Surf was up today

It started out 20 years ago as a simple jam song,just 2 chords,G and F and it worked pretty well. If beginners had trouble with the F chord,I’d change to D and C,and the melody players had a fun time noodling around. Over the years I had heard it with a lot of different instruments doing the melody and rhythm parts so I had a good idea of what could be done with it.I wanted to include it in my cd that will be out soon,but what works in a jam situation doesn’t really work in a song,so I need to rethink it.

Being just 2 chords is kinda boing after a while,so the first thing I did was to add a break.I settled on a simple rhythmic section that repeats the title. Next I needed some words,so I remembered a response of mine to a post on the Flea market bulletin board called “Going to Bradenton/Sarasota” by Lefty Ron in which I replied in the form of a poem.

Writers dream of things to come

Musicians dream of things to play

Artist dream of things to see

Dreams bring them down to the sea

2nd verse

Lands end and beaches bright

guided by the far stars light

moon and waves,sea bird songs

burdened by our rights and wrongs

Break: Surf was up today x3

and I went out and played in it

Not enough words yet,so I had to come up with more.My fishing buddy came by and reminded me of something that happened a while back,we were wading in chest deep water,so I had put some shrimp in my shirt pocket to keep them alive and then forgot about them.

Dry dead shrimp in my shirt pocket

no excuse I just forgt it

some chick said what’s that smell

O well,O well

(I can’t stay serious for very long) I needed one more verse so I started looking in my notebook for lines to steal from earlier songs and found the first line.The second line came from going to see the mermaids at Weeki Watchee.The 3rd line came from the ad in and old comic book.Remember “Sea Monkeys”? They show you these cute monkey things smiling and dancing,so you send them your hard earned cash and you get a bunch of tiny brine shrimp. The last line came from a really stupid joke my brother came up with when were little kids playing on the beach.

Black light morning 2 am

Mermaids singing 2 of them

Sea monkeys dance for money

Sand dollars,they don’t say nuthin

Once I had the words,the melody to sing them to came naturally.

So there it is,the evolution of a song.Vocals,Bass,Baritone and soprano ukulele’s are played by me.Drums,bongos,slide guitar,recording and sound effects by Nick Page.

Cd will be on sale in June. Thanks for all your support! PB