Posts Tagged ‘solutions’

Communication Problem

Posted: June 29, 2019 in Opinions and Observations
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My wife and I have a communication problem. Over the years we have managed to keep this from being a marriage problem. I am sure it would have driven other couples crazy.

I have a really bad habit of mixing pro-nouns; names, cities, sports teams. To give you an idea, I would call up my wife and say, “… pick me up at Home Depot when you are done”. She would call and say, “where are you”?

“I am waiting for you outside”, would be my reply. ……… she would then ask if I meant Home Depot or Lowe’s ……. yep. This is where I mess up all the time. I might say it with confidence, but I use the wrong proper name way too often. I am at Lowe’s.

My wife interchanges nouns. She will ask me to hand her the book. After a few seconds she gets impatient and wonders if I am listening to her. Again, but louder, she will ask me to hand her the book. I have scoured the immediate area and see no book. I will ask her if she means the glass and she will say, “that’s what I asked for”.

This does not happen all the time or we would be dead already. But it happens often.

I translate for her; she translates for me.

Denham Street

Posted: April 2, 2019 in Cover Tune Tuesdays
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This Tuesday I wanted to feature a song by a good friend of mine. “Denham Street” was written by Bob Enderle. Bob Enderle died too many years ago. He wrote a number of songs that I really like. I am not a fan of most popular music. I don’t need to hear one more song about boy loves and loses girl, or how the singer wants to party and have sex all night.

Denham Street and many other songs he wrote are about social injustices we so easily overlook and ignore. This song points out how unfair, uncaring and mean our social policies are. He makes the song sound sweet while the dark lyrics dig into our consciousness.

I did a simple recording of this song. I started with some drum tracks and I played my 12 string Ovation guitar for the main instrument track. I added strings to reinforce the guitar. Once I sang the melody I thought it would be a good song for harmony. I added the harmony vocals and listened to the rough mix a few times.

After a few times through the song I turned off the drum track and liked it better without them. I worked on it for days. I wanted to ‘do the song justice’ and make it fit the image I have from Bob’s version. Sweet tragedy.

Here are the lyrics and my version of Denham Street. I hope you enjoy.


            “Denham Street”                                                     Bob Enderle
 
Car alarms squeal on Denham Street     
Like coyotes howling at the moon.
Tattered grey men look for some place to eat
Teen age mothers search for her womb.
Street lights shattered near the playground;
Darkness hides an old routine.
Cracks in the family, crack in the hall.
 
There’s an overpass over Dehnam Street
Supporting Highway 95.
There are no exits for Denham Street
But it’s only a twenty minute drive.
To the shops with plywood windows
Through the alleys of despair
Just another wrong turn and you’re almost there.
 
To every city there is a Denham Street
And to everyone who grows up there
There are few exits from Denham Street
Fewer thoughts behind an empty stare.
Social programs lack the funding
Social consciousness has died.    
Solutions on the shelf have never been tried.