, with Bill, Arlene, Frank, Betty, Ken, Anne, Karen, Bounce, Patricia (with husband, Sal, who came to listen), Tim, WendySue, Larry, Jack, Jen, Ting, John, and newcomers Tess and Lester playing songs about SPACE. We've done variations of this theme twice before, first on May 22, 2015, and more recently Sept. 1, 2017. There were about a half dozen songs tonight that we've played previously.

1. Space Oddity, David Bowie, 1969 (Ken)

Great start. Great song. We were all together.

2. Mr. Spaceman, the Byrds, 1966 (Bill)

Though many of us didn't know it well, we weren't bad on this upbeat song.

3. Dancing in the Moonlight, King Harvest, 1973 (Betty)

I'm surprised Dr.Uke had this on his list. It seems too youthful and modern for him. He had lots of fast changes, but no difficult chords. If you're on your toes, you can get through these changes without mistakes and make it sound really good. One way it would have sounded better, if we'd rehearsed it, was to have these exciting tacets that King Harvest has on their record. A stop and a start always adds excitement. We ran through the stop signs. One day the Ukulele Police are going to ticket us.

4. Once Upon a Time, 1962 (Betty)

I didn't think I knew this, but once we started playing I remembered it from a Tony Bennett album. There were also fast changes here, also on a Dr.Uke sheet, with some tough chords. We played along to Dr. Uke singing it.

5. Purple People Eater, Sheb Wooley, 1958 (Betty)

I always liked this song, and it was an easy 3-chorder, but we missed the tacets again. We need a conductor or a humorless high school music teacher to keep us in line.

6. I Don't Want to Live On the Moon, Ernie, 1995 (Arlene)

Very pretty. Ernie is an orange guy with an oblate head (from Sesame Street.)

7. Fly Me to the Moon, Kaye Ballard, 1954 (Arlene)

Fantastic melody. We should consider this for our upcoming concert. I wonder if this was popular with all the people at Grumman and NASA during the Apollo missions.

8. Livin' in the Sunlight, Lovin' in the Moonlight, Tiny Tim, 1968 (Arlene)

This was fun and really fast, full of optimism and good cheer.

9. Vincent, Don McLean, 1972 (Bill)

Sweet and sad. What a heartbreaker. I always loved the Starry Night painting. There's something childlike about it. We were a little off on some parts.

10. Space Cowboy, Kacey Musgraves (Jack)

Not many knew this song so we tried to sing along to the recording. Two verses in we stopped and realized that it wasn't in the same key.

11. Venus in Blue Jeans, Jimmy Clanton, 1962 (Bill / Jack)

Not bad. On the last line, when we were supposed to slow down, we couldn't seem to do it. At the Ashokan festival in May, we had a whole class on intros and endings. These are the spots where we tend to make mistakes.

12. Harvest Moon, Neil Young, 1992 (Dan)

I love this one. It's easy and fun to play, even with the [D6] and [Dmaj7], and it's fun to sing if you don't mind going a little high. Would this be all right for a nursing home crowd, or is it too modern?

And now a word about another ukulele club, the Brooklyn Ukes. I went to one of their sessions a couple of weeks ago, and we played a few moon songs, including the Neil Young song. There may have been a full moon that night.

Last year, at Ashokan, I met a woman from Brooklyn who told me about her club. It was at the annex to a bar in Red Hook. It took forever to get there. First take the Brooklyn-bound LIRR train to the end, to Flatbush Avenue. Then walk ten minutes to a subway, take it a few stops and make a connection. In a few stops more, you get off and still have a 15 minute walk to the place. I had fun, but the long travel time made me not go again. They recently moved to a new spot, just a ten minute walk from the LIRR terminal, straight down 4th Avenue to a bar called The Douglass. We were in the back room, about twenty of us, including two guitar players and a mandolin player. They have books printed with about 150 songs. Someone will call out, "Let's do number 42." I don't know how often they revise or add to these books. They request a $5 donation, maybe to pay the bar for the use of their room. A waitress stopped by from time to time and people were ordering salads and hamburgers, beers and mixed drinks. Nobody got sloshed or sloppy, but it did add a fun dimension to the jam. (We should discuss whether or not it would be a good idea to have a gin and tonic night.)

I have an image of Brooklyn frozen in 1979, when I first started working there. A lot of it was ugly and scary. No matter how many times I've been there in recent years, I'm still amazed at the transformation. What was once run-down, filthy and boarded up is now prosperous, built up, commercial and thriving. Young people spending money are everywhere.

We stopped playing at about a quarter after ten (started at seven), and were supposed to knock off at nine, but everyone wanted to keep going. I hung around with a friend for another hour and a half and got the midnight train back to Wantagh. It wasn't at all scary or creepy to walk back to the train in the darkness.

If anyone is curious to see how another uke outfit does it, and if you don't mind taking a little trip, I recommend trying it out. They were a friendly and unpretentious bunch, very welcoming. The singing was especially good. (This has been a paid commercial advertisement for the Brooklyn Ukes.)

13. It's Only a Paper Moon, Billy Rose, E.Y. Harburg, and Harold Arlen, 1933 (Ken)

We have done this a number of times before and the timing still eludes me.

14. Rocket Man, Elton John, 1972 (Ken)

Good on the chorus; timing was off on the verses.

15. Shine On Harvest Moon, Nora Bayes and Jack Norworth, 1908 (Bill)

Great melody. It was very short, so we went around twice.

16. Castro Convertible (Dan solo performance)

"Who was the first to conquer space? It's incontrovertible." It wasn't the Soviets. It wasn't John Glenn. It was......a furniture company! One of the best jingles ever written was to sell pull-out couches.

17. The Galaxy Song, Monty Python, 1983 (Dan) [paper handout]

I couldn't follow my own chords which transitioned between the verses. It was too complicated. The verses themselves went very well, even for those who didn't really know the tune. Arlene sent me a video of a woman doing the song on a ukulele. She had a simpler, smooth way to go between verses, and Arlene has simplified it further still for herself. It's so catchy. This is a painless introduction to astronomy. If you ever run into the ghost of Carl Sagan, you'll have something to talk to him about. There are those who would quibble with Eric Idle's facts and figures, but let's give the guy a little poetic license.

18. Afternoon Delight, Starland Vocal Band, 1976

I thought this would be a big hit. It was just ok. In the movie Anchorman, there's a funny scene where four guys (including Paul Rudd and Steve Carell) do a great rendition of this. You can get it on YouTube.

19. Wide Open Spaces, Dixie Chicks, 1998 (Karen)

At a minute to nine, we did a snippet of this, led by Karen. I didn't know it, but it was pretty nice.

For next time, we'll focus on songs about the WEATHER. I see lots of sun and rain songs in the forecast.

-- Dan.