Up there is Carol but
the little boy in this video is 16 years old today.
so “that was us then :- )”
ps. the kids may be bigger but they’re still lovely : -)
Tag Archives: vincent burke
Call your Mother!
Something’s coming? Something’s here!
I recorded this last Friday. Without over explaining the song is about uncovering good stuff when things break down. I just typed it out and right now despite some inaccurate Morse Code at the end I think it’s my best lyric. It goes like this:
call your mother
if you took,
all the darkness in me
you could whittle it down to the shape of a key
it would fit,
in the red of the rock
and release all the lava and stop all the clocks.
something’s coming,
distant drum, drum, drumming
earthquakes,
thunder,
call your mother.
If I swam,
to the depths of the sea
I would pull out the plug
just to see what I see
and the coral,
would rise up just like trees
as we struggled for breath
on our blistering knees,
something’s coming,
distant drum, drum, drumming
earthquakes,
thunder,
call your mother.
When the walls,
have all crashed to the ground,
When the trumpets have blown
When the sky has come down
I will stand,
and applaud to the sun
for the end of the world
could be something begun,
something’s coming,
distant drum, drum, drumming
earthquakes,
thunder,
call your mother.
dit dit dit dit dit dit dit dit, dit dit dit dit, etc
dot dot dot dit dit dit dash dash.
For the film I was lucky to find a great film on Creative Commons to chop up for my own ends. If you’d like to see the original here it is (smile) https://youtu.be/QieZx_Elbb4
Please Share it if you like it!
Stay Well and speak very soon!
March Already?
How are you ? It’s been a while again but I’ve been busy honest.
There are a few things been going on, January we were in a theatre with the Dance Company ‘Moving Stories,’ great to be asked and nice to be away from pubs for a while. I know it was filmed so if I get the footage I’ll share it. Here we are nicely composed for the Show.
The rest of the band can pretty much play anything so in February we took a side-step and played Jazz, backing Lido Len on trumpet, I got to put down the guitar and croon those songs my Mum and Dad used to play – nice. Here’s Len:
Mainly I’ve been recording the Second Album “Greatest Hits Vol. 2” which should be ready by the Summer, I’m one track away from having it all recorded, and I like it!!
Last for now our percussionist Jawad (above second from right) runs a Mens Mindfulness session at Balham Bowls Club (Monday nights if you fancy it) and asked for a jingle for his Upcoming Podcast so in lieu of a proper song here’s some nonsense for you until next time. Stay well! Love
Vince
1,2,3,4!
Autobiograpical innit?
Wrote this in Nathaniel’s bedroom which may be why it become something about the 4 of us.
Last week in wet October me and Laurie, (or possibly Laurie and I) did the video, having gone through one phone and 2 cameras I finally figured out we could yank the computer about on extension lead and do the stop motion like that. A lot of it worked pretty well and some of it didn’t but that all got cut!
it’s available at https://vincentburke.bandcamp.com/track/1234
and here are the words for the hard of hearing:
1,2,3,4!
I’m
just no good
I can’t sing
I can’t chop wood
friends cast me out
but I’ve got1,2,3,4
something to be sure about
early combinations led me to a cold war
I’m in
I’m ready to begin
something to be sure about
just no good
I can’t sing
I can’t chop wood
friends cast me out
but I’ve got1,2,3,4
something to be sure about
early combinations led me to a cold war
I’m in
I’m ready to begin
something to be sure about
I
can’t be found
all my hits
go underground
file them away
because I got
1,2,3,4
something to be sure about
early combinations led me to a cold war
I’m in
I’m ready to begin
something to be sure about
I didn’t know too much about the world before
I used to sit at home and observe the floor
I want more
so here I am
here’s my wife
here’s my pram
time slips away
but I got
1,2,3,4
something to be sure about
early combinations led me to a cold war
I’m in
I’m ready to begin
something to be sure about.
credits
released October 29, 2019
the truth about a woman and a man
Well! – this one happened the way I like it – no messing about
- Wrote the tune – the words took a few days.
Originally after the Adam and Eve verse I had one for Samson and Delilah, and another one for Oedipus and his Mum, but I dropped the obvious humour, and kept it as ironic advice for a young man.
