Archive for the ‘Music’ Category

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The 92nd video.

Thursday, March 11th, 2010

I’m putting my dad’s story on hold for a few posts. I’ll finish it off at some point in the future.

It’s been quite some time since I uploaded my last vid, but the video views are still as strong. I’ve recorded a few songs that were requested, and this is the first of that batch.

It’s one of the many well known songs from The Carpenters. I was watching a documentary about their rise a couple of nights ago. That’s probably the reason why it’s going first.

The song is called “For all we know”, and here is my take on it.

Jeffstunes cover of For all we know by The Carpenters

Here’s the latests on the statistics. They have certainly advanced.

The subs are healthily up at 1,368.

My channel has been seen 31,758 times.

Finally, the overall video views are 648,469.

I’m hoping to upload a Neil Diamond classic relatively soon. Then my second Fray cover. That’s coming up :)

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Making use of Captcha

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

Youtube video 91, and astonishingly one of my choices. I thought I’d give myself a little treat. I’ve been hearing a song for a while, but haven’t really paid that much attention to it until recently. Then when I did get around to having a sing-a-long, I discovered that it was pretty simple to sing, and very enjoyable at the same time. So I had to give it a go. The song is called “Use somebody”, and it’s originally by “Kings of leon”.

Here it is:

Jeffstunes singing use somebody

I thought I’d use the video opportunity to pump a website I made. It all came from answering my comments on Youtube. If you attempt more than 4 comments in 10 minutes, you get challenged by Captcha. You get asked to type in made up words that are sometimes very amusing. You can make it generate loads by continually clicking “Can’t read”. Virtually all the words do not exist in real life, and pretty soon i started dreaming up dictionary definitions for those words. I was thinking of how amusing it would be if someone made a website with the fake Captcha words and fake definitions in a disctionary. It would be so funny. I couldn’t wait for that to happen, so I quickly put together my own site and called it “Captchionary”.

I sat down for a day going through some of the captcha images I’ve collected and added them to the site with definitions. I’ve made it so that anybody can submit their own captcha definitions. The more I get the better. I can’t wait to see what other people come up with.

So keep an eye out for those amusing Captcha words. If you see one that brings an amusing definition to mind then right click on the Captcha image and save it to your computer. Then visit the Captchionary website at:

The Captchionary

Fill out the form at the bottom and upload your image, or just provide another definition for one of the existing words. Then leave up to the vetting process. While you’re on the site. Why not check out some of the existing words and definitions. You can click the “Hit me” link for random words. I have abdominal pains from too much laughter. That’s from writing and reading them.

Now down to the Youtube business. Here’s the state of play with the stats.

Subscribers = 1,208

Channel views = 28,081

Total video views = 537,056

Until my next post…

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You just call out my name

Sunday, March 7th, 2010

My request list is way out of control now. There are more than 300 songs at the latest count. I get many more requests than I can possibly do, so I’ve decided to pick and choose from the list. My first selection is “You’ve got a friend” by “James taylor”. People have compared my voice to many vocalists over time, and James Taylor is one of those comparisons. I don’t believe I sound anything like him but that’s my opinion.

Can you hear any shades of Taylor in this:

You’ve got a friend - A Jeffstunes cover

My Dad part 12

The two other drunks apart from my dad that I’ve told you about, worked for a while with my father at a company called “Taylor woodrow” in Greenford. I got the distinct impression that the company were winding up operations on the site they were working on. I remember once being invited to their annual summer party. It was good fun, but I didn’t really know anybody there. I visited his place of work on a number of occasions. I think he was employed in the capacity of some sort of security guard. The site was very larger, with many many buildings. Office and storage. There seemed to be a lack of staff though. It was a bit like a ghost town. I’d say that was probably the perfect environment for my father to work in. Nobody to see him drinking, and he did at work. There were many objects around his place of work, and if they weren’t nailed down, then he would take them. Actually he probably also took some things that were nailed down. By the time his appointment was over, his house looked like a bit like the offices :)

I’m not sure if he ended up getting fired or made redundant from there, but it doesn’t really matter in the end.

My father used to like to give. His gifts consisted of all sorts including precious and valuable items. The problem was that he didn’t buy any of these items. He took them. Something I found out at a later date. So what was bequeathed to me. Let’s see now. After adding it all up it amounts to nothing. He stole them from me, probably to buy more alcohol. I’m not too bothered about that. I’m not really a wearer of jewellery, and i never considered them mine. The brutal truth is that he didn’t have a right to give them either!

