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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
       
      
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...
Have a
suggestion for a
future Song of the Weak?
Got an idea for a new
version of Railroad?
Just want to blow off a
little steam about something?
Be sure to keep those cards
& letters coming in!
The Song of the Weak
email
address here
at SonicTrout
is song@sonictrout.com
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