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The View from Green Island GI Central - my 'net home' for several years, more or less hibernating for the last few years, but like any growly bear apt to wake up hungry and grumpy at any time, ready to engage whatever needs engaging - lots of venting, lots of good writing, lots of 'out-of-the-box' ideas you aren't EVER going to hear on the CBC (not for people who get triggered by intelligent ideas or certain words not allowed on the said CBC...) The Democratic Revolution Handbook by Dave Patterson
And a book for younger readers too, Dave's an eclectic sort of person - Aquila
These and Dave's other books can be found at Dave's Smashwords EPUBS page - and for the curious, if anyone cares, a few words on From Hastings to Green Island - the (very) short form story of Dave's own journey.. Knowledge is like a candle. When you light your candle from mine, my light is not diminished. It is enhanced and a larger room is enlightened as a consequence. - Thomas Jefferson |
So by the end of the 70s it was becoming clear that I wasn't going to be part of the Cdn Beatles with fame and fortune, and the train wreck of my personal life was getting pretty bad, and it was time to move on and see what I could do with my life as a non-rock star - a highly musical non-rock star, as music would always be a very important part of my life, my soul really, but it was becoming clear the universe had got fucked up somehow and I was not going to be part of the Canadian Beatles, that music was going to be a non-paying part of me life and I'd better sort out how I was going to live as a great but non-rich musician. Anyway, I'd always been interested in 'life and nature' etc, and the Sea as mentioned earlier, so decided to go to the famous Marine Biology school at Dalhousie University in Halifax, and headed to Halifax on the east coast with a new girlfriend. Dalhousie declined my application, and we headed over to Prince Edward Island, which university basically said if you have the money you can join us, so that was that. It was a pretty major life change, and I wasn't just messing around as I had a couple of times when I was around 20 and got accepted at Trent University in Peterborough near where I grew up - I was determined to do well at UPEI in my Biology course, and I was also away from the people who knew me mainly through music (and some sort of bad reputation things) back in Hastings - so music became a lesser part of my life - I still played a lot, but not so much writing, at least musically, for various reasons I started to get more outward looking as I went through university and the much larger libraries there and in Charlottetown and the following years in PEI, and more interested in turning my deep-thinking and writing abilities to writing about what was wrong in our society, as letters and essays and eventually books, a lot of which are available on the left side of this webpage, and I'll talk no more of here.
I lived altogether in 3 places over 14 years or so in PEI, and wrote a few songs in each place, not many I remember now - but a few definite 'A-listers' - as here.
One of the first, from Water St in Charlottetown - song for a person always and ever and still very speclal to me
Carmen and Michael:
![]() - and for the last few years in PEI I lived in a little cottage in a place called Harrington (the background pic in the top banner, me sitting on the porch), 4 of the best and happiest years of my life, including a couple of my best songs - Kathy at 39 ![]() - and then one of the 'AA' listers - again, one of those songs I really have no idea where it came from, written at the kitchen table in the Harrington cottage one day - what I'd give to be a fly crawling around the inside of my brain when this was happening - like many other people have said before, when something like this happens, it's often as if I/whoever it's happening to is just a conduit for something in the universe to work through, been like this all my life, I remember thinking something similar way back in my late teens when writing my first songs sitting at my desk in my old bedroom, just letting things happen through me - Can't Escape ![]() - and then I moved to Thailand, planned to be gone for a couple years, and here I still am 27 years later, as I put this little history of my music together in 2021 - didn't do much music for quite a few years as I adapted to a new home and culture, but eventually I got a guitar and then even a piano and started playing and singing again, and eventually even writing - honestly, I haven't done anything 'new new' yet, although there's lot of musical ideas running around my head, but finished some started-not-finished things from the past - such as Girl Over There - Frances was the love of my life, at least that's what I thought at the time - looking back, it may have been just great sex - actually I shouldn't say 'just', there was a special bond between us in that regard for the first several months, when we'd just look at each other and want to get at it wherever we were, I'll never forget Beaver Mountain - never experienced anything like that before or since - she eventually decided I didn't love her, which I was very broken up about at the time, but she may have been right, looking back on it, it may have been just the sex, we didn't have a lot of other things in common, she had no interest in my work or music, she was pretty happy with the sex for awhile too - so my small musical tribute to Frances - it was great while it lasted, and then the heartbreak of her leaving, with a couple other things, drove me away from PEI and I wound up here in Thailand, which has turned out pretty good - Girl Over There - the vid!! - ![]() 3 O'clock in the Mornin - again, as with the other couple above, just finishing old fragments from before I came to Thailand - I have a vague recollection of getting the basic idea in the middle of the night at one of the places I lived temporarily during the turbulent late teens and early 20s in my life when I did a lot of late night playing and writing - nice bluesy sort of thing, - ![]() - and then to finish off, another thing I started long ago and didn't finish until a year or two ago here - kind of my 20s anthem - Ya Gotta Boogie Woogie When Ya Gotta S0 - the end of this short journey through my music, at least for now - seems a fitting enough song, ya gotta boogie when ya gotta - I might be 71 at this writing, but I still do a lot of dancing in my head, my mind, my spirit, my soul - life is a joyful thing overall, so much beauty and wonderful amazing things - a lot of shit out there to work around, but like one of my favorite singers from my younger days said, in the end you wake up with yourself. And I'd rather boogie than cry or be sad. Cheers my friends -
![]() - and so that's about the end of the story, at least for now, there's the same 20 or 30 other songs I mentioned earlier that I might get around to doing a few of later, but that's really all I have to offer at this time. Hope you've enjoyed some of it - and if you think it may have been worth the cost of a CD, I've set up a Patreon page at Dave's Songs where you can show your appreciation, and where you can check back if you'd like to be notified of future additions to the site - no promises, I'm a lifelong procrastinator, but I have at least a few other songs I'd like to add, and a few vids I'd like to do which I hope to do in the near future, other parts of my life being sufficiently cooperative. Patreon only allows regular donations rather than one-time things, but they also tell us that if you just want to show your appreciation once, maybe what you'd pay for a 'hard copy' CD or something, which of course is fine and much appreciated, then you just sign up for whatever donation you want, and as soon as the bank account clears the money, unsign from the donations. But more importantly, really - if you like the music, and think you might know any musicians who might be interested in recording some of the songs, please forward Dave's Songs to them, or tell them - I am sure that even though this music is very different from most of what is getting played on 'social media' these days, at least some (if not many or most!) of these songs could be very popular given the right artist and promotion - i.e. Fisherman Blues for the Maritime market, or My Friend Jesus for the country/gospel market. I have been using the internet for a couple of decades now, and I see in this new era of 'social media' the people who 'make' it big on the internet are people who are very familiar with all types of social media, and very clever about social media promotion - and also probably most importantly put a lot of time and effort it seems like daily into promoting and maintaining and upgrading their sites - and as your basic 'kitchen table entertainer'I have neither the knowhow nor time to do any of that stuff, but I would be happy to get into some kind of partnership with someone who has great marketing skills on the modern social media, but is looking for a quality 'product' to work with (I really don't think of my music or other writings as 'product', I'll never have a good capitalist 'money is all!!!' mind, but that's what they do now) - which I think this site, and the songs on it, are. So - that's about it for now, and I'm happy if the music and/or website brought a bit of happiness into your life - bye for now. I don't have enough internet smarts to set up any kind of 'in page' comment stuff, but if you want you can of course contact me directly at the address above, or maybe leave a message on Patreon.
And back if you want to - Dave's Songs part I - The Beginning Dave's Songs part II - The Carpenter and Cottage Years Dave's Songs part III - The 70s
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