The Chandler Travis Philharmonic

Song  O The  Weak!!!

Bringing you a new mp3 every week! (or so...)


February 4, 2010: "Settling For Less" -Chandler, Dinty, John, Keiichi, and Fred rehearsing... An all-out attack on upward mobility. The song's ambitions are best summarized in the line, "When there's no chance in hell you'll ever get the best you better... settle for less." Dinty actually wrote one of the words in this song, the word "car", and I hope you'll search for it and treasure it even half as much as I do.

Settling For Less


The Navy's always telling me
To be all the man that I can be
While I'm not saying that goal is dumb
I'm just fine with being just some

I don't mean that I live to flop
But from what I hear it's lonely at the top
Number one's pretty good, I know
But there's so many other nice numbers -and I'm

I'm settling for less
Settling for less
When you've got pretty good, who needs the best? I'm
Settling for less

Being the boss might sound sweet
But they're always trying to knock you off the cat bird seat
And one way to make it so you don't fall far
Is not to get your heart set on a star

When you're in school, kids, act nonchalant
When they tell you that you can be anything you want
An astronaut billionaire covered in bling
In school they'll tell you any damn thing -and that's why I'm 

Settling for less
Settling for less
When there's no chance in hell you'll ever get the best you better
Settlle for less

Settling for less
Settling for less
I figure I'll aim a little lower than the rest - I'm
Settling for less

The other night I'm down drinking at the store
When in walks a girl I've never seen before
Blond hair, blue eyes, a figure like Venus
The kind of girl that makes you glad to have a penis.

She sits herself down on the stool next to mine
And pretty soon we're having a pretty good time
But she seems like the kind of girl who'll break my heart
Figure why the hell should I even start?

Do I really need this kind of intrigue?
She's smart, she's pretty, and she's out of my league
Never seen nothing like her in my whole damn life
But would I tell the wife? I guess I'll keep-

Settling for less
Settling for less
Couldn't care less if I pass the test, I'd rather
Settle for less

Settling for less
Settling for less
When there's no chance in hell you'll ever get the best you better
Settlle for less

 

Still Available!  It's the CTP

Railroad
OfTheWeak





That's right, boys and girls -every week, a brand, spanking  new shiny version of "I've Been Workin' on the Railroad" from your pals here at the Philharmonic! Thrill to the sounds of adventure, as Chandler and the boys boldly take the original "A Train" into new and uncharted territory! You won't believe your ears! You'll think you died and went to Chattanooga!
 



  Currently, we're on a vacation from bringing you Railroads of the Weak, but here are all of our prior entries (in chronological order!):

"The Slowest Railroad Ever"
[RRotW #1: live at the Lizard Lounge, Cambridge, MA, September 3, 2003]

"Railroad Bossa Nova"
[RRotW #2: live at the Lizard Lounge, Cambridge, MA, September 3, 2003]

"Railroad Costello"
[RRotW #3: live at the Lizard Lounge, Cambridge, MA, October 1, 2003]

"Multi-tempo Railroad Begging/Torture Fandango"
[RRotW #4: live at the Lizard Lounge, Cambridge, MA, October 1, 2003]

"Railroad Cha-Cha-Cha"
[RRotW #5: live at the Midway Cafe, Jamaica Plain, MA,  May 30, 2001 - thanks to Paul Cirincione for the recording!]

"Mose's Railroad #5"
[RRotW #6: live at the Old Jailhouse Tavern, Orleans, MA, November 1, 2003 -
non-horrend-o-phonic recording & mixing by Chris Blood
]

"Gregorian Railroad"
[RRotW #7: live at Harry's, Northampton, MA, November 8, 2003]

"Rude Railroad"
[RRotW #8: live at the Midway Cafe, Jamaica Plain, MA,  August 22, 2001 - thanks to Paul Cirincione for the recording!]

"Railroad (Bluegrass Speed-Record)"
[RRotW #9: performed by CT & Tim Dickey - our first "studio" Railroad!]

"Devolutionary Railroad"
[RRotW #10: live at the Midway Cafe, Jamaica Plain, MA, November 29, 2003]

"Railroad Sing-a-Long"
[RRotW #11: live on the Hyannis Town Green, Hyannis, MA, July 12, 2001]

"Ridin' on a Reindeer"
[RRotW #12: Wouldn't you know it -a Christmas rendition!  Recorded live somewhere, sometime]

"Klezmer Railroad"
[RRotW #13: live at the Midway Cafe, Jamaica Plain, MA, December 17, 2003]

After a far-too-long hiatus of our acclaimed Railroad of the Weak series,
in 2005 we were pleased to bring you the WORLD PREMIERE performance of "Railroad! The Play",
written by SonicTrout recording artist / occasional CTP musician / genius Pete Labonne,
performed by Chandler & Dinty,
 with instrumental backing by the Chandler Travis Philharmonic

"Railroad! The Play"
[RRotW #14: live at Harry's Blues Bar, Hyannis, MA, September 13, 2005]


In case you missed them, here are several of our previous SotW selections...

August 24, 2009:  "Brooklyn Bridge"- Chandler Travis Philharmonette -recorded at a WOMR benefit in March, '09, by Chris Blood -this is a reprise, due to popular request (if you can seriously believe such a thing) of a song about apologizing (remember, follow through! Don't lose your concentration!)


