Re: Dylan covers...

http://kom.aau.dk/~oumer/visions.mp3

This is more or less how it went....but my recorder went dead in the middle, so have like half of it only (the last verse was really fine, take my word:-)...and due to time restriction I have to skip the second verse...I think the first two or three lines were awful...but after that it was bearable...I am not that happy with the sound, ofcourse, but I am so glad I managed to stand there in front of all those people, without any alcohol, and didnt even sweat, except for the first few ugly sounds that escaped my mouth, I even managed to put my hand out of my pocket and swaggered a bit...and looked directly into the crowd...So stage fright is almost conquered, a couple of more exposures will do it...now is time to work with the singing :-)

but guys, I really need some comments on some of my lyrics (unlike my singing, I am really happy about my writing so far, penning at a steady rate of once a week for a year or two now....):

http://kom.aau.dk/~oumer/music

at least take a look at these five attached below (the formatting is much better at the webpage!:-).
Thanks in advance for taking the time!

1) Midnight Train
======================

Living is not really necessary
If all you do is just worry
Better have a quick abortion
Than bring a child in this condition
Dragged her swollen feet to the door
Blood trickling on the sticky floor
To the soul doctor, she opened her door
And after that she spoke no more

Mundane news items are struggling
To make it into the history books
Which will be converted into sermons
And taught to the kids by the crooks
It gives me a little hope at least
At the moment, I have no kids
Thanks to the doctor for that
Follow my suit, that is my advice

The preacher is shouting out loud
To the well behaving crowd
That the only way is through God
That our sins are making him mad
It's because of that we get the flood
The tsunamis the suicide bombs
If we dont repent soon, we are doomed
The end is at hand, and then he cried

Hopless and helpless, everything-else less
The others, all two billion of them prayed
Their wailing prayers ascended quite high
Even past the dark clouds
But unknown to all of us, the indolent
The invisible prayer sucker, chews it all
Event God has no control, his mistake after all
To make him out of an invisible soul

The smog from the boy band factory
Is polluting the city really bad
This poisnous chemical called "hit"
Is driving some of the girls mad
The chemists were called to investigate
If there is any cure at all
They just shook their head in unison
Saying the solution is to kill them all

The most beautiful girls in the world
Were being named by the top magazine
Every little detail was fed into
This gigantic aesthetic scaling machine
The beast crunched the bits and pieces
And vomited a long receipt
The half blind hostess picked it and cried
Oh Gosh, they are all from hollywood!

The new owner of the ten commandments
Rumor has it, is back in town
He now owns the full copyright
To use it for punishment or fun
He was such a simple fellow
He soon got bored of the complication
Sold it to the crazy mayor
Who renamed it the Patriot Act or something

After listening to all these stuff
I was getting really tired
Couldnt make no sense of it all
None of it got my senses fired
Threw my alarm clock into the TV
To make sure I smashed it with my side lamp
I sucked in the beautiful silence
And floated in the night all alone

I ended up in a beautiful graveyard
The coziest place I ever been to
It was so peacful and quiet
Every crazy criminal and prevert
Peacfully laying down like a child
No more wrath towards others
Even some little help to the soil
I tell you, the evil turn holy when they die

So I hovered again upto the clouds

Looking scornfully down at us
I saw the devil and God making love
In perfect harmony, undulating
Every inch of their body, vibrating
Beauty and the beast, so disgusting
Hi, Said God, I am so glad that you are back,
I wanted you two to meet for so long
Come here kiddo say Hi to your dad


2)Skeletons from the closet
==================================

Inside our rainbow-colored bedrooms, where we opened our legs for strangers
Where we sought the thrill of extreme passion, confounded by sweet danger
Assaluted by dreamless sleep, on such nights wearing our masks of wonder
Those whom we dumped surround us, their shadowless images drawn asunder

Their faceless eyes stare at us, cold shiver runs down our spine
We surrender to the speech of the mutes, whom we have forsaken and left behind