So, what does it feel like to be the son of a common thief and an alcoholic?

I imagine it’s no different from anybody else. Most of us disagree with some of our parents actions, it’s just that those of my father were illegal :)

To be continued…

The Youtube figures have been climbing steadily. My average daily viewing figures are roughly between 1,100 and 1,300. Oddly enough though. Occasionally one of my videos gets a boost in viewing figures for no apparent reason. Like one video getting 4,000 views in 2 days. I’m still scratching my head.

The subs are healthily up to 1,183.

The viewing figures for my channel are 27,367 and finally, the overall video views have stormed past the half a million mark and now stand at 521,210.

The current plan for the next vid is another cover version. I’m in the process of doing another duet so I’m not sure if that’s going to come first.

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Not like the others

Thursday, March 4th, 2010

89 videos and counting.

The title of this one is “Beautiful freak” and it comes off the album of the same name which was put out in 1996 by the band “The Eels”. It’s one of my all time favourite albums. At the time their music was cutting edge and I was a big fan of their lyrics. I do plan to do another one from this album in the future. The music is very much the same except I only used Piano, Bass, Cello and Strings. This is the result of my efforts:

Jeff Edwards singing Beautiful Freak

Now for part ten of my dad’s story.

My dad part 10.

When I finally caught up with my dad, he was involved in a relationship with a lady called Sheila, who was the mother of two children called Sima and Kashif. She originally came from Tiger bay in Wales, although she certainly had asian roots. The two children absolutely adored my father. From my perspective it seemed like a strange relationship, but then maybe it was just me. His side of the family criticised the relationship, but as I saw it, if they were both happy then it must have been ok. I believe that everybody should be allowed to live the life they want, and befriend the people of their choice. Sheila resided in Southall with their dog Ruffles. Southall being west of London. If you didn’t already know, the bulk of people living in Southall are Asian. From being at the house many times, my father appeared a little bigoted, with negative comments about those from an Asian background. Yet he was having a relationship with one. I can only think that the comments were drawn from the people he mixed with in the past, because he obviously wasn’t a racist. He walked proudly with them among the streets of southall, as did I.

It is possible that his comments may have originated from those walks with the family though, because he told me on several occasions about the dirty looks and insults he received from Asians in the street because he was with an Asian woman. That wasn’t exclusive to him. I experienced a bit of that too, because I also walked with them. So if there was any racism, then it was coming from the Asians in the street who in my opinion were narrow minded to even consider such insult. We are all human beings. They just have a better tan than I do :)

To be continued……

I got out the feather duster and started to do something with my Myspace page. Seeing as it’s been sitting there for a few years now. I thought I’d let people know it’s there :) So here it is if you want to add me:

Jeff Edwards Myspace page

Also I’m going to try and do something with my Facebook page. When I first joined up, it was a very quiet place. Not like now :) I’ll broadcast that too. Here it is:

Jeff Edwards Facebook page

Now the lowdown on the current state of play on Youtube.

My Subscribers have raced forward to 1,061.

The channel views are up at 24,867 and the overall viewing figures for all my videos are 442,298.

Coming up next. I’m not really sure. I’ve got that other Eels song in my mind at the moment, but I have a habit of changing my mind :)

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David Van Day and Coldplay.

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

I’ve reached video eighty eight. This is my cover version of a recent Coldplay song called “Lost”. More than 10 subscribers have rquested this song of me so I thought it would be a good time to do it.

Have a listen:

Jeff Edwards singing Lost by Coldplay

My dad’s story will resume in my next post, because there was something I wanted to cover that was quite current. If you are in the UK then you may know about a TV programme called “I’m a celebrity, get me out of here”. One of the celebrities in the show was a man called “David Van Day”. I first noticed he was in it when I was visiting a friend. My friend enquired who he was. I told him that he used to be in a group called Dollar, who had some success in the eighties, and that I didn’t think too highly of him.

