Sample songs recordings from Bob's books
9 tracks from the book:
Bob's Songs
about music, fun & life
Songs on this playlist
What am I doing up here
Light-hearted song about not being a musician, but being put on stage by mistake and trying to bluff your way through a set
80's drama Queen
I hate bitching & wrote this song in anger about older men on a punk FaceBook page who were slagging off younger punks they didn't know & using the same derogitary comments that their parents would have used to critisise them in the 1980's, but without realising that rebelling against people like them is exactly where punk came from. They believe that THEY were the real punks. They most certainly are not
The bath
Amusing song highlighting that women are much tougher than men and using the observation that women run baths that are way too hot for men to jump into
One more for the road
Song about the alcoholic 'tradition' of just having one more drink before going home after a party, having already made the decision to leave, but that leading to several more, 'just one more drinks' until the morning is upon you, by which time you know you are going to be in trouble when you get home
O Rafferty's curse
Amusing song about an unfortunate Irishman trying to plead his innocence to the girl he loves in a sequence of lude encounters he faced over the previous week.
My Dad farted
Funny and catchy song about having to flee from your fathers farts
Seeing
A sensitive song about seeing through the shields a friend puts up and listening, understanding and being there for them
Of all the things
Sweet love song for older couples, where you look back on your life together and all the promises you made and couldn't deliver on. In contrast you have always struggled and been poor. Indeed the only promise you delivered on was love. But wasn't that the important one?
Sitting with a cuppa
Gentle peaceful song about sitting enjoying a cup of tea
9 tracks from the book:
Bob's Serious Songs
Songs on this playlist
Shock revalations
Shocking song that challenges men not to accept the commonplace sexual abuse and sexual-objectification of women and young girls and asking when they last did it and what they are going to do about it
How can I ever say
Anti-war song. How can you say that wars around the World are not done in your name: when your country's companies took the contracts, your kinsmen made the weapons and your government approved the bid? This is a scream out against the insanity of war and the manufacture of weapons.
Behind closed doors
Angry song about the wrongs of domestic violence and how the perpetrator gets everything and the victim has to flee with nothing and screaming out for a change in the law to reverse those tables
Chains of silver
Song highlighting that you can have all the money and treasures in the World, but it isn't all that - because that's not what makes you happy and it'll do nothing for your love life
Shamima Bagem
A sad ballad about the life of Shamima Begum: She was bullied at school; groomed by overseas paedophiles; she lost 3 children in 3 years in squalid conditions; she lived through hell in a warzone & while pregnant she had to flee bombings alone to a refugee camp. She reached out for help as a British citizen in the hope of saving her third child, but instead the right wing 'British' press used her as a pawn to villify Muslims and stir up racial hatred and the Conservative government used her to score political points by withdrawing her only citizenship & casting her aside. This poor girl was badly wronged at every step of her life and has been denied all access to human rights and justice. The songs 'country and western' feel is used to highlight that Shamima is a Western girl
You don't have to be
Bouncy humanitarian/ political song that encourages you to join in. It highlights things that it is OK to be - and things that are not. Some things really are that black and white
Tory Corruption
Song that highlights the miriad of ways that corruption is at the very heart of everything a Conservative government do. Every shocking example Boris Johnston's conservative party have done openly and in full view.
Clinging to a dingy
Sensitive and sad song about a refugee pleading rationally for your acceptance
Poppies
An anti-war song that calls on us to STOP sending our young people to die and how politicians use Rememberance Day as a symbol of patriotism to divert our attention from the ongoing deaths of our children in their wars. The song also calls on us to do something more real and tangible for our heroes than just a minutes silence and parade once a year and meaningless tokens that no-one recognises or understands
7 tracks from the next
Bob's Songs book
(due out 2023)
Songs on this playlist
Dracula
Atmospheric song about Dracula in Whitby
Rise & fall of Blackbeard
Pirate song about the rise and fall of Blackbeard from his emergence in the pirate World, his achievements and death, to the display of his head on a pike on the riverside as a warning to pirates. The song was properly researched and was supposed to be accurate, but I have since heard other 'truths' from other sources that contradict details of the story. I guess history can be a bit like that? All the same my version of his life would make an impressive film
27 years
Love song to my wife about how I feel 27 years into our marriage
Halloween
Song about a Halloween walk I used to organise in Stockton-on-Tees
I never grew up
I believe that maturity is optional. Life is short and to be lived to the full
Nothing lasts forever
Nothing lasts forever
Amusing song highlighting that nothing lasts forever: not that chair you are sitting on, not your girlfriends patience with you, not the batteries in your vibrator, nothing. Different verses of this song should be directed to different members of the audience depending upon what is happening in the room
Scarecrow
Song about a scarecrow looking up at me from the field beside my house. It doesn't scare the crows but it scares the life out of me as my imagintion gets the better of me. Then on Halloween morning it disappears, making me even more scared.