Friday, May 4, 2012

The Star and Mayor Ford. Forget That, Let's Talk Rolling Stones

It's a mad mad world. Once again Toronto elected a very strange choice as their Mayor, and once again that Mayor is dominating the news for very strange reasons.
BUT, that's not what I want to talk about. I want to talk about Patrick and I, and what we learned while rehearsing for our upcoming yearly vocal performance at the Trapper Piano Recital.
Like all rehearsal sessions, it starts out with us performing the song and Big Mo, our producer, smoothing out the rough spots (primarily the vocals, no sense messing with the choreography, we only have one dance routine in total that we do well(?)). After we're done, Pat and I usually spend the next 2 hours picking impromptu tracks off of Pat's vast karaoke collection, and performing for the crowd (usually less than 3 people once they hear us sing). When we finished singing Gimme Shelter, Pat looked at me and said, "wow, I never knew those were the lyrics". And neither did I. It's an anti-war, anti-violence, general commentary on the state of the world in the late 1960's. Like probably most us, Pat and I thought it was a song about drugs.
 So, for all of you who need to know, here are the lyrics, and The Stones singing it for us




Gimme Shelter  (M. Jagger/K. Richards)
Oh, a storm is threat'ning 
My very life today 
If I don't get some shelter 
Oh yeah, I'm gonna fade away
War, children, it's just a shot away 
It's just a shot away 
War, children, it's just a shot away 
It's just a shot away
Ooh, see the fire is sweepin' our very street today 
Burns like a red coal carpet, mad bull lost its way
War, children, it's just a shot away 
It's just a shot away 
War, children, it's just a shot away 
It's just a shot away
Rape, murder! 
It's just a shot away 
It's just a shot away
Rape, murder! 
It's just a shot away 
It's just a shot away
Rape, murder! 
It's just a shot away 
It's just a shot away
The floods is threat'ning my very life today 
Gimme, gimme shelter, or I'm gonna fade away
War, children, it's just a shot away 
It's just a shot away 
It's just a shot away 
It's just a shot away 
It's just a shot away 
I tell you love, sister, it's just a kiss away 
It's just a kiss away 
It's just a kiss away 
It's just a kiss away 
It's just a kiss away 
Kiss away, kiss away