White Ripple Community Band bonus: The Anti-Garden Song

White Ripple Community Band played The Garden Song last week, as a tribute to the spring which I know will arrive in Chicago sooner or later...anyway, as I was jotting down the lyrics from my copy of Rise Up Singing I saw the words to (what else) The Anti-Garden Song.






I like to think that The Garden Song is how we feel about our carefully tended flower and vegetable beds in May, and The Anti-Garden Song is how we feel about the same weed patch come late August. Enjoy!


The Anti-Garden Song: A Parody

Written by Eric Kilburn

CHORUS

Slug by slug, weed by weed, my garden’s got me really teed
All the insects love to feed on my tomato plants
Sunburned face, scratched-up knees, my kitchen’s choked with zucchinis
I’m shopping at the A&P next time I get a chance

The crabgrass grows, the ragweed thrives, the broccoli has long since died

The only things left still left alive are some radishes & beans
My carrot plants are dead and gone, hear the rabbits sing a happy song
Until you’ve weeded all day long you don’t know what boredom means

You get up early, work till late, watch moles & mice get overweight

They eat their dinners on a plate from the hard work you have done
As ye sow, so shall ye reap, but I smell like a compost heap
I’m gonna get that lousy creep who said gardening was fun

White Ripple Community Band April 18th, 2016

I took a break from posting last week as I'm the last librarian in the world without access to a home computer. I don't see the point of having one at home, really-- they're expensive and their planned obsolescence is six months and I'd rather spend the money on music camps like this one, so come with me now, to a time not so long ago...

Song 1: Down by the Riverside. Enjoy Sister Rosetta Tharpe tearing it up. I'd like to revisit this one, as there are lots of call and response singing opportunities for us to play with.



Song 2: Where Are You Going by The Dave Matthews Band.

 



This is a tricky one as the words and chords meet up in unexpected places. I like working on more complicated stuff from time to time because when you've mastered it? Ahh, that's a feeling of accomplishment. (Someday I'll get there with this one.) It sounds lovely with Linda on clarinet holding up the melody.

Rich wrote out the chord structure so you can keep the beat with that, and then add the words when you're ready.

Verse
D///  G///  Bm///  A///
D///  G///  Bm///  A///

Chorus (this is the really tricky part-- you can play four beats of D if you want to instead)
D/ D7/  G/ Gm/  D/ D7/  G/ Gm/
D/ D7/  G/ Gm/  D/ D7/  Gm///
Gm///    D///        C///       G///


Song 3: The Garden Song, written by Dave Mallet and sung here by John Denver with Muppet accompaniment. I've got more to say about this song but this blog post is long enough as it is.



Song 4 (we were busy!): The Midnight Special. We did this one a long time ago in C, here we did it in G. The first time I heard it was Creedence, which is nice, but nothing beats Huddie Ledbetter.