And, by the way, golf is a sport.

love what you say, Alessiana! You say what I want to say, only better. And you rip away at the default cynicism.

These '02 songs are gems and some of the best things to come from EV, ever. Rip your heart out, indeed.
Have a particular fondness for 'Longing to Belong' as it takes a big man to put himself in such a vulnerable stance.
and it's really beautiful! the uke and violin together are simply stunning!

Good to hear a discussion about these songs, cause they shouldn't get lost in the shuffle. An official, pristine release would only be a dream come true.

I have no idea what I said but thanks. A lot of what I write seems ... obscure? Hard to understand? I use adjectives as nouns at times and don't give a fuck, then there are the times I post when I leave entire phrases out, or put them at the end when they needed to be in the middle because I am so fucking high, it makes perfect sense to me. So ok.

Longing to Belong is one of the most beautiful things I have heard in my life. This is so fuckingly simple and pure, it tears you to shreds and you do not need its words for this effect.

This song and others like it on various instruments, including those of faster tempo with their multiple lines of rhythm guitar parts and slashing/rising only to cascade chords, and how he constructs these complex pieces, is why I think this man is one of our great geniuses. He is overlooked as a songwriter and over appreciated as a front man. He is overlooked as a pure musician because he is too highly esteemed as a lyricist, and aside from some people here and I'm sure on the other board, no one seems to understand what he does with someone else's musical idea.

I think he's a pure musician. Skills on any particular instrument are completely irrelevant to people like this. His musicality helps his poetry, but because he is one thing more than the other, he may have an off line but he never has an off musical phrase.

In my opinion.

So while this man did not have the benefit of conservatory training like Spencer Krug or classical training like Steve Wilson, this autodidact is the bees-fucking-knees of rock.

.

To me, Longing To Belong is the benchmark for fantastic ukulele songs. The lyrics are felt and touching, and the structure/chord progressions combined with the melody are unbelievable. And it all seems so natural and effortless for Ed. The fucker. I've been trying and failing for a couple of years on my uke to write something half as good as this song.

To me, Longing To Belong is the benchmark for fantastic ukulele songs. The lyrics are felt and touching, and the structure/chord progressions combined with the melody are unbelievable. And it all seems so natural and effortless for Ed. The fucker. I've been trying and failing for a couple of years on my uke to write something half as good as this song.

Keep is a perfect example of me thinking that the uke songs are just sketches rather than finished paintings.

Do you have any idea which tunings he tends to use? The reason I ask is that I kind of, sort of, feel like picking the Uke up on the side and I think that trying out Ed's songs might motivate me the way learning Pearl Jam songs did on guitar.

That aside, I listened to some of the solo tour recordings today and:



...I tend to disagree with that notion because Broken Hearted sounds a ton better when he plays it on the Uke rather than a guitar. I know that really doesn't show that it wouldn't be better in full band glory, but man, I get chills when I hear that song from Baltimore.

here's a rip, mp3 320kb/s stereo 44.1khz sample rate
http://www.sendspace.com/file/eifxxj

I also agree that Broken Hearted sounds better on the ukulele. But I do prefer the full band version of Can't Keep, though I love the song in any form, I think a band carries it better.

Ed uses normal uke tunings for his live performances. That is G-C-E-A. If you want to practice some on your guitar, you can use a capo at the 5th fret, and it's all relative if you play the highest 4 strings. The only slight difference is that the G is an octave higher on a ukulele, but that shouldn't affect the sound of the chords you play, it just might mean that some of the picking patterns sound different if you're using all 4 strings. On studio recordings Ed has been known to tune down a little, sometimes half a step - I know the Goodbye's studio recording is a little lower, and I think Soon Forget may be too. He's also played Soon Forget a tone lower live, and maybe Blue, Red and Grey also.

I got to this thread way too late to point out exactly how much better an instrument I think the banjo is than the ukelele. I play both, by the way.

The question is, would you rather hear EV doing solo songs on the uke, or do you think that it would sound better on the banjo... I think that even if it were true that the banjo is a "better" instrument, an EV solo uke album would be waaaay better than an EV solo banjo album. Although "Soon Forget" might make an interesting play on the banjo.

you don't like the way it sounds? Come on. It's not a banjo. Have some culture. Open your mind up