I came to that conclusion because of an event when I was younger. When I was about 17 I worked in a shop called CRS (Co-operative Retail Services) in Uxbridge. During my lunch I popped into WH Smith to buy a few records. The title of one of the purchases was “Videotheque” by “Dollar”. Quite by chance, as I was about to pay, who should walk in but David Van Day and Therese Bazaar. Collectively Dollar. They happened to be there to sign copies of their new release, Videotheque. David was vertically challenged, and Therese was even shorter than him. She moved up the counter to me and picked up the records I was buying, complimenting me on my musical taste. Then we had a little chat. David grew more and more impatient, and asked her to get on with the signing. So she asked me for my name and signed it with love, and then shoved the record in front of David, saying “Sign it”.

I paid for my discs, said my goodbye’s and went back to work. Therese smiled and bid me goodbye, and David said nothing. My impression of him was that he was quite selfish.

I’ve seen him on “I’m a celebrity, get me out of here” and it looks like he hasn’t changed much at all. Therese made time for people. I think she enjoyed the conversation, and that made me feel happy.

Back to the Youtube stuff.

At last I’ve passed 1,000 subscribers. The figure now stands at 1020.

There are 24,010 channel views and my total video viewings are 414,193.

I haven’t yet planned my next vid, but it’s probably going to be another cover. There’s also another duet with Kareneng coming up soon :)

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A place where I’ve never been.

Monday, March 1st, 2010

This is another collab with Ulf Pettersson. That wonderful musician from Sweden. It’s entitiled “I wanna see”. I wasn’t being serious when I wrote this song. It was a bit of a subtle parody, but then Ulf heard it and loved it. He asked me if he could do his own arrangement of the music. I accepted of course, and this is what he came up with. I think it sounds better than the original version I recorded.

Once again, this song does not appear on my album “Sight Or Sound”.

I look forward to possibly getting involved in a few more collabs with ulf. He is a musician I have a lot of respect for. Ulf also likes a lot of what i do, but we are both currently bogged down with other things to do. I’m beavering away with my own music, and Ulf is involved in composing for TV and Film. It’s likely that you might have heard something by him without even knowing it :)

This is “I wanna see”:

I wanna see - Jeff Edwards and Ulf Pettersson

Now for the next episode of events from my fathers life.

My Dad. Part 9.

I mentioned before that my father got involved with some unsavoury characters. I had a variety of friends before my father was a part of my world. It transpired that there was a possibility that some of the friends I made might not have been purely by chance. I’m not a judge of people. I base my assumptions on how they treat me. There were a few of my friends that told me that I shouldn’t really mix with some of the people I met, because they were trouble. Though whilst I went around with them, there was never any trouble. Not in my company. I found it amusing how people feared some of the individuals I kept company with. I can honestly say that that is something I never felt. They never gave me any reason to fear, and to be honest with you. I wasn’t afraid of much at all. I was of the mind that if something bad came along, you dealt with it. Why worry about something that hasn’t happened? It turned out that my father knew all of those questionable individuals. Even some of those I’d worked with when I left school.

I’m going to tell you a tale of something that reportedly went on at Cowgate road. To protect me from any recriminations, I’m going to say that this is alleged. It’s something my father told me, and something that was confirmed by a number of other family members. It involves a certain superstar called “Tom Jones”. I’m going to assume you’ve heard of him. The story goes that he took a 14 year old girl into the fields at Cowgate road and had sex with her. Pregnancy followed, but the poor girls life was cut short, because she died from leukemia. It’s likely that she gave consent, but that kind of act was still illegal. I’m not sure if the story ever got out, but it’s quite an astounding story, because he was an adult at the time. I would assume that it was not unusual for something like this to happen in the sixties. It may not come as any surprise that certain members of my family are not very keen on Tom Jones.

To be continued…….

My album release has stirred up a bit of interest. It will be another 2 months before it’s available in all digital outlets. CDBaby, Itunes and Amazon among a few others are already digitally stocking it. There’s more information on my website:

Jeff Edwards official website

You can get to Ulf Pettersson’s site via my links page. There are also a number of free high quality downloads of some of my other songs!!

The youtube statistics section now.

The subs are almost there. Tantalisingly close to the 1k mark at 992.

The channel views have raced forward to 23,296, and the viewing figures for all my videos combined is 397,648. They have seen an increase in their rate in the last several days.

Lastly….

That is the end of the string of five original compositions. The next few are going to be cover versions. Coming up is my rendition of “Lost” by “Coldplay”. I’ve been asked many times to do this one over the last month.

