JPF Home Page Forums Lyric and MP3 Feedback Creative Challenge Forum Songwriting Challenge #42 Tell Us Your Story

The goal of our "Song Challenges" is to write songs/lyrics on demand within set parameters. We don't critique each other's songs in this thread (but you can say you like someone's song if you want to.) Please post your original works. If you have already written a song/lyric that fits within the parameters, please feel free to post it.

This challenge is content oriented. Everyone has a least one cool story in their past about someone they met, something they did, etc.. Tell us a story from your past. Here are the rules: It must be true. It must have happened to you or someone you knew. It must be in song form. (Lyrics only are OK.)

Have fun!

Here's 2 songs I wrote with Roy Cooper about a man that lived on the other side of the creek from us when I was growing up, hope you enjoy it.

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=8846368

the 2nd song link is at the bottom


He'd Take That Ole' Fiddle Out

I hid behind that old oak tree
Watching what Jackson Kelly would do.
Heard he was crazy as a coot,
Wanted to see if it was true
Was only a few feet to the creek,
Where he sat at the waters edge.
Searched his bag and looked around
While I just held my breath.

chorus
I was just a young boy
Hiding behind a tree,
Looking for adventure
Wondering what i'd see

Jackson Kelly he lifted his arm,
And he gave me a big suprise
Wasn’t an axe or baseball bat,
But a fiddle that widened my eyes.
He put that fiddle tight to his chin,
Looked up towards the sky
Placed the bow onto the strings
And he began to cry.

chorus
I was just a young boy
Hiding behind a tree,
Looking for adventure
Wondering what i'd see

He cried and played and also sung
With beauty that’s hard to explain,
Of love once lost and those long gone,
And of deep and lasting pain.
I couldn’t move was held in a trance,
Seemed like eternity
Time stood still for over an hour
As he played so wonderfully

bridge
For a couple years, bout once a week, I’d sit behind that tree
Listening with eyes shut tight, like he was playing just for me.
Then one day he upped and died and no one seemed to care,
For me the world was a poorer place when he wasn’t there.
I think he must have known that I’d hid behind that tree
Cause I found his fiddle by my house like it was left there just for me.

chorus
I was just a young boy
Hiding behind a tree,
Looking for adventure
Wondering what i'd see

Tag:
That was 30 years ago, and he sure was one of a kind,
Cause what I heard down by the creek
Stayed forever in my mind.

Jackson Kelly, he was one of a kind.

Here's the 2nd song but i'm trying to find the lyrics, thanks glyn
After He Died

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=9030126

Glyn, thanks for posting the songs. Regarding the short story, how about moving that to the creative writing forum?

I mostly don't do true stories, but this is one. It's the famous song about Al David's missing underwear, "Milepost 43":

www.soundclick.com/share?songid=5672600

It's become a hit locally ever since the Tillamook County Commission on Children and Families came up with (really) "Undie Sunday," where you can donate underwear to needy families...

Joe

I already posted this one the other day in the MP3 area, but here it is:

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=9382306

Not sure if this is what your talking about Jeans. Heres a song I wrote about my son 3 years ago. he's 15 now.

Its called A boy becomes a man.

Let me tell you about a boy born in ninety five Rainy day in January.
As the thunder rang the sky in honor of his dad his father named him perry
Always puts his baby teeth underneath his pillow waiting for the tooth fairy
He acts just like his grand father some of the time all because he.

Looks for adventure, Full of desire
Has a heart of compassion, a boy becomes a man

Like's to spin cart wheels and climb up trees jumps from roofs tops never want to stop
Stirring up reaction mixing his concoctions every time he thinks he has a good excuse.
Making his contraptions out of sticks and string leaving him with lots of satisfaction.
Doing all the things boys will do one might think just to challenge you cause he

Looks for adventure, full of desire
Has a heart of compassion, a boy becomes a man

Knows how important, his mother is to him, his sister ,and school work too
Boy scout, he has become, building character, week by week, karate too
Soon enough young man he will be with the whole world for him to see
Walking that thin line, right or wrong, part of the boy ,becoming the man

Looks for adventure, full of desire
Has a heart of compassion, a boy becomes a man
A boy becomes a man, a boy , becomes, a man,

Link to the song.

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=6421349

I got one, Jean... that I wrote years ago.. It's the true story of Larry Hilblom, one of the founders of DHL courier service. He crashed his plane in the ocean several years back, and tho he left his fortune to the University of California, his illegitimate children's mothers made a claim for the largest paternity suit in history and won. 60 minutes did an entire episode on him years back..

here's a link, jeez, I didn't know it was so old..

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=1057377

LARRY WAS HER BOYFRIEND C Michael Siegel 2003

She was young and brown and lean,
Dancin? in Manila, the girly bar scene.
The mama-san picked her to be his cherry girl.
He?s hairy and he wore funky clothes,
She had no way to know,
That he could afford to buy her anything in the world.

