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Hero Swan & Doll...

It sounds like the name of a puzzle: A ferryman has to take the three of

them to the other side of the river, but the boat isn’t large enough to

contain them in one fare, so he has to find a combination where they

won’t harm another...

That’s not what it is and neither it is the first line of a Japanese haiku.

It is my way of paying my respects to the people who wrote the words and

music for the soundtrack of my life.

Heroes, tutors and friends, this one is for you.

01 Scintilla One

From the album “Tangents in Jazz” by the Jimmy Giuffre Quartet released in1951

I picked this song, but the whole album is a work of timeless beauty.

The lyrics I added are valid for almost all the songs on this album.

Train of time is always chug-a-chuggin’ down the trac

Salmons when they hatch don’t you know they always go upstream

The down-trodden path is safe...

Well the scene of crime will always call, it calls the villain back

Most musicians safely play the scheme

In a way to redem?

But there’s some free and eager souls

who create a private timeline of their own

Regardless of what’s in or out

They’re the ones that music really is about

Well they don’t get a grammy, they don’t get the big bucks,

They don’t get the number one

Yet they pave the way for lesser gods

Let us cheer the courage of the few

That do what they must do

In spite of the bruises

They follow the Muses

The straight and the narrow

Their eyes on the marrow

Heroes one and all

02 Oh Mein Papa

An often mistreated song, originally written for the operette “Der schwarze Hecht “ in

Swiss-German dialect in 1939. The author/composer Paul Burkhard reworked the

song in 1951 for a highly successful piece called “Feuerwerk” , this time in High German.

I’ve tried to restore the original exotic circus atmosphere, lacking in most versions.

03 Interlude For String Quintet

Wim Oudijk 2005

05 I’ll Follow The Sun

One of the few lesser known (?) Beatles songs and almost the only one I dared to touch.

From the album “Beatles For Sale” released in 1964 and written by Lennon/McCartney.

06 Pittsburg, Pensylvania

A hit-record for Guy Mitchell written in 1951 by Bob Merrill and the first prize in the

category: What is a sad lyric like you doing in a circus-like arrangement like this?

It’s hard to believe the author meant the song to sound this way, so I‘ve tried to

create a better environment for the lyrics.

07 Seven - Eighted

I wouldn’t be much of a songwriter if I didn’t smuggle in some of my own ditties

and this is one of them. I borrowed “Columnated ruins domino” from you know who,

because I couldn’t say it better...

Every once in a while

I’ve got this irrepressible urge to disrupt

This carefully woven tapestry

of elegance and self-restraint

when, faintly, in my mind’s ear

I can hear

The one-two of the tribal drum

that is the source, but has become

synonymous with lack of brains

with proles in chains who stupidly

enjoy their own stupidity

and bang their heads, a last attempt

to get their encephalic rest

in peace and let the belly think instead

By now the distant drum has faded

Old Pappy’d call me sissypated

My music will stay seven-eighted

“Columnated ruins domino”

08 Interlude For Woodwind Quintet

Wim Oudijk 2005

09 Can’t Get Used To Losing You

A hit record for Andy Williams in 1963 written by Doc Pomus & Mort Shuman

Strange bed-fellows: I saw him on stage that year as opening act for the Everly Brothers!

10 Everybody’s Crazy (about the doggone blues)

To my knowledge there’s only one version of this delightful song, sung by Mark Murphy

in 1962 but the song was written in 1917 by Creamer & Layton for that year’s

Ziegfeld Follies.

11 Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams

A song written by Barris, Koehler & Moll in 1931 and covered by almost everyone in the

pop and jazz field. I still cherish a version by Jonah Jones.

12 Tickle Me

And then there’s Randy Newman. A great hero of mine, altough when I first heard

this song it was the flipside of Simon Smith etc. by Alan Price wich made me curious

to know who was writing this great stuff.

13 Turn Around

Writing these notes I’m getting smaller and more humble with every entry.

This is a wonderful song written by Ron Elliott of the Beau Brummels for

Bradley’s Barn, a classic album.