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Hardest decision to make

Monday, March 1st, 2010

This is number four out of five original songs on the bounce. This song started out as an instrumental song written by a wonderful Swedish musician called “Ulf Pettersson”. The first time i heard it, I imagined vocals blending into it. I put this idea to Ulf and he was very positive about me trying to make something out of it. Ulf liked a lot of the stuff I did on my own, and there’s a twist on one of those coming soon. Getting back to the focus of this one though. It’s entitled “Swings and roundabouts”. There are some good points about being involved in a relationship. There are also some good points to being single. Some of those don’t mix, and this is the view of someone facing that dilemma in a relationship.

This is what we came up with.

Jeff Edwards and Ulf Pettersson - Swings and roundabouts

You can find a link to Ulf’s website on my own website at:

Jeff Edwards Official website

Here is the continuation of my father’s story.

My Dad. Part 8.

I didn’t realise when I met my father, that he was so much into alcohol. The clues were already there with his nickname of “Woodsy”. I was never that curious, and at that time I was unaware that he earned the name for his liking for “Woods Navy Rum”. Rum was his favourite tipple, though I think anything with a decent amount of alcohol in it would have done. So that’s how I finally found him. Before the knowledge of his exploits. I’m sure there are a lot of people that might criticise his life. I have done myself on occasion. The fact remains that he was my father. I feel no shame in that. After all, he helped give me life.

In the swinging sixties, drink was celebrated. Drugs were also on many menus. My father wasn’t much of a man for drugs. Drink was his vice. That’s not to say he didn’t take drugs, because he did. Though I think that was more for reasons of popularity. He didn’t go seriously into any types of drug, but he did like a bit of cannabis. I remember watching a film with my dad about the sex pistols, and he chuckled knowingly at the scenes of smoking pot in the living room. He recounted the times when the rolling stones were doing exactly the same thing in his mothers bedroom. Now that, I can believe. Somehow :) Apparently, a member of that band resides within a few miles from me.

I will say that my poor grandmother was blissfully unaware of all these goings on. Remember that she thought her son was a wonderful boy, full of integrity. Although she didn’t know these things. Just about everybody else did.

I’ve saved one more celebrity snippet for the next post. It was a tale that shocked me. Tom Jones fans look away. That’s all I am going to say right now.

To be continued…….

It’s Youtube time again.

I now have a total of 975 subscribers. 25 to go.

My channel has been seen 22,848 times.

The total viewing figures fo all my videos is 387,663.

Here’s another interesting stat. To date there have been 5,952 comments on my videos (not including my replies).

The last of the chain of 5 originals is another collaboration with Ulf Pettersson. I’m also going to tell you a little bit more about Ulf.

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She loves to fight

Monday, March 1st, 2010

This is the third of 5 Original songs, and it goes by the name of “She freaks”. It came out of an afternoon of experimental jamming with my pal “Steve Morgan”. I had the outline for the song beforehand, and by the end of the day we had all the necessary elements. A composition about two partners who were very different. One partner was laid back and relaxed, and the other would go into a rage at the drop of a pin. Some people can identify with this situation, and it can be the other way around to. Take a listen and make your own mind up.

Jeff Edwards and Steve Morgan - She freaks

Another no show on the album, but still a good song in my eyes. Maybe because there was such a large choice, and the production wasn’t really up to scratch. Fifteen songs did make the grade though, and you can check out most of them by visiting my website:

http://www.jeffsmusic.co.uk

My Dad. Part 7.

Nan always adored my father. Regardless of all the things he did. Just about everyone else in the family were angels compared to him. He was a loveable rogue. I was unaware of his existence until I was 18 years old. After I found out, I pondered over it for a little while and then left it until I was 21. I traced him through Lily, my Grandmother. Someone else I hadn’t met. I found out where she lived and just went and knocked on her door. I didn’t really know what to think as I was waiting outside the door. I used to watch families being reunited on TV shows. The tears and everything, but I have to say that I felt very little emotion at all. The only feeling in me was that I was curious. When the door opened I was greeted with a little white haired lady who just said “Hello”. I think I said something like “Hello, are you Lily?”. To which she replied yes. I then said to her “I’m John’s son. Jeffrey”. She just smiled and invited me in. That was surprising. The neighbourhood she lived in wasn’t the most secure I’d seen. I could have been an unsavoury character, but she just invited me inside. Maybe she saw the resemblance. I have been informed on more than one occasion that my father and I look alike. She put the kettle on, and got the biscuits and old photographs out to view. During my visit, she called my father on the telephone to arrange a meeting with me in a local public house. Amazing with hindsight because he avoided other offspring.

