This is my adaptation of a poem by Rosemarie Kempton.
"I always felt that it was fitting that you turned the poem I wrote into a poignant hymn that captured the feeling of loss of a loved one. My words sprang from my attempts to understand…
This is my adaptation of a poem by Rosemarie Kempton.
"I always felt that it was fitting that you turned the poem I wrote into a poignant hymn that captured the feeling of loss of a loved one. My words sprang from my attempts to understand…
Probably anyone who plays the guitar could write this song....
Someone asked if I was actually in Spain in 2003. Actually, 2000. Working on the movie, THE STONE RAFT with George Sluizer, from a book by Jose Saramago.
Inspired by something Jenni…
MAN THAT I AM - Key Dm
Dm
Train pulls out the station and the shades are all drawn
Cold steel bites my ankles and I am on my way home
G
I would jump out of that window. Risk a bullet in my back
Dm
But I'm shackled to a bunk…
This is amazing. I love this song. I was born in 1961 and was aware of the war as a child. It was a big world lesson for a little mind that if you were a young guy you would be forced to fight and die in a country on the other side of the world, and I saw this on the same tv I saw the GI Joe doll ads aimed at little boys. Later as a teen I had the vision of the guys on stage thrashing out the rock & roll and punk, the living spirits of the dead boys, armed with guitars and drums and skill and rage. Thanks for writing this song. It has a fine groove.
This is a Rick Babb song.
Hey! What's that sound
You're not around
The silence makes me see
Just what you meant to me
It's quiet tonight
Ah, you're not coming back
You drove away
I watched you pack
I can't hear a thing
But the sound…
My last post tonight I promise! Here is the link to the video of James Michael Taylor and Sam The Lion - Shipping & Receiving 06/14/19 LIVE on YouTube PLEASE, somebody else watch this video and either confirm my belief SAM THE LION can own whatever song they want... or tell me I'm full of... ahhh... stuff... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRbr9wj71Nw&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR1a3LFyCzsLpCKu22Szezh220UAsmbq7vMacCVx1lC3GJl1jZWljQnsyLQ
A song that Rick Babb started and I helped finish. (He brought me the first verse and the chorus and the music.)
HERE COMES LONELY
Ronnie says it's over but I don't believe
I'm not willing to give up I'm not willing to see She's made up…
HEY! I just had a GREAT idea! Hey... SAM THE LION... hey, you guys... hey, you, SAM THE LION guys... I watched the video of you guys doing your set of JMT songs... you had JMT on stage with you... (LOVED IT!) How about this... DO THIS SONG !! And have BOTH JMT and Rick Babb on stage with you! Maybe also do "Quiet Tonight" ??? Hmmm... start strong with HCLonely and then go softer with QT ??? Or... maybe start soft with QT and then break out strong with HCL ??? Hmmm... which way... which way... What a nice decision to have to make! BUT MAY I SUGGEST... do them... either, both, or all of them... as SAM THE LION songs! Do NOT simply "cover" the Babb/Taylor versions... own the songs. (that is... "own the songs" period... end of sentence!) I watched you SAM THE LION guys play on that "Songs of JMT" video... and after watching it, it is my firm belief... you guys can "own" any damn song you want!
A song that Rick Babb started and I helped finish. (He brought me the first verse and the chorus and the music.)
HERE COMES LONELY
Ronnie says it's over but I don't believe
I'm not willing to give up I'm not willing to see She's made up…
This is a Rick Babb song.
Hey! What's that sound
You're not around
The silence makes me see
Just what you meant to me
It's quiet tonight
Ah, you're not coming back
You drove away
I watched you pack
I can't hear a thing
But the sound…
Yes, this is a great song. When I was allowed the honor of choosing my own "Best Of JMT" collection, I am proud to say... in that collection, I included another great Rick Babb song... "Here Comes Lonely" You know, Jimmy... I think I have a CD... someplace, in some drawer or box... tossed in with my collection of JMT "Works In Progress" and my collection of... "Hey, JohnQ, here is new song I'm working on!" CD's... well, that CD I am thinking of... I believe it is called... something like... Babb-ylon... ??? Maybe even a Babb-ylon II... ??? Think I'll go look... see if I can find it... see if I can find them...
