Song crafting - bushcraft

[rich59]

As a community I think it would be fun if we wrote some songs together. Daunting? Well, I think we might do it by stages.

Stage 1 - we need some themes or even song titles

What are your bushcraft driving thoughts? Can you contribute some? Serious or humorus?

Here are a few suggestions to get us started:-

Great to get away from household chores.

I got to make that axe.

Happy in my hammock.

Them bushcraft girls is beaut.

Gazing at the fire.

[locum76]

might be interested...

[Cobweb]

This sounds like fun, I'm not great at poetry but I can string a couple of words together if needed.

My ideas for titles :

Oh what a loverley fire
Smoke Magnet
What happened in the Woods.
Oooh there was a Bear (honestly it weren't me guv!)
Sitting on a Soggy log in September

And many more

[rich59]

I like them Cobweb

A few more from the heart ideas:-

Wild food here I come.
I think it's an edible fungus....
A knife so sharp
I made it myself
Its lovely in the woods
Too Much Kit to Carry
The fire drill blues

Any more?

[Eric_Methven]

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you...
______________________________ _______________
The midnight waterfall

Woke up in my hammock, bustin for a pee,
Half two in the mornin', not light enough to see.
Climbed out of my sleepin' bag, fell onto the ground,
Dragged my body up again, didn't make a sound.

Tried to find my boots, found soft poo instead,
Wish I'd brought a nalgene flask, could have pee'd in bed.
Finally got my winkie out, I took careful aim,
But peein' in the great outdoors, isn't quite the same.

Heard a noise behind me, sinister and low,
Then I heard some voices, and I was in mid flow.
Tried to stop and stem the tide, they was coming close.
Put it back but couldn't stop, so I wet my pants.

There was I stood standin', soaked from the waist down,
Feelin' like a numpty, my face now wore a frown.
Up trooped all the guys and gals, the campfire was now dead,
"Night, night Eric", they all said, "we're all off to bed."
______________________________ ______________________
Make up your own tune for it.

Eric

[Christy]

Hear hear.

[rich59]

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you...
______________________________ _______________
The midnight waterfall

Woke up in my hammock, bustin for a pee,
Half two in the mornin', not light enough to see.
Climbed out of my sleepin' bag, fell onto the ground,
Dragged my body up again, didn't make a sound.

Tried to find my boots, found soft poo instead,
Wish I'd brought a nalgene flask, could have pee'd in bed.
Finally got my winkie out, I took careful aim,
But peein' in the great outdoors, isn't quite the same.

Heard a noise behind me, sinister and low,
Then I heard some voices, and I was in mid flow.
Tried to stop and stem the tide, they was coming close.
Put it back but couldn't stop, so I wet my pants.

There was I stood standin', soaked from the waist down,
Feelin' like a numpty, my face now wore a frown.
Up trooped all the guys and gals, the campfire was now dead,
"Night, night Eric", they all said, "we're all off to bed."
______________________________ ______________________
Make up your own tune for it.

Eric

Eric you did nearly the hole thing in one hit there. - Title, lyrics, and clearly in the blues style.

Anyone else wanting to attempt the full monty then you just need:-

- title,
- style (try http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_music_genres if you can't think of any)
- lyrics
- tune

[Eric_Methven]

Thought I'd bump this back up to the top seeing as young Mr Pitkin shoved all the current posts onto page 2 with a load of old posts.
It's an interesting thread and I want to see if anybody else creates a bushcrafty song.

Eric

[rich59]

Unlike Eric I'm still dithering over evocative titles. Here are a few more.

My first spoon
Song of the paddle
What's in my possibles pouch



And here is a related thread from SOTP which actually asks a different point -

http://www.songofthepaddle.co.uk/for...ead.php?t=8878

another thread needed....

[rich59]

Here is a tune I remembered

here

And below is the first verse and chorus.

The Woods

Now Thomas was a city man
He worked for wage and fee
Weekends were filled with shopping
For rest he watched TV.
Inside though he was tired
Of buying and selling goods
One day he took a journey
And entered in the woods.


