These are the 13 songs which I deemed, 5 years ago, to be my top "money" songs. The blurbs were written back then, also.
Today, I only play 8 of them; listed below; having either forgotten the others, or forgotten that I know them.- This One Goes Out To The One I Love
- Comfortably Numb
- Shameless
- Wishing You Were Here
- Tangled Up In Blue
- Sugar Magnolia
- Dancing In The Moonlight
- Sunshine
I plan upon resurrecting all the others, now that I have dug up this list and reminded myself of what used to work on the street, Especially "Woman," the John Lennon song, (to go with "Imagine" and "Jealous Guy," which I have since added) plus "High Time" and "Tequila Sunrise," because they were once (back in 2006) so high on my list.
From a 2006 Journal on Melodramatic.com:
(You Gotta Start Somewhere)
1.This One Goes Out To The One I Love (REM)
. -This one draws currency, strange currency...2. High Time
(Grateful Dead, though most think that I wrote it [and am pouring my heart out the way only the Dead could]... those few former hippies, who are now CEO's of Fortune 500 companies and who often wonder "what if I had gotten on that VW bus back in '68, how would my life be different" bring up the average with humongous tips, the smallest bills in their folds being 20's...)
3. Tequilla Sunrise (The Eagles)
- I guess everyone knows every Eagles song- I cheat on this one, as a person approaches, I jump right into the "Take another shot of courage..." part from wherever I happen to be in the song. It sticks in their head and they find themselves humming it; then they hum their way over to Larry's hat and drop in at least a couple bucks; thank God for The Eagles and Larry's hat!)
4. Comfortably Numb
(Pink Floyd -The Chorus can be sung loud enough and is familiar enough to draw people from up to 75 feet away. "There is no pain, you are receeding" And, I'm "receeding" a lot , these days!!
5. Harmony
(Elton John - Off of the B side of either Benny and the Jets, or Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, I can't remember, and, technically it could be on Neither, since I can't remember...When I was in 6th grade, we had a period right after lunch, when we would break out the phonograph and the stack of 45's, (the one's with the big hole in the center which needed to be fitted with a plastic plug so they would go over the nub on the phonograph).
The phonograph sat on a table, made by pushing four desks together. These were the desks of myself, Wayne Rameau, Debbie Richard and Christine David. I faced my 'girlfriend,' Debbie -whom I thought was the second cutest girl in the class. Wayne faced Christine, who I thought was the cutest girl in the class, the lucky stiff.
I was poised to trade up, had Christine started "liking" me, and Debbie started liking Wayne; at least I was at Christine's table.
Potato sticks were as popular as Elton John with us. There was usually a pile of them in the center of the table, oozing grease into a paper towel. We weren't germophobes, back then.
A lot of the 45's got spun repeatedly, Crocodile Rock and Bennie and the Jets come to mind. We would sing to them.
Our teacher, Mrs. Hayford being pretty cool for allowing us a period devoted to the Arts, considering it was a public school, and she wasn't required to do so.
Peter Capute and I were the best singers (a foreshadowing of my sucess as a street musician today, I'm sure). We took turns selecting songs. Once, I selected Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, and caught a look on someone's face which read: Here comes yet another trip down Yellow Brick Road.
With a display of "contrarian" thinking, I flipped the record over and "Harmony" emanated from the 4" speaker of the phonograph. (Not Yellow Brick Road again, at all -fooled ya!)
I played it a lot more in the following days, and we eventually all learned to sing, mouths full of potato sticks, with Peter Capute and I taking the lead.
Today, I feel like I am back in 6th grade when I sing it, and if I close my eyes, I can smell potato sticks.
6. Sunshine
(Jonathan Edwards....I won't inflate my ego like a puff-fish and say that my friend Ted and I, when we were 17, hung out with the guy who had played the acoustic guitar on that recording...but we did. His name was Eric Elliloquist, and legend had it that he had once met John Lennon, when the Ex-Beatle walked into a club where Eric was playing...The ex-Beatle wanted to jam with Eric, but Eric chickened-out because he thought the CIA and the government had killed Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, and anyone else who's lyrics could be construed as having an anti-government message....or who's first names began with "J"...)We rode out in his small car one particular evening, "burning one," and subsequently NEVER found Fat Albert's, a rock-n-roll club somewhere around Worcester, Massachusetts, which we were looking for.
At one point we started singing along with the radio.
Eric is a great vocalist, sounds like a cross between Paul McCartney and Van Morrison with a little Roy Orbison thrown in...It's no wonder Lennon wanted to jam with him...I loved singing but kept thinking that Eric was thinking what the hell am I doing riding in a car with two kids half my age, smoking out and singing to the radio, I mean I met John friggin' Lennon!!
Through knowing him, I came to see why he would think that the administration would "off" him for his song "I like California," in which he sings: "Winter in New England gets as cold as it can be. Sometimes I get so depressed that the cold lives in me.."
7. Shameless
(Garth Brooks -the only country song I know, outside of "Sweet Dreams. Garth sold out the Coliseum when he came here to Jacksonville. There was probably a pickup truck (or two) in the parking lot outside the show..8. Wishing You Were Here
-Chicago- "But I'd like to change my life, and you know I would..just to be with you tonight, baby, if I could....9. Sweet Dreams
This one is about the seventh best tip garnering tune. People think I'm doing Patsy Cline, but I'm Doing Elvis Costello doing Patsy Cline...10. Woman
(-John Lennon- Off of the last recording before he was shot. The oooh part at the end has the loveliest chords, major 9th's they're called. I spent a lot of time trying to BE John Lennon when I was a teenager in an "identity crisis." The crisis is over.11. Tangled Up In Blue
-Bob Dylan -I wonder how many people know that "She had to sell everything she owned and froze up inside" means that she was pimped out by the then he started into dealing in slaves guy, and that everything she owned really meant everything and it made her frigid, and that "Later on, when the bottom fell out... means that they stopped having sex... The whole song is fraught with hidden meaning and people seem to know that it is about something, but that they just don't understand Dylan...so, they drop a few bucks in Larry's hat; makes perfect sense to me!! Here is that whole verse:I lived with them on Montague Street in a basement down the stairs
There was music in the cafes at night and revolution in the air
But then, he started into dealing in slaves and something inside of him died
She had to sell everything she owned and froze up inside
And later on when the bottom fell out, I became withdrawn
The only thing I knew how to do was keep on keeping on
Like a bird that flew
Tangled Up In Blue
12. SUGAR MAGNOLIA
(-Grateful Dead- Lyrics like: She's got everything delightful, she's got everything I need; Takes the wheel when I'm seeing double, pays my ticket when I speed. Say it all.).
13. Dancing In The Moonlight (King Harvest? I think that was their name)
It's a song only an intermediate guitarist can pull off; all bar-chords, the way I play it... The End
Interesting! So, you've been busking, on and off, since you were in high school.
ReplyDeleteAt the beginning of this year, one of the things I wanted to accomplish was to figure out if there's a future for me as a busker. At the beginning of this year, I figured my "ace in the hole" would be my voice. Yes, I can sing in tune. I'm quite the mimic. All well and good. But, I find my voice wears out *really* fast. Just talking more than a little each day, has it getting all scratchy etc. Singing is tough! Since I'm your age, I dunno if my voice could be trained, as opposed to how you've kept yours in training by singing all along since you were a teen.
I also have determined that Yes, there's a future for me in busking, but as a hobby, not as a main, steady, source of income.