The Winnowing Wind
I feel the wind blow thru me
Oh, please don't let it undo me
Let it level and true me
The Wind. The Winnowing Wind
And here I stand, alone, against the wind,
And, who am I to think that I
Can stand alone against the…
The Winnowing Wind
I feel the wind blow thru me
Oh, please don't let it undo me
Let it level and true me
The Wind. The Winnowing Wind
And here I stand, alone, against the wind,
And, who am I to think that I
Can stand alone against the…
The Winnowing Wind
I feel the wind blow thru me
Oh, please don't let it undo me
Let it level and true me
The Wind. The Winnowing Wind
And here I stand, alone, against the wind,
And, who am I to think that I
Can stand alone against the…
I love the way this song moves the chords fluidly, appropriate to the subject. Very pretty! And I have felt the winds of change blow through me, as well as atmospheric winds, so I like the metaphor.
THE SWING
When I was a child we'd drive 200 miles
To Gramma’s in the Spring
I’d hop out of the car. Run to her back yard.
Gramma had a swing
The times have changed...
And when I became a dad I took all the rope I had
And tied it to…
THE SWING
When I was a child we'd drive 200 miles
To Gramma’s in the Spring
I’d hop out of the car. Run to her back yard.
Gramma had a swing
The times have changed...
And when I became a dad I took all the rope I had
And tied it to…
DOG PARK
Everybody meet me down at the DOG PARK
If you need me I’ll be down at the DOG PARK
Sunday afternoon and I’m bound for the DOG PARK
Everybody gets along at the DOG PARK
White and black and brown at the DOG PARK
Nobody’s looking…
THE SWING
When I was a child we'd drive 200 miles
To Gramma’s in the Spring
I’d hop out of the car. Run to her back yard.
Gramma had a swing
The times have changed...
And when I became a dad I took all the rope I had
And tied it to…
THE SWING
When I was a child we'd drive 200 miles
To Gramma’s in the Spring
I’d hop out of the car. Run to her back yard.
Gramma had a swing
The times have changed...
And when I became a dad I took all the rope I had
And tied it to…
I wrote this at my dad's urging. He likes it. We sing it together. I have YouTube Video of it up.
EULOGY
He grew up in Clinton, Oklahoma
Red dirt back yard, Gramma's place
Honey suckle in a dust bowl
Life as hard as limestone lace…
Since my ear found your voice
And my eye found your face
All the sights and the noise
Will never erase
The song I started singing
The song I sing today...
(C) 2019 Royal T Music
I wrote this about Violet.
Yeah, I know.
I can't understand it either.
TESLA
Who invented remote control? TESLA
Who invented the fluorescent light? TESLA
Who invented the radio? TESLA
And who died alone and forgotten in 1943? TESLA
So, you say now, “Don’t be…
Here is the latest song challenge offered by the Minnesota Asscociation of Songwriters:
. . . . . . . .
Your mission this month is twofold:
1. Try creating a boundary between the production of content versus the judging…
Here is the latest song challenge offered by the Minnesota Asscociation of Songwriters:
. . . . . . . .
Your mission this month is twofold:
1. Try creating a boundary between the production of content versus the judging…
Those guitar tracks are crisper than fresh celery. Great vocal. Really brings the lyric to life. This is the best thing I have ever heard of yours. Killer. Great song.
SLAUGHTER MOUNTAIN
My mom’s dad was a coal miner. Her mother died of TB when she was a kid. When she was twelve, her dad, dying of black lung, slit his throat with a butcher knife. That left her with a cripple little brother to take care of…
I never sing this song the same two times in a row.
The lyric below is pretty close to how I sing it now.
Listening again, this is an awful version of this song...
I have my recording machine working again...I must redo this.