2. Figured out how to play it – Recorded it, and well I was walking around in time listening to the play-back I saw my feet in the mirror and had the idea for the video, so,
3. first sunny day Carol and I worked on the dance routine (and painted our toenails) and when the kids came home we recorded it, the memory was full on her phone so we only had one go at it. (I cut out the bits where I was out of time).
I think it looks nice and sunny, hey! have a good Summer!
you can download it here if you like it 
https://vincentburke.bandcamp.com/track/the-truth-about-a-woman-and-a-man
and the videos here!
track 4: can I just explain?
nice photo hu? (thanks Jonathan)
After the optimism of the previous ‘wedding’ song comes this,
a marriage gone sour.
It’s not my most popular, but it is one of my best – both the lyric and the melody hit the spot for me and Late Junction on Radio 3 played it last year
(they’re in the process of being cut by the way, so sign the petition here if like me you want a place for adventure and experiment on the radio).
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-late-junction
About the song though, I wanted to write something that used the things people really say as opposed to what gets said in songs. To that extent it’s kind of kitchen sink drama – half a conversation, the male half, explaining how his cheating was partly her fault – there is a level of irony 😉
I’m not talking about my marriage by the way (we’re still all good, honest!), but the fact this guy’s talking like an idiot doesn’t mean I don’t feel it when I sing it.
song and lyrics here!: https://vincentburke.bandcamp.com/track/can-i-just-explain-2
track 3: on the event of…
I wrote this one for our wedding,
…or more probably, the words slipped in when that was filling my head; anyhow it was all finished for the day (which was by the way great).
In a way the song felt part of a new beginning too. Having said goodbye to the band and the vague ambition of being on top of the pops a few years before, I realised I was still writing music without any audience and I quite liked that; some people tinker around in sheds I was still messing about with songs, and when friends did finally start to hear them they tended to say they sounded more genuinely like me. For a long time I couldn’t sing the lines,
‘…all the happiness that we can share
’til we look up from rocking chairs
at grown up children on the beach
and swapping smiles from each to each.’
without filling up a bit,
fortunately after a few listens Carol liked it too, even though, like nearly everything I make up, you can’t dance to it….
…well enjoy the picture of our feet anyway, here’s a link
https://vincentburke.bandcamp.com/track/on-the-event-of
track 1: ready
– this is me and my sister buried in the sand at bantham beach, devon quite a long time ago.
I thought ready made sense as track 1 – it’s quite fast and it starts with me very young
in a dream I used to have.
In the dream I’m on a swing; I swing forward and back as the frame gets bigger and bigger until I’m sweeping forwards and back again over the roof of our house;
it keeps getting bigger,
until I’m sweeping high up into clouds and down across whole counties.
I can feel the wind on my face and arms,
until I know I on the next downward sweep won’t be able to hang on any longer;
I grip tight to the chains but as I fly forward gripping, I’m catapulted away through the sky and …
I wake up.
well; I changed it to a bike but you get the idea, a boy wakes up in bed and wonders where he’s going…
the sound affects at the beginning are the bike running and taking flight away from the world. The rest is me looking around my room wondering what I will be, as the lights of cars sweep oblong shadows under my curtains and across the ceiling.
Actually the last time I ever had that dream,I fell from the sky and bounced into a big stack of hay
so that’s all right then; never had it again.
the track’s available via
https://vincentburke.bandcamp.com
or if you want the album with pictures and stuff, e-mail me vncntburke@yahoo.co.uk
next time track 2!
over here in the trees – the album cover explained…
well yes I did dig a hole – none of your photoshop fakery here.
then I got in it
various pop star poses were adopted
the artistic process was observed
it went on a while…
The idea came from a dream I had where I was walking round these suburban streets pointing out things like a big pot and telling a friend how everything was art (even asleep he’s pretentious). I turned around and in this grass verge of a very normal front garden, a Spanish looking man was buried to the waist standing; as I watched two woman walked from behind and put a marriage veil over his head.
Obviously I woke up and thought that will do for the cover. The hand is held up to resemble the international sign of greeting (I kept my trousers on).
I chopped it up a bit to add a hint of dis-orientation and off-set that with a ‘learning to read’ primary school font in lower case, because it’s nice to look at new things like 7 year old does.
As for the title: ‘over here in the trees’ refers to my finally drawing some attention to myself after all this time (and that joke with the punchline ‘over here on the swings’ – I’ll tell it to you some time )
cover back from the printers…
yes!
the cover’s here that’s ok
…wonder if the album’s any good?