Landlocked Memorial Day Blues by kaibutsu
A song for Memorial Day, posted a few days late. So I had this tune kicking around the back of my head, not much more than half a melody, for about a week. It had been placed in my head (I eventually recalled) by a visiting friend playing guitar at our campfire a few weeks ago. And then I realized it was a Bright Eyes song (Landlocked Blues) that he had been playing that night. By the time I figured out what it was, I had already written a couple verses, but they fit with the spirit of the original song, so I just made a rewrite of all the words in the song, keeping the chorus mostly unchanged. (The parade becomes a May parade in this.)
It’s loosely about a certain person I once knew in a far away land, a world war II veteran with a drinking habit.
I’m not terribly sure about the ethics of taking an established song and changing all the words, but being sure to maintain attribution, but it seems like how a lot of old blues songs got spread around back before authorship was such a big deal. But minus the attribution in those days. cf, Carter Family vs. Ledbelly.
I recorded this with my new Micro BR, which is a magnificently minimal piece of recording equipment. Best $60 on ebay I’ve spent this year!