The smell of heavenly scent, emanated from between their thighs
The taste of them made us go nuts, loss our mind, forget our thoughts
But between the innings and outings, applaused by liquid sound
We masterplanned our escape, foolish us, thinking that we will not be found

Now we just stare at empty walls, as if the bricks are talking to us
The tears and screams that they survived, jamming our ears, zapping our eyes

Crocidle tears, we played back and forth, between our forged smiles
Stinking promises, faked creams of truth, music to their unsuspecting ears
Never tried to wear their shoes, never thought our swords as boomerangs
Sexless love and loveless sex, was all that we could provide

Now, consumed with shame, every finger pointing at us
We hung down our heads, thinking just because we dont, they also wont see us

We sure were convinced, werent we, that out of sight is out of mind
We put our trust on cliches, we were not afraid, never cried
Everything was planned to the last, we were masters of treason
Not one thread of honesty marred, our undaunting webs of deception

But look at us now, crying blood, sitting on our legless chairs of lust
After discovering we were the fools, more than anyone else in this world


3) Last Seconds
=========================
The shame that you felt after
A wet dream about your sister
The pangs of jealousy that stung you
When she married your friend
The tears that purified your heart
When you saw your baby niece dead

Cry, there is still some time to swim in your tears, cry, cry
You better rejoice while it lasts

Azazel is on a coffee break
With death in his wings,
And your life to take

The arcane fascination and kooky zeal
that you showed for such dull jobs as yours, was so unreal
The uncermonious solitude
That was your shadow wherever you stood
Which came not of choice
But of neglect
Which lead, to almost all of your mess

There is still some time left to confess
My friend, some time to freak out and regress

You better hurry my dear
Cause Izrael is asking for the bill
Taking off his very fancy dress
He is practising how to wear your breath
No more pain, no more joy
And all will be gone

The illusive quest for God
That phantom you never understood
But beseeched for help when you got confused
The dreams that never came true
The nightmares that always did
The reason behind, that smog of a grin on your face

Ooops, it's too late now
The waiter has collected the check
And thanked the stranger dearly
For the large tip that he had left
With a voice that was so sweet
But yet unbearably lonely
You're welcome, said Zeraili
And streached out his arms
Squeezing your unsuspecting hands

4) Visa for the future
=============================

It was a vacation, that I saved for a long time>
Plane ticket in hand, lots of thoughts in my mind
I was in a hurry, just to pass the main door
When the officer grabbed me, and pushed me down to the floor

He said,
"What are you gonna do, for the rest of your life?
What the hell are you gonna do, in the rest of your life?
Is it for business or leisure, and where is your visa
You know you need that, when you travel dont ya?"

I froze and stood there, funny thoughts in my mind
thought he was trying hard, just to exercise his pride
I said "Come on, dont stop me now, let me pass
My future is waiting, and my past is fading fast"

He was angrier now
"I said where is your visa, for the rest of your life
And if you dont know what you are heading for,
Why dont you just stay in your past?
Is it to waste away in pain and fright
Slave to the job that you never liked
And to the system you cant dare fight"

"Is it to see the next epsiode of your favorite sitcom
Or to add a cufflink to the straight jacket you wore
To dream the nightmares that you couldnt swallow
Or to put on a new curtain on your black window
How can you be so bold, deciding to leave
With nothing left to remind us that you were ever here"

Well now I am the embassy of a place called "I have never been"
To get a visa, to that beautiful city called "I have never seen"
A have-mercy-on-you neon sign is telling me to wait
but still the  "what are you gonna do?" screams
of that strange officer,
becoming part of me, scrambling my head

What am I dreaming of, for the rest of my life?
What am I saving, for the rest of my life?
What am I thinking, for the rest of my life?
What the hell am I gonna do, for the rest of my life?

