Several years ago, I’d got to a point in my life when I didn’t have the time or inclination to play my guitar much any more; too busy bringing up a family and pursuing a career. Some years after this point, I realised that I might well forget all I had learnt (mostly by ear), so I decided to try and record on tape the music and songs I could remember, which I had either composed or learnt by ear (which was most of them). So I casually recorded as many as I could remember in a couple of fairly… well not so much fairly as downright crudely… mono recording sessions. The purpose was so that, at some point in the future, when the children had left home and I had more time (and less memory), I would at least have a starting point to enable me to pick it up again. I’m slowly starting again… slowly!
This particular recording – with its quirky not to say eccentric intro and epilogue – still amuses (and embarrasses) me to this day; singing a blues number with a bad cold sounded like a bad idea at the time, but thinking about some of the words it could have been appropriate… I guess you’ll have to make your own mind up on that score!
Hope it amuses you as much as it does me!
Click to hear this song –>>
Poetry!
And, for good measure, since this is ‘My Poetry Library’, William Butler Yeats, a great lyrical poet, who crossed the boundary between the 19th and 20th centuries, wrote some very special poetry, and, as if from a dreamy imagination, his poem, “Song of Wandering Aengus”, is about an Irish Mythical character and poet, Aengus; it describes his, that is Aengus’, endless search for love. The words of the poem seem to portray an aching longing for love that a young poet would no doubt feel; they certainly paint a picture and provide an example to all aspiring lyrical poets. This version is accompanied by music composed by Donovan Leitch.
I hope you enjoy, even though it is from the same rough recording sessions all those years ago. And do enjoy the fabulous page turn at around 2 mins 30 secs…
Click to hear this song –>>
PoetJanstie
My Poetry Library 
You remind me strongly of Nick Cave, the voice, the guitar, the power of the melody…On the night of your birth the gifts of music and poetry must have been bestowed upon your head profusely by Euterpe and Erato…
LikeLike
Well, I certainly don’t look like Nick Cave, I don’t think ;). I love the thought of being born to the influence of Euterpe and Erato … Music and Lyric Poetry would be all that I need to sustain me through life, if I had to chose, apart, that is, from the occasional intervention of life’s other comforts 🙂
LikeLike
Lovely, both of them, and very creative of you to add your music to your post here. You may consider getting your own Youtube channel, so I can see you play. 😉
As for your challenge — you are so kind, however, I never play for anyone other than myself. It took me 20 years to get up the nerve to share my writing, and my guitar skills are nowhere near as good as that. Perhaps the next life…
eden
LikeLike