I PLAY C…
So sweet.. and I relate sooo well. I only had three, but birthing them in 4 yrs, they seemed double that in number at times. And we were a share the bed family too. I played my guitar and sang for them to put them to sleep. I still have memories of the peace that held for me, and I think for them. Gwyn Henry
I never sing this song the same two times in a row.
The lyric below is pretty close to how I sing it now.
Listening again, this is an awful version of this song...
I have my recording machine working again...I must redo this.
I PLAY C…
WATERMELON WIND Capo @ 3 Key G
On a (G) road outside of Brownsboro there’s a (Bm) watermelon stand
Dm Dm - E
All boarded and bedraggled, fallen signs peak thru the sand
Am…
I would never sing this song in a room that wasn't listening.
Enter
You sent
Peggy taught me an Eagles song toward the end off our life together. I think it was NEW BOY IN TOWN. I had no idea what she was telling me. I took the chord progression from that song and wrote this song with it. Peggy thought that was cheating.
WATERMELON WIND Capo @ 3 Key G
On a (G) road outside of Brownsboro there’s a (Bm) watermelon stand
Dm Dm - E
All boarded and bedraggled, fallen signs peak thru the sand
Am…
The 1st time I sang this song in public was at a Nashville Songwriters Association meeting, Fort Worth chapter, and a woman burst out when it hit her. I can hardly sing this song without crying. I really know how to push my buttons.
"...ha! Push your own buttons… I know hat you mean. I listened to the song again to refresh my memory…omg it is so pretty! And yes! I remember well, I did get it that the watermelon man was his father. In fact it brought to my mind another disappearing father, that of my daughter Lisa. He passed several yrs ago. So too late for him now. But your song has beauty and meaning for a lot of folks, I am sure." Gwyn Henry
I saw him live in Dallas about a year before he died. He was sooo good.
His sweet wife sat stage right and frequently he would go over and kiss her. His playing and showmanship were tops and he was like in my living room sharing the things…
LOVE THIS!! Just listened. I'll bet Dale would love it too, He passed in 2019, I just read in wiki, at the age of 85. Your comparison to his doctore may have been apt: He beat colon cancer twice and lived on another eleven years. And he left us his amazing music! - Gwyn Henry
A song I wrote over the last few days. Did a one-take-wonder on the recording, so it's pretty simple. Hope you like it!
Sometimes You Don't
Verse 1
Sometimes in the early morning hours
As the sun lights up the sky
I look back and think…
A friend got me excited about writing short instrumentals for Video, TV etc and posting them on Pond5 ( A site catering to that type of thing). I recorded this little banjo piece this morning.
This is so crisp and bright. Sunlight and rippling waters. It reminds me of one of my rare instrumentals:https://alonetone.com/jamesmichaeltaylor/playlists/slaughter-mountain/sunlight-on-spider-web
(Remastered 22/10/2021)
And here is the first reply to In Your Hands.
I say "first" because I've found another one, When I Try To Be Me, that Mrs R says I have to do too... but that's unlikely to be the next one I post because I'm working…
(Remastered 22/10/2021)
OK, let's delve once more into the magical shoebox of unused songs...
I've already recorded several that were written in 1994 (Sleeping with the Ghost, Elizabeth's Room, With Mum Again, If You Knew, A Hundred and…
(Remastered 22/10/2021)
And here we go - Edith FINALLY gets it...
Actually, she's been getting it ever since I wrote it on the 29th May. I thought it would take a week or so, but it proved to be more of a fight than I was expecting.
On…
(Remastered 22/10/2021)
Here it is in all of its glory...
THIS is the song that Mrs R and I had decided was a suitable response to a request to "Upload something HAPPY, stat!!!!!!!!!"
