Look Ma No Hands – Video 22 – Album “Songs From the West Coast”

Here it is!  Vlog post number 22, the third track from Elton’s 2001 release Songs From the West Coast, Look Ma No Hands.  I’ll start by saying, this song was a pain in my rear to record.  Its a pretty tricky song to play the vocal line, so I apologize for the rough spots in advance. 

This song is the true definition of piano-folk.  The song moves very quickly but still has a nice easy feel to it.  I’ve always loved this song for many reasons.  Most importantly, one year at Christmas, I bought this album for my mother.  Inside the CD I left her a note that said “Be sure to listen to track number 3, Look Ma No Hands, its for you.”  My mother passed away a few years later, as I mentioned in a previous blog, so this song really rang true.  Through the trials and tribulations I’ve experienced in my life to this point my mother in some way has always been there to support me.  And I picture her proud smile everytime I hear the line “Look ma no hands, look ma aint life grand, I’m a super power and I’m a handy man.  Didn’t I turn out to be everything you wanted ma, aint you proud of me?” 

So without further ado, I want to again dedicate this song to my mother.  I hope you all enjoy what I’ve done with it!  Thanks for your support!

I’ll take a rainy day to make a champagne shower
Poach some horn and tusk to build an ivory tower
Been to Philadelphia the day it was closed
I walked to New Orleans down a Louisiana road

The skeletons they hung from the bushes and the trees
But not a skull among them said boo to me
In a time of wine and cheap cigars I’m on top of the world
Top of the world Ma

Look Ma no hands
Look Ma ain’t life grand
I’m a super power, and I’m a handy man
Didn’t I turn out, didn’t I turn out to be
Everything you wanted Ma
Ain’t you proud of me

It takes a silver tongue to have the Midas touch
Not your alchemist making gold from rust
Been down in Roswell when the Martians came
I sailed to Mandeville across Lake Pontchartrain

The skeletons they hung from the bushes and the trees
But not a skull among them said boo to me
In a time of wine and cheap cigars I’m on top of the world
Top of the world Ma

Didn’t I turn out, didn’t I turn out to be
Everything you wanted Ma
Ain’t you proud of me

© 2001 Happenstance

Dark Diamond – Video 21 – Album “Songs From the West Coast”

On to the second track from Songs From the West Coast, Dark Diamond.  I really love the feel of this song.  Elton teams up with Stevie Wonder on harmonica for this song again, the first time being on I Guess That’s Why They Call It the Blues.  In the video you will see me playing piano, but I also laid in the harmonica track after filming.  I utlized an electric piano sound to model the harmonica part.   Its not perfect, but it does the trick!  I also really love the drums on this song.  Nigel Olsson rejoined the band for the recording of this album and it no doubtedly paid off.  Nigel would also start back touring with the band around this time and thankfully has stayed since.

I hope you all enjoy my rendition of Dark Diamond.  And please feel free to leave comments and suggetions!  Thanks for watching!

Oh, I’m a dark diamond
I’ve turned hard and cold
Once was a jewel with fire in my soul

There’s two sides of a mirror
One I couldn’t break through
Stayed trapped on the inside, wound up losing you

Tell me how does it work?
How do you make things fit?
Spent all my life trying to get it right
I’ve put it together and it falls apart
I thought to myself I might understand
But when the wall’s built, and the heart hardens
You get a dark diamond, dark diamond

Oh, I’m a dark diamond
But you’re something else
You read me more than I read myself

The one star I could count on
Only comet I could trust
You burnt through my life to the true meaning of love

You get a dark diamond, dark diamond
You get a dark diamond, dark diamond

© 2001 Happenstance

The Emperor’s New Clothes – Video 20 – Album “Songs From the West Coast”

Two blogs, two days…not bad!  So today’s post is The Emperor’s New Clothes, the first track from Elton John’s 2001 release, Songs From the West Coast.  You might be thinking to yourself, “Songs From the West Coast was definitely not released right after the Elton John album.”  And you are right for thinking this.  In fact there were nearly 40 albums in between the two.  Bottom line, I was bored with going in strictly chronological order, and there was some pretty high interest for me to play this album.  So my plan is to go through the entire Songs From the West Coast album and then maybe throw it back to an older album and sort of alternate between new and old to keep things interesting.

After all that explanation, here is why I am so interested in doing this album.  I remember the lead up to this album coming out and hearing all this press about it being Elton’s return to form.  And it truly was a return to form from everything to instrumentation to the way it was recorded.  But to me the most important “return to form” is Elton’s piano work on the album.  It is a fun album to play as a piano player and its chalked full of fantastic piano riffs.  I remember my first listen to the album and thinking, “this is the best thing I’ve ever heard him do.”  And while this may be an over-statement, it’s certainly worthy of a great deal of praise.  The opening track is a totally piano based song that is a very simple striped down ballad, yet it sets the tone for what was undoubtedly Elton’s best effort since the early 80′s if not since his hay-day in the 70′s.

So without further ado, please enjoy my rendition of The Emperor’s New Clothes.  And as always, thank so much for your support and kind words.

We bet on our lives and we bet on the horses
In that upstairs apartment on Orlando and 4th
And the rent was due and the rent man was knocking
Like a Chinese proverb we were always searching

Nightlife’s a no-win but nobody noticed
How we killed off the bottles looking good on the surface
The dog days barked and the house cat got old
We were Bonnie and Clyde in the emperor’s new clothes

And the tears never came
They just stayed in our eyes
We refused to admit that we wore this disguise
Every inch of us growing
Like Pinocchio’s nose
As we walked around in the emperor’s new clothes

We flew by our wits and by the seat of our pants
In the state of illusion in the nation of chance
And the repo was hauling the wreck we’d been driving
As the dashboard Madonna smiled back at us kindly

We cheated the system never batting an eyelid
Seeing only the good through the holes in our shoes
And our halos were rusty but we wore them proudly
We were two little gods in the emperor’s new clothes

We were Bonnie and Clyde in the emperor’s new clothes

© 2001 Happenstance