Stephin Merritt – Ukulele Me!
(from Showtunes)
Jens Lekman – Julie (RMX)
(from Oh You’re So Silent Jens)
Beirut – The Bunker
(from Gulag Orkestar)
Jolie Holland – Darlin’ Ukulele
(from Escondida)
“We met and spoke… at the ukulele workshop that summer. … We had quickly discovered our common love of the instrument,” Miles recalled, “and discussed the widespread contempt in which ukulele players are held – traceable, we concluded, to the uke’s all-but-exclusive employment as a producer of chords – single, timeless events apprehended all at once instead of serially. Notes of a linear melody, up and down a staff, being a record of pitch versus time, to play a melody is to introduce the element of time, and hence of mortality. Our perceived reluctance to leave the timelessness of the struck chord has earned ukulele players our reputation as feckless, clownlike children who will not grow up.”
“Never thought of it like that,” said Chick, “all I know is, is it sure sounds better than when we sing a cappella.”
-Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day
“The ukulele is a noble little instrument… anyone serious about music will eventually come to play one.”
-Bob Brozman
“When I hear the sound of that little brown thing humming, I don’t know if I’m coming or going.”
-Stephin Merritt
3 Comments
As a uke player myself, I very think this posting is great.
On a side note, are you actually reading “Against the Day?”
The uke can play anything. Check out Boulder Acoustic Society, Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, Lyle Ritz’s Verve recordings, James Hill – a Canadian who covers Hendrix’s Little Wing and also has a three part Suite for Ukulele that is unreal. I could go on . . .
Good music is good music. Don’t get me started on the accordian!
I’m a uke player and I would have to agree that the uke is, as Bob Brozman put it, “a noble little instrument”. I love it so much that I started a uke club just so I could find other folks with whom to play.
There is an awful lot that these little instruments can do.
I’ve taken my guitar to parties before and it usually goes unnoticed by most but when I take my uke along everybody notices and I always get song requests. Great little instrument.