I tried to record it back in 2013 when I wrote it…
I was once asked to write a happy song. It turned out to be about a woman who killed herself and when I found out THAT SHE ACTUALLY KILLED HERSELF I wasn't sure what to think about my premonition.https://alonetone.com/jamesmichaeltaylor/tracks/a-happy-song. THEN, later an old friend asked if I had any happy songs so I wrote this:https://alonetone.com/jamesmichaeltaylor/tracks/if-it-makes-you-happy-092914-1
(Remastered 22/10/2021)
I was asked (told?) to upload something happy. Hmmm, I thought. This will end well...
So, a few days later, I was rehearsing a pleasant little thing I wrote several years ago that has a working title of "She Was…
(Remastered 22/10/2021)
Here's the very latest from the broom-cupboard.
I wrote it one dark night over 23 years ago.
****
**All I Have To Do - A A J Russe**
There isn’t much time to get this out
You won’t hear me if I have to…
(Remastered 22/10/2021)
Okies, so I'm working on some other thing and it's taking a while... drums to do and wotnot. But in the middle of it I'm digging how my Martin acoustic is working out. You probs won't even be able to hear it amongst…
(Remastered 22/10/2021)
I wrote this one last September.
Allison Jane Sixsmith 1965-2016.
****
**Forever - A A J Russe**
I can see you on your rocking horse now
The one that turned around and kicked you in the teeth
He thought…
I hear you’re drinking at the chocolate fountain
You pulled the handle off the door
But they won’t mind
They’ll be mending it forever..." Great images...
(Remastered 22/10/2021)
I wasn't even sure the recording machine was still going to work after nearly five years... Certainly, bits of me don't work anymore... But, surprisingly, I got this done in 24 hours, start to finish... Strange old world…
Comments on James Michael Taylor's stuff
Fantastic!
Amazing and beautiful!
Beautiful. My dear friend 💛
Funny
This is amazing. I love this song. I was born in 1961 and was aware of the war as a child. It was a big world lesson for a little mind that if you were a young guy you would be forced to fight and die in a country on the other side of the world, and I saw this on the same tv I saw the GI Joe doll ads aimed at little boys. Later as a teen I had the vision of the guys on stage thrashing out the rock & roll and punk, the living spirits of the dead boys, armed with guitars and drums and skill and rage. Thanks for writing this song. It has a fine groove.
My last post tonight I promise! Here is the link to the video of James Michael Taylor and Sam The Lion - Shipping & Receiving 06/14/19 LIVE on YouTube PLEASE, somebody else watch this video and either confirm my belief SAM THE LION can own whatever song they want... or tell me I'm full of... ahhh... stuff... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRbr9wj71Nw&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR1a3LFyCzsLpCKu22Szezh220UAsmbq7vMacCVx1lC3GJl1jZWljQnsyLQ
HEY! I just had a GREAT idea! Hey... SAM THE LION... hey, you guys... hey, you, SAM THE LION guys... I watched the video of you guys doing your set of JMT songs... you had JMT on stage with you... (LOVED IT!) How about this... DO THIS SONG !! And have BOTH JMT and Rick Babb on stage with you! Maybe also do "Quiet Tonight" ??? Hmmm... start strong with HCLonely and then go softer with QT ??? Or... maybe start soft with QT and then break out strong with HCL ??? Hmmm... which way... which way... What a nice decision to have to make! BUT MAY I SUGGEST... do them... either, both, or all of them... as SAM THE LION songs! Do NOT simply "cover" the Babb/Taylor versions... own the songs. (that is... "own the songs" period... end of sentence!) I watched you SAM THE LION guys play on that "Songs of JMT" video... and after watching it, it is my firm belief... you guys can "own" any damn song you want!
Here is ANOTHER great Rick Babb song!
Yes, this is a great song. When I was allowed the honor of choosing my own "Best Of JMT" collection, I am proud to say... in that collection, I included another great Rick Babb song... "Here Comes Lonely" You know, Jimmy... I think I have a CD... someplace, in some drawer or box... tossed in with my collection of JMT "Works In Progress" and my collection of... "Hey, JohnQ, here is new song I'm working on!" CD's... well, that CD I am thinking of... I believe it is called... something like... Babb-ylon... ??? Maybe even a Babb-ylon II... ??? Think I'll go look... see if I can find it... see if I can find them...