August 24, 2009: "Never Never Land" - now that Chandler's new CD "After She Left" has been released, we're taking down most of the outtakes we posted before it was released, but due to popular demand, we're keeping this one around - written by Betty Comden, Adolph Green and Jule Styne, from "Peter Pan" - recorded by Chris Blood at Trout Towers Casino.  Dedicated to Bud Dunsford with much love indeed from all of us at the ward, and a tip o' the hat to ol' Michael Jackson, too.

This one was suggested at some point by Keith Spring, who plays piano on this version, and it's a song that has always been very close to my heart, and one that I absolutely love singing. It also is involved with one of my very earliest memories, which is of defacing some of my parents records with a pencil when I was very young, maybe 2 or 3. Vinyl records were my first passion, and I think would've been even if they had nothing to do with music; I loved the sight, the texture, the smell, the jackets, and everything about them. And the original Broadway stage version of "Peter Pan" with Mary Martin was the first in a long series of musicals over the years that took our family hostage -still hope I get to write one, one of these days!

Out of all of the outtakes, this is the one I was most ambivalent about losing. It would've been the only track on the album that was recorded almost entirely live (Ken Field's sax solo was the only overdub), in one take, and it's easily the vocal I am proudest of; I also particularly dig Keith's dreamy intro and outro. In the end, I cut it to keep the album as lean as possible, both in terms of length and sentiment, and in the hope we might get a crack at it someday with a real piano!


April 23, 2009: "Snakes of Money?" -Though it obviously just barely qualifies as a whole idea, I think this might make a good Philharmonic song someday... until then, here's one hell of a silly demo...


February 3, 2009: "Everything Can Go Wrong So Easily" by the Chandler Travis Philharmonic (rough mix by Ducky Carlisle) -an instrumental from our recent session at Milt Reder's Rear Window studio in Brookline, the first session with the entire Philharmonic present at one time since the first session for our debut album, "Let's Have a Pancake", about a decade ago, and boy, were we glad to be back! I've never inflicted a rough mix on the general public before, but this time had to make an exception due to high spirits and great music, especially from soloists (in order) Ken Field on alto sax, Jon Fraser on trumpet, John Clark on bass, and Phil Clements on piano.


December 8, 2008: "Goin' Steady So Long" -recorded by Chris Blood;  C.T. w. Rikki Bates on drums, natch -Yes, yes, my aged p's just had their 60th anniversary, and I wanted to write 'em something special, but the the devil in me made me  do my first attempt in an idiom they can't stand, namely, hillbilly music; so then I had to go back to the drawing board and do "Thank You Song". This happens to me a lot.
Anyway, hope you'll all drink to my parents -a lot!


November 30, 2008: "Thank You Song" (drum track recorded by Chris Blood at the Trout Towers Casino) - a new song from Chandler which was written in honor of his parents' 60th wedding anniversary.  We here at Song of the Weak HQ think it has a nice dual meaning for the rest of us in this holiday season, as well.


November 24, 2008: "Not In Service" -Chandler demo in progress, November, '08 -a song of eternal male hope, longing, and confusion, as our hero goes overboard fantasizing about a phone machine message... will probably either add stuff to this version (for instance, right now there's hole for a solo -knock yourself out!), and/or do it over with actual other musicians... meanwhile, knew you'd want to hear it right away...

"Not in Service"

I only talked to her once
And she was so shy
I couldn't get much information
But I'll never forget what she told me
Last night -oh no
I'll never forget what she told me.

She said I'm sorry;
The number you have   
Dialed is not in service
Please hang up and try
Your call again later
Oh yeah
She encouraged me to give it a try

I knew just from the sound of her voice
Something heavy was on her mind
And if I played my cards right
What then?
Oh yeah
I knew I had to give it a try

That voice -so cynical
So cold and yet so warm
And someday we're gonna do the wang dang doodle
All night long
If I'm not reading her wrong

break

She said I'm sorry;
The number you have   
Dialed is not in service
Please hang up and try
Your call again later
Oh yeah -she said
Please try your call again later


September 24, 2008: Music from "the Visit" at Payomet - June, '08 -Had a swell time writing , recording, and playing music for a play called "The Visit" at the  Payomet Center For the Arts in Truro this past summer... I got to do sound effects, too (mostly trains -simulated with pebbles in a tin can -and bells, etc.), which made me feel a kinship with the only other musical person in my family, my maternal grandmother, Marion Chandler, who used to play piano for the silent movies.

Though I mostly did the music and sound effects live, originally the plan was to use recorded versions on Sunday, when I was playing with the Casuals at the Beachcomber; but everyone so much preferred having it done live that most Sundays during the run I ended up hot-footing it over to Truro as soon as the Casuals got off stage, jumping in whenever I got there (the play started at 8 and the Casuals stopped at 8, so each week I kept trying to beat my record -luckily, somehow managed to avoid a speeding ticket.)  It was quite the culture clash, I can tell you!

That's the always invaluable Berke McKelvey on soprano and baritone sax -we had a blast recording this stuff...



song@sonictrout.com

Have a suggestion for a future Song of the Weak?
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The Song of the Weak email address here at SonicTrout is song@sonictrout.com