Journeys and Star Gazing

In the 1980’s, as a hobby, I’d write poems & then transform them into lyrics with music making songs. Most of the music was written by a friend, Henry, and there are some I wrote the music. I wasn’t a great guitarist, just knew a few chords & made do with them for my music to the lyrics. Apart from Henry there was also Dennis who played lead guitar and Willie, my brother, who also played guitar.

I scored a cheap Casio player and there are some jams we recorded with me playing the Casio. It was one of the first players that had programmed polyphonic auto accompaniment. “Playing” implies I knew what I was doing. I didn’t. I just pressed some keys in rhythm hoping it’d make some semblance of a tune. It provided the “metronome” drum beat & the programmed beats/notes. These acted as “guard rails” to the jam.

It was a great way to spend a Friday or Saturday night. We didn’t have any plans to perform, we just liked hanging together making music for ourselves. I’m so glad we took out the microphones to record them on cassette.

It all is SO long ago.

I’m uploading these recordings for posterity sake. No, I’m not putting them up on YouTube or SoundCloud because this blog is good enough for my purpose. My purpose? Why do I bother? Simple – for my kids & grand kids to have easy access to what I was up to, musically. It’s also a part of my Journey in this World Within Worlds.

I have already posted some of the songs’ lyrics so I thought, once I overcame my cringe factor, to complete the outing by posting some of the songs – complete with my singing & mates’ music. Writing a poem is very different to writing a song lyric. Transforming a poem into a song lyric is an interesting exercise, especially if someone else writes the music.

So, step back in time – come into my lounge room & get a taste of some home grown songs from Sydney in 1980’s.

By the way – if there’s anybody interested in updating these songs to 2022 let me know by messaging me at dodona777@yahoo.com.au

I think some of these may work with right mixing even 40 years later.