Chorus (with last 2 lines of verse)
The woods, the woods, the woods me boys the woods
One day he took a journey and entered in the woods


Can anyone offer some more verses?

[rich59]

Listening to my signature line (!) it's going to change. First, it's going into the first person. And second I reckon (remembering the original, that was not about bushcraft) the chorus has more freedom to it. So each verse actually has a different repeated phrase

The Woods

Now I was born a city man
I worked for wage and fee
Weekends were filled with shopping
For rest I watched TV.
Inside though I was tired
Of buying and selling goods
One day I took a journey
And entered in the woods.


(Chorus)
The woods, the woods, the woods me boys the woods
One day I took a journey and entered in the woods

So a second verse might go:-

At once I was enraptured
The trees they spoke to me
Of history and beauty
And a spirit wild and free
I then and there decided
The woods could take my soul
To learn to be a bushcrafter
Would be for life my goal.

My goal, my goal, my goal me boys my goal
To learn to be a bushcrafter would be for life my goal.

..... or something like that.

[nataryn]

After working in a theatre for a year I have a nasty habbit of singing things like 'Bless her Beautiful Hide' from 'Seven Brides for Seven Brothers'... sometimes I even improvise the words. I'm such a rebel. But it's a good tune to use.

Unwritten rule: Never sing anything that sounds like it might be sung by a certain Austrian... on a hilltop...

[Grooveski]

OK, I put on my drinking cap and came up with the Talking Bushmoot Blues

Talking Blues was a staple in the 60s/70s american folk scene. Bob Dylan, Woodie Guthrie, Phil Ochs, they were all at it. Tune-wise if you've heard one you've heard them all.
My favorite version for accompanyment is Loudos "Talking Big Apple '75" but Tom Paxtons "Talking Vietnam Pot Luck Blues" comes a close second and wadda y'know, can be listened to perfectly legitimately by clicking the wee audio player doo-da above the video on this page:
http://www.rabbireport.com/archives/...ian-troops.htm


Talking Bushmoot Blues

Well, I was walking about one day in a wood,
an eye to the ground, looking for food.
When I entered a clearing only to see,
a whole bushmoot gazing back at me.

Like a rabbit in a headlight,
I froze on the spot.

There were all kinds of woodsmen gathered around,
hanging from the trees or sleeping on the ground.
Some of them there could barely be seen,
clad head to toe in olive green.

One of the guys had a big machete,
Sometimes it pays to be the quiet type.

They said they just liked to get out,
and told me what it was all about.
I said "I get it, it's like Ray Mears"
and all of their smiles turned to sneers.

Machete guy was sharpening a stake.
Burnt in the woods for blasphemy, what a way to go.

Some of them there sure liked their gear,
but don't need it all or so I hear.
A man in black with mirror shades,
had a whole rucksack stuffed full of blades.

When I asked what he needed them for he smiled at me in an oddly disconcerting manner and said,
"Well I need something to sharpen".

Chattin' to a lady about green elf caps,
when I happened to say I made wine from saps.
She said "I know who can help with that",
"Talk to the man in the wide brimmed hat".

She left me standing in the clearing staring around at the impressive assortment of headwear on display,
never did work out who she meant.

Feeding time at the old bushmoot,
is eat what you find or eat what you shoot.
Anything left gets chucked in a stew,
an ingredient list like a walk in a zoo.

Sure I know worms are dirty and squirmy and have little hairs that make you choke and only come out when it's wet and the skins are hard to digest....,
but they make good protein.

As night drew in they began to retire,
like moths to the flame of a big central fire.
Someone there passed around a flask,
what it was I was scared to ask.

There was Sloe wine, Sloe gin, Sloe brandy, Sloe vodka,
but no slow drinkers.

Well you can walk a mile in another mans shoes,
or pickle yourself on his home made booze.
But you'll never get an answer more forthright
as when you're sat round the fire on a bushmoot night.



<<jolly instrumental finish>>

<<<...or not. This sort of nonsense can go on and on and on and......>>>

[rich59]

Excellent.

Keep 'em coming.