Tunes

Afri-car (1984)

An “Afri-car” is a car with the wheels spaced wide apart to avoid the ruts in the dirt-track roads. I heard this on BBC World Service when I was in hospital, at Murnau Unfallklinik, West Germany, near Munich. I recorded a lot of tunes on borrowed cassette recorders which I set up in the many corridors of the hospital. Some of them were neatly written out for the first edition of “Not Just A Songbook”.

Christmas Tune 1986

  1. I came across this rather catchy tune (played badly!), on an old cassette and later discovered a written out copy of it amongst some old papers.

Contraband

Dancing Dolphins

Epic Tune

1985-86. These tunes are just soundtrack only, no neatly written-out music. The ‘Epic’ tune is like a tune for a film, and the ‘Smile’ tune is so-called because part of the melody line is like part of a song called ‘Smile’.

(All four tunes are filed with this note)

  • 1) Epic film tune
  • 2) Smile tune. Some of this is like a good song written by Charlie Chaplin, called “Smile”
  • 3) Tune with riff, which I sometimes get right
  • 4) Tune with staccato guitar

Mexicana

  1. These recordings were made in Germany, where I stayed much longer than expected due to a broken leg. I was singing in the corridors of Murnau Hospital, sitting in a wheelchair. Would this have been allowed in an English hospital, do you think?

I published a songbook which included cartoons and pictures, hence the cartoon shown with the handwritten music. Woody Allen has a ‘Lonely Hearts’ date, but doesn’t get lucky!

Smile Tune

1985-86. These tunes are just soundtrack only, no neatly written-out music. The ‘Epic’ tune is like a tune for a film, and the ‘Smile’ tune is so-called because part of the melody line is like part of a song called ‘Smile’.

(All four tunes are filed with this note)

  • 1) Epic film tune
  • 2) Smile tune. Some of this is like a good song written by Charlie Chaplin, called “Smile”
  • 3) Tune with riff, which I sometimes get right
  • 4) Tune with staccato guitar

Still water

  1. Recorded in hospital with a broken leg, in Germany. I played a borrowed guitar and recorded my songs and tunes with borrowed cassette recorders, sitting in my wheelchair in the hospital corridors, which had a good acoustic. I recorded this again in a studio in 2004 for a CD called Hidden Treasure.

Tune with riff

1985-86. These tunes are just soundtrack only, no neatly written-out music. The ‘Epic’ tune is like a tune for a film, and the ‘Smile’ tune is so-called because part of the melody line is like part of a song called ‘Smile’.

(All four tunes are filed with this note)

  • 1) Epic film tune
  • 2) Smile tune. Some of this is like a good song written by Charlie Chaplin, called “Smile”
  • 3) Tune with riff, which I sometimes get right
  • 4) Tune with staccato guitar

Tune with staccato guitar

1985-86. These tunes are just soundtrack only, no neatly written-out music. The ‘Epic’ tune is like a tune for a film, and the ‘Smile’ tune is so-called because part of the melody line is like part of a song called ‘Smile’.

(All four tunes are filed with this note)

  • 1) Epic film tune
  • 2) Smile tune. Some of this is like a good song written by Charlie Chaplin, called “Smile”
  • 3) Tune with riff, which I sometimes get right
  • 4) Tune with staccato guitar