The VIP-Video

This is my song about those very special people who believe themselves to be the cream of mankind.

I think VIPs and certain animals are a perfect fit. Okay: with a “sorry” to the animals whose inherent dignity knows nothing about special treatment.

Free us from meaning

I don’t like it when someone explains the meaning of a picture. Or a story.

I like it less when someone explains the meaning of music. Or a mantra.

Why can’t we take things and sounds as they are?

By Detlef.

Let them be. Let them work in their own way.

Not fitting in can be the perfect fit

In Music each note is defined by its environment. There are no good or bad sounds – there are only sounds within a certain harmonic neighborhood of more or less tension.

It’s the individual human ear saying: “This tune is beautiful.” or “This sounds horrible.”

And each individual pair of ears is part of a certain cultural harmony itself, is part of a cultural environment.

Each human being is able to enlarge her or his cultural environment. Each human being is able to be part of a more complex harmony than the one she or he was born into. It takes the virtues of openness, curiosity and tolerance – but the rewards are huge.

By Detlef.

What would this environment of stones be without the colourful leaf?

What would the leaf be in an environment full of other gaudy leaves?

If It's Due It Should Be Done

I am not the ‘Due-&-Done-Guy’ – unfortunately. I don’t like to do anything just because is due.  In fact, most things that are due I don’t like to do for the exact reason that they are due. I have to do this? Okay: mañana a la mañana. But mañana will have another mañana and so on.

So I am not the man to give any advice – but here it is:
[flash http://licht.detlefcordes.org/flosh/due.swf w=500 h=315]
See this at YouTube

You will have forgotten this as you leave this website.

Sometimes I Don't Have Anything to Say

Today I took my old friend, the bass guitar out of its case for the first time this year. It was a little offended, the air in that case apparently got a little thin. I even found a Christmas candy which it had refused to eat. Couldn’t have had such a hard time then.

Here is my song about babbling on while having nothing to say. That’s when talking is most relaxed – isn’t it? I even sing when I don’t have anything to say!

[flash http://licht.detlefcordes.org/flosh/blabber-on.swf w=500 h=315]
See this at YouTube

Sometimes I don’t have anything to say
but I babble on anyway.

The Song About Caring – I Care

Who cares about what?
In this song I decided to leave a blank here so everybody may put in what she or he cares about.
[flash http://licht.detlefcordes.org/flosh/i-care.swf w=240 h=65]

I care, I care
I hope you care, too

It’s as simple as that – if you leave out the crucial things.

Trying to Embrace Change

[flash http://licht.detlefcordes.org/flosh/change.swf w=240 h=65]Here is my song about change. Most people would like a change in their lives. But when that change actually arrives, it might be not a welcome guest.

I wrote these lyrics after taking part in the discussion at the Catskill Cottage Seed about the recent changes in our economies, the hopes and the fears those changes are triggering.

I found myself thinking:

If only we could go on the way we did before.

That’s a thought I thought I never would be thinking.

Here are the lyrics:

I want things to stay the way they are.
I want things to stay the way they are.
Or for that matter:
They might change for better.
But that change I can’t rehearse:
It might be a change for worse.

Change is always scary.
There is something new I have to trust.
The unfamiliar is hairy,
I don’t like to readjust.

I want things to stay the way they are.
I want things to stay the way they are.
Or for that matter:
They might change for better.
But that change I can’t rehearse:
It might be a change for worse.

Nothing ever stays the same
Under the good old sun.
Live is an ever changing game:
No change – no fun.

I want things to stay the way they are.
I want things to stay the way they are.
Or for that matter:
They might change for better.
Under the good old sun:
No change – no fun.

© Detlef Cordes 2009

Singing And Feeling Lucky

Considering myself lucky. By Detlef.This is tying in with my New Year’s post: “Consider Yourself Lucky“.

Yesterday Richard’s post “Answer me this” made me think about what it is I want most in life, what I want to do in life and what might be currently lacking.

Taking part in the following discussion my thoughts went to my grandparents, how I seem to be better off than they were and in some respects worse. I was inspired by the purposeful attitude the comments displayed. I was thankful to be able to be a part of the discussion. I felt lucky.

I sorted out my feelings, consulted my Rhyming Dictionary a couple of times and came up with this song:

[flash http://licht.detlefcordes.org/flosh/lucky.swf w=240 h=65]

Consider yourself lucky
’cause with the lucky goes the luck.
Consider yourself lucky
move on, don’t get stuck

in a negative perspective
walk on the sunny side – that’s most effective.

Consider yourself lucky
don’t be jealous of the other man.
Consider yourself lucky
because you can

create your heaven or your hell,
depends on you, create it well.

Consider yourself lucky,
don’t focus on what you lack.
Consider yourself lucky,
what you give is coming back.

let the sun shine out of your heart.
It will shine back in right from the start.

© Detlef Cordes 2009

The Cave Man Philosophy Song

Having written the “Cave Man Philosophy” lycrics I wanted to compose, arrange and sing the corresponding song.

Naturally the music would have to adapt to the structure of the lyrics. 3X a 4 line verse and a 2 part chorus.

Here is the outcome:

[flash http://licht.detlefcordes.org/flosh/caveman.swf w=240 h=65]

As it’s a cave man song, I wanted to have some extraordinary ethno-like rhythm, like a 15/8 meter. But that wouldn’t work, as I had already a melody and a rhythm for the first 2 lines of the chorus in my head and could not get away from that – so why not take the idea?

Hunting the saber-toothed tiger. By Detlef.I went to my keyboard, found the matching harmonies and had the first 2 lines of the chorus ready in no time. The rest of the song I had to modulate around this kernel – which turned out not to be so easy, as those first lines were composed on a gut level and the remainder had to be created rather rationally (“Now, what might fit here?”).

After this rational work I wanted to do some fun stuff and developed the percussion part with tins, cans and my goatskin drums (Those goats lived in Morocco. They had a really happy life in the green, green mountains and died of old age).

It’s more than a year that I have sung in English and I felt a little insecure. How do you pronounce “mammoth”? I fear I had to cheat a little.

That’s “The Cave Man Philosophy” song, born out of a comment in Jeb’s blog, developed in a cooperation of gut and reason. It’s a first in many respects:

• 1st song composed and arranged after a long hiatus.
• 1st song developed out of my blogging activities.
• 1st song for grownups after a long time working exclusively for children in German.

To complete this conception I would like to create a video to present via YouTube. I would love to cooperate with somebody who has ideas and the ability to visualize this song. If that’s you I would appreciate if you gave me a shout.

At the End of the Road – Which Way?

Which way do we take at the end of the road? Turn left, turn right, turn back? Or try something completely different? Try to swim, try to fly? Put up a tent and try to settle down?

At the end of the road. By Detlef.
Put up a diner, catering for the people at the end of the road, inviting them to sit down, to share their stories about the road, the way, the sea, the sky and new horizons near the rainbow’s end, prepare their food, wash their dishes, clean up their rooms when they left (where to?) – making ends meet, making a living.

Here is a song from the end of the road. The lyrics are in German by Heinrich Heine, from his “Northern Sea” cycle. Sitting at the fisherman’s house, looking at the sea while the dusk is setting and the fire at the lighthouse is starting.

[flash http://licht.detlefcordes.org/flosh/fischerhaus.swf w=240 h=65]
Full text  of this song in German.

At the end of the road there is the start of something new. Exciting, strange, frightening – unknown.