14 Winterwind

Winterwind is tearing at the wall, at the wall, at the wall

On the roof the snowflakes start to fall, start to fall, start to fall

Will she come back, I am wondering

Can she find her way back home?

‘t was in summer when she left me here all alone

All alone

Ooh Mrs Brown, you know

When I get down, you know

I’ll come to you for some love

Ooh Mr Walker

You ain’t no big talker

but talking to you makes me tough

or tough enough to buy me love

Spring is bursting out of every tree, every tree, every tree

Spring is bursting out inside me, inside me, inside me

Should I wait for her I‘m wondering

Or can I go to Mrs Brown

With the help of Johnny Walker I’ll go to town

Downtown

Ooh Mrs Brown, you know

When I get down, you know

I’ll come to you for some love

Ooh Mr Walker

You ain’t no big talker

but talking to you makes me tough

or tough enough to buy me love

15 Lines

Brian Wilson wrote this one, and the only recording I know is an unfinished sounding one

I’ve got no idea why it never made the grade, but I think it’s a very nice song and it took

a lot of courage to dare doing a Brian Wilson song.

16 Da Doo Ron Ron

One of the most famous Phil Spector productions, written by Spector, Greenwich & Barry.

I just couldn’t resist adding a few lines to make the pink dream a little more realistic:

Picked her up at seven and she looked so fine.

Da doo ron ron ron, da doo ron ron ron.

Someday soon I’m gonna make her my door-mat

She'll cook and clean, she'll bear my kids,

she'll be keeping my bed warm

and he says:

Ooh, she looks a natural mother

Ooh, I'll go from one mum to the other

Ooh, and her daddy is loaded

Da doo ron ron ron, da doo ron ron ron.

and she says:

Ooh, he looks the perfect provider

Ooh, he's the stud, I'm the rider

Ooh, I'll make the other girls so jealous

Da doo ron ron ron, da doo ron ron ron.

17 Interlude For Brass Band

Wim Oudijk 2005

18 Im Tiefen Keller

My mother used to sing the first two lines when I was a kid, and she told me

in her childhood the men would be singing this song when they were getting “wild”

(she meant drunk).But two lines don’t make a song, so I made up the rest of the words

and the music. In the end of the song there’s a few lines in Dutch, stolen from author

Godfried Bomans, who stole it from German poet Friedrich Torbert...

Im tiefen Keller Sitze ich

bei einem fass voll Reben

dass heisst im Keller steht ein Fass

und ich sitze daneben

aus Reben macht man später Wein

dass wird ‘ne späte Leese sein

d’rum sitz’ ich bei dem Rebenfass

mein Glas bereits daneben

Ich sitze hier im Erdgeschoss

und warte biss aus Reben Wein wird

Ich sehne nach dem schönen Tag

Wie wundervoll mein Leben sein wird

Dass wird ein rosaroter Traum

Ein besseres Dasein gibt es kaum

Im tiefen Keller sitze ich

und warte auf “Das Leben”

Ik zit me hier in het souterrain met een droge strot te vervelen

O, kon ik maar twee duitse herders zijn, dan kon ik samen spelen

19 Good Old Desk

Harry Nilsson , brother and friend forever.

A Nilsson lovesong, cute and bittersweet from the album Aerial ballet, 1968

20 Davey’s On The Road Again

Ever since his production work for The Band I’ve been a great admirer

of John Simon and especially his first solo album is still in my personal top list.

This song, written by John Simon & Robbie Robertson

has been a hit for Manfred Mann.

21 Come To The Sunshine

Written by Van Dyke Parks, the greatest hero of them all!

I ‘ve tried to restore the original lyrics, but I couldn’t decipher the last vers

from the original VDP recording so I had to leave that out...

If anyone knows what’s going on there, please let me know.

This album is dedicated to all my heroes: people and music

without whom my musical landscape would be non-existent

or at least completely different.

Special thanks to Yvonne Commandeur who helped me

finding back a voice when mine was lost

Produced by Wim Oudijk

Mixed & Mastered by Guus van Leeuwen & Wim Oudijk

Painting by Paolo Ucello (National Gallery, London)

Play: “Heroes one all”

Play: “I’ll follow the sun”