Larry was her boyfriend, (Have you been with Larry?)
He was a rich American. (Maybe we?ll get maried..)
She gave him a baby,?cuz he bought her a beer
She was a cast-away souvenir,
She's a lucky, lucky girl,
Larry just dissappeared....

She was living in the barrio
About a year later on a TV show
She learned Larry crashed his Catalina PBY into the sea
Tho the the baby was a legal heir
Half-caste child of a multi-millionaire
The kid could go to college, if she could prove paternity..

Larry was her boyfriend, (Have you been with Larry?)
He was a rich American. (Did he get your cherry?)
She gave him a baby,'cuz he bought her a beer
She was a cast-away souvenir,
She's a lucky, lucky girl,
Larry just dissappeared....

Four other mamas, makin' a claim
Got the kids together, matched the DNA
Judgement for the plaintiffs, everybody?s happy,
Split up the fortune, Larry is the daddy!

Larry was her boyfriend, (Have you been with Larry?)
He was a rich American. (Did he get your cherry?)
The baby is a citizen 'cuz Larry ain?t here
He left 'em eight million a year....
She's a lucky, lucky girl,
Larry just dissappeared.


I didn't write the song on demand for this thread obviously, but it's such a cool story, and there's lots more intrigue that I left out of the song. the lawyer that won this case is a neighbor, and the story is well known here.

mike

G'Mornin' Mz Jeanie B!

I've held-back from posting this one..because of the Politics: I'm currently being considered for a 41-Year-Late Purple Heart awarded for a broken neck..encountered my First Week in 'Nam..which I'd forgotten-about for 35, maybe 36 years afterwards..'till it started bothering me daily. (& 'till the VA sent me the Paperwork...about 3 months back.)

Sometimes, in life, you do the Right Things for the Wrong Reasons.

When you're an Enlisted Man, you encounter Officers you Admire (& you'd die-for), and then..you serve under SOME you'd like to get even-with. What I did DID save some lives/Changed some History/& yeah, it was pretty exciting at the time... This'll probably be on my "Still Coming Back From The War" CD...if I ever get it recorded in the next 4 years... ;-)>

"DON'T 'F' WITH A PFC" (C) 2010 by Stan Good, BMI

(Opens with CHORUS)
DON'T F WITH A PFC
DON'T F WITH A PFC
They Might LOOK Like "Cannon Fodder"
But They're LETHAL..(You'll SEE)
DON'T F WITH A PFC--

I Used to Hide a little "F-T-A"
In Each Cartoon Panel when Our Major DEROSED-Away
The NEW One We GOT..Hoped to BE a "Light Bird"
& I Got Busted-Down-to-Private..when He Got The Word

But..(REPEAT CHORUS)

He Didn't Like My Attitude, Now & Again
While He was Always Suckin'-Up..to Our Major-Gen
Buckin'-for-Promotion..(& Dumpin'-on-US)
In Our Whole Press Hootch, There Was No Love-Lost...

Yeah, Always Polishin'-Up General Charles P. Stone
Who Had 2 Stars, Already, now Soon-To-Go-Home
Where "Star Three" was A-Waitin', & Boy, was He "SHORT"
Thought He'd "Tighten-Up His Troops"..Yeah, "Just Once-More"...

So He Ordered All Us E-M to "Give SALUTES"
EVEN "Way Out-FRONT" (He Didn't Give a Hoot!)
If An Officer-Walked-by..& You Missed Your Cue
You'd be Sent.."FURTHER OUT"..and To-Hell-With-You...

But...(REPEAT CHORUS)

Waal, I Knew a Reporter by The Name of Don Hurst
Said "I Got a HEADLINE for You..Before Some Guys Get-Hurt"
He was with OVERSEAS WEEKLY and He Had a Friend
Gal from The BOSTON GLOBE, who Dropped-By..That Weekend

& She was As-Cute..as a Stringer-Could-Be
Yep, She & The General had a Dinner Soir-EE
She was Leavin' Next Morning, when The Story Broke
'Bout Pleiku's "SALUTE OR SHOOT GENERAL", yeah That's All-She-Wrote!

So..(REPEAT CHORUS)

Soon The General was On..The Cover of LIFE
& "Salute-or-Shoot" Made The TV News..each Night!
Had Camera Crews Roll-In from CBS..NBC..
Asking ALL KINDSA QUESTIONS..Bringin' Misery!

..To That MAJOR Who'd Rubbed Us ALL The-Wrong-WAY
(I'd never Heard the Term "FLAP"..Before That DAY!)
& THAT's What-Happened to The Major's "Light-Bird"
Soon, "He Retired..JUST-A-Major.." From What I've Heard

So DON'T F WITH A PFC
DON'T F WITH A PFC
This Story's 'Bout as TRUE as it Ever Could BE
(Yeah) DON'T F WITH A PFC
They ARE The ONES Who'll GET-YA Where You DESERVE..To BE
So..DON'T F WITH A PFC!

(REPEAT HOOK/FADED-OUT)

(C) 2010, All Rights Reserved.

I don't have time to write a new one for this challenge right now so here is one about a trip to Italy from a few months ago.......

Cappuccino In The Morning