5)Thus spoke Machiavelli
==================================

Put your sad-sack attitude to rest, try to feel your emotions
yeah, start feeling them, stop this shameful fear of rejection
Time to read some nice book like one of mine,  the Prince
Finally time to believe that this life is a game that you have to win
Weather you are after fame, money, women or any other satisfaction
Nothing comes for free, time to set your goals and sink in action

Your wishy-washy outlook of life will get you nowhere
Maybe to the coffee table or to the remote on you chair
Your have to deceive faster than you can get deceived
Pretend sometime that they are cute, when they stink
Have some undetectable fake smile ready to win friends
But dont you ever, ever cry in public, show your pain

The little girls will like your money, the big ones your confidence
The rich will be tempted by your outlaw attitude that calls for disgrace
The sick will be begging you to heal them with your magic touch
The travellers will pay for your good luck wishes before they raise their crutch
Mix all this habits, and put them in the gridner
And in this so called modern life, you will be a winner!

yeah, A winner if that is what you want, but who doesnot
Who doesnt want to shine with the stars, walk the walk
It is action time, man, stop the talk!

Many have done it before, it is not a mystry
Power and fame seduce all, take care not to end in misery
But as long as you keep your cool, dont trust any friends
Win over your enemies, use and abuse all without shame
You will keep going high and high, till there is nothing more to climb
Then if you get bored of it, you can step down anytime

Now you know all the tricks, it is time to practice
Get rid of foolish endavours, like equality and world peace
It is not in our nature, the world will never run out of wars
We will be killing each other, till we are not here anymore
Selifish genes are what we are made of, be yourself be a whore
Better be a hammer than a nail, and put a couple of more locks on your door

They tell you all bull*** morals, how to be good and all that
You sucked it all up in good trust, you wanted no games, too honest
Look at what befell you,  what honesty has got you so far
You cant even afford a shabby house, a slave like a genie in a jar
Wake up! the whole fucking *** is a game, strive to know the rules soon
It takes a genius to be the sun, but you can at least outshine the moon

yeah, A winner if that is what you want, but who doesnot
Who doesnt want to shine with the stars, walk the walk
It is action time, man, stop the talk!


Terry wrote:
In article <4395a1c1$0$15791$14726298@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, oumer@xxxxxxxxxx (Oumer Teyeb) wrote:


Terry wrote:

In article <439585fe$0$15795$14726298@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, oumer@xxxxxxxxxx (Oumer Teyeb) wrote:



The reason why I started to listen to covers was because I have to sing "Visions of Johana" this thursday in public (50+ people, I

think) >>and I was rehearsing with my teacher (I have started taking a 20 minute >>per week course on singing, that is all I can afford at the moment :-() >>and he said I am imitating Dylan too much and he suggested to listen to >>covers by other artists to see how they interpreted it...I found one >>version by Jerry Garcia, but didnt like it that much...

it would be great if anyone tells me about other covers of 

visions...a >>link would be even more wonderful :-)


Garcia doesn't really cover Dylan's songs as such. He uses the tune as a base to jam around and throws in a few verses now and then.

I can understand why you want to hear other cover versions but it will be you doing the singing and will probably sound best if you sing from the heart, your way. You could try playing around with some of the phrases that touch you in the song and when you have those down just take it from there. Anyway, I wonder if Bob's ever been covered by someone from Africa before. You could be onto a first. Good luck!

Not so many know him in Africa, I think, specially where I came from. (has he ever been toured there? maybe south africa,....)


Nope, I don't think he's played in Africa but he knows it's there because he did appear on Little Stevie's 'Aint Gonna Play Sun City' and before that he did the very lovely song, Mozambique.


I never heard of him till I was 21, around 1996. The best thing I got hold on before him was Tracy chapman, all I could find in the stores, even the pirate ones was bon jovi, bryan adams, boys 2 men, and every despicable pop album from paula abdul to micheal bolton :-(


I'm sure that's not necessarily because it's Africa. Stores worldwide mostly cater to mass markets and fill their shelves with the dross that the music industry has invested so much in nurturing <sarcastic snort>.


anyway, thanx for the tip and I will probably post it here, if it sounds decent enough.....


Of course it will sound great, like your first one, and now you've sold it to us you're going to have to post a link here!


.