Very nice! I like the way you’ve composed this song; it is musically expressive of the central metaphor. Jenni Mansfield Peal
Wow! Beautiful lyrics and accompanying music.
I love the way this song moves the chords fluidly, appropriate to the subject. Very pretty! And I have felt the winds of change blow through me, as well as atmospheric winds, so I like the metaphor.
"That was brilliant. We are crying." Maria Moss
Beautiful James
Love it!Share it with everyone.
The last note was from Colleen via the MN coffee table
What a pretty but melancholy song. Truer words never spoken. Such a poignant visual.
I like what I am listening to.....
Beautiful and Heartfelt song!
This poem is a master piece.
Comments made by James Michael Taylor
I thot I sent you a response... Can't see it now.
Those guitar tracks are crisper than fresh celery. Great vocal. Really brings the lyric to life. This is the best thing I have ever heard of yours. Killer. Great song.
Gwyn Henry - 😊 be-yoo-ti-full!!
Wow! I sampled all the songs, it’s a great album and I will listen to it more tomorrow. Thank you! Ken Mcintyre
So sweet.. and I relate sooo well. I only had three, but birthing them in 4 yrs, they seemed double that in number at times. And we were a share the bed family too. I played my guitar and sang for them to put them to sleep. I still have memories of the peace that held for me, and I think for them. Gwyn Henry
Seems ea song I hear of yours for the first time is my new favorite song of yours! Gwyn Henry
I would never sing this song in a room that wasn't listening. Enter You sent Peggy taught me an Eagles song toward the end off our life together. I think it was NEW BOY IN TOWN. I had no idea what she was telling me. I took the chord progression from that song and wrote this song with it. Peggy thought that was cheating.
The 1st time I sang this song in public was at a Nashville Songwriters Association meeting, Fort Worth chapter, and a woman burst out when it hit her. I can hardly sing this song without crying. I really know how to push my buttons. "...ha! Push your own buttons… I know hat you mean. I listened to the song again to refresh my memory…omg it is so pretty! And yes! I remember well, I did get it that the watermelon man was his father. In fact it brought to my mind another disappearing father, that of my daughter Lisa. He passed several yrs ago. So too late for him now. But your song has beauty and meaning for a lot of folks, I am sure." Gwyn Henry
LOVE THIS!! Just listened. I'll bet Dale would love it too, He passed in 2019, I just read in wiki, at the age of 85. Your comparison to his doctore may have been apt: He beat colon cancer twice and lived on another eleven years. And he left us his amazing music! - Gwyn Henry
Such pathos. Your voice captures the sadness so well... Sometimes you don’t feel the love until you’ve lost it..."
This is so crisp and bright. Sunlight and rippling waters. It reminds me of one of my rare instrumentals:https://alonetone.com/jamesmichaeltaylor/playlists/slaughter-mountain/sunlight-on-spider-web
Simple and clear...
"Teddy bead kisses..." So sad.
Sounds like another suicide song to me... We can feel the pain in your voice.
I was once asked to write a happy song. It turned out to be about a woman who killed herself and when I found out THAT SHE ACTUALLY KILLED HERSELF I wasn't sure what to think about my premonition.https://alonetone.com/jamesmichaeltaylor/tracks/a-happy-song. THEN, later an old friend asked if I had any happy songs so I wrote this:https://alonetone.com/jamesmichaeltaylor/tracks/if-it-makes-you-happy-092914-1
"But still I love the comfort I find in misery…" Great line. Beatle like...and that's always good.
Great guitar sound.
Love this. Beautifully done. Tonight I was trying out a song from that era: Twilight Time...https://www.e-chords.com/chords/the-platters/twilight-time
I hear you’re drinking at the chocolate fountain You pulled the handle off the door But they won’t mind They’ll be mending it forever..." Great images...
Rock on Dude...! Good to listen to some of your tunes. It's been a while. Strange relationship in this song.