The time finally came to meet my father. I made my way to the pub. First entering into the wrong bar. When I finally went into the right bar, there was a crowd of people in the corner, and he was among them. I just walked straight up to him and said “Hello Dad”, and gave him a little hug. For me, there was virtually no emotion in that embrace. After all, this is first time I’d encountered this person. He was a stranger in my eyes. He was quite nervous, but after the introduction the mood changed into a party mood.

There’s more on his life in future posts. Plus some celebrity stuff too.

To be continued…….

It’s Youtube time again. Here’s the latest numbers.

There’s 970 subscribers so far. Ooh it’s getting so close the the ever important 1k barrier.

The channel viewings keep on rising. Now up to 22,617.

The viewing figures for all my videos is currently increasing at well over 1,000 a day and now stands at 382,179.

My next video is another collaboration song with a great Swedish keyborad player going by the name of “Ulf”!

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Video 84.

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

Another original song that didn’t get onto the album “Sight Or Sound”. The title of this song is “Movement”. I was asked to compose something about the state of the world, by a friend. I thought over it for a while, and then came up with the idea of a global situation from the perspective of an animal. We sometimes use the movements of animals to help us to detect things, because they just seem to know.

So this is what I came up with.

Jeff Edwards - Movement (Original)

Again, this one didn’t make the cut for the album. There were other better quality songs that took precedence. I noted before that 10 songs from my album are on Youtube. I got lots of wonderful comments about my original songs that were uploaded to Youtube. Some of those comments now feature on my CDBaby purchase page. The small selection of comments are available to read at:

Jeff Edwards - Sight Or Sound

My Dad. Part 6.

Lulu wasn’t exclusively in my father’s bad books. P.J.Proby also made it into his hall of infamy. I was told that my father decked him for making advances to one of his girlfriends. Shame on him. I’m sure that sort of stuff went on all the time. It could also be that my Dad was opposed to his pretentiousness. He said that P.J used to wear tight trousers on stage, and that he had a bit of hosepipe tucked inside to give the impression that he was well endowed. I would imagine that any of those ladies that considered that sort of thing important, must have been met with disappointment. The truth will out, as they say. Literally.

Dad also used to do DIY for the family. His sister needed a bedroom painted, and Dad suggested that he would of course get his brushes out. For payment of course. It seemed that all went smoothly. He showed her the bedroom afterwards, and she was happy with what he had done. The pleasure was short lived though. A few days had gone by and because the room was freshly painted, she decided to arrange the room differently. That’s when she found out that all my father had done was painted around everything. There were large unpainted areas behind all objects that were against a wall. I have no idea what she said to him about it afterwards. Those comments seemed to have slipped his mind.

To be continued…….

Back to the present and the Youtube progress.

961 subscribers.

There has now been 22,480 Channel views.

378,848 video views.

The next original song features the talent of my good friend and guitarist Steve Morgan. It’s a song that’s been playlisted on a few internet radio stations!

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The non-album tunes

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

Now it’s time for some original material. This one is the 1st out of a number of original compositions that didn’t make the cut for the album for various reasons. You can listen to clips of some of the album tracks for “Sight Or Sound” at:

Sight Or Sound - Jeff Edwards

Amazon and Ruckus also list this album. More to follow. 10 of the songs are in full on my Youtube channel, and the other 5 are not.

This particular song is called “Tell me why”. This is another from a large batch of songs I composed several years ago. It is centred around the demise of a relationship, that ended mysteriously. I’m confident that there will be a few that will recognise this dilemma. I did like this song, but I thought the chorus was a little weak, and there were better songs to choose from for the album.

You can check it out here:

Jeff Edwards - Tell me why (Original)

More Dad stuff now.

My Dad. Part 5.

As I suggested previously, he once lived in a place named “Cowgate road” in Greenford, West London. In his mother’s residence. Music is something he was crazy about. So it was no surprise that he got into the scene. His instruments were Harmonica and Guitar. He was only ever a part of one band in his life. Their name was “The frasier chorus”. It was a 4 piece harmonica band, and my father played the chromatic. They had very little in the way of success. They never secured a record contract, but they did enjoy touring with bigger, well known bands.

As he was a part of the mevement, he spent time with a number of individuals that you may recognise today. He has shared a few of his stories with me, and I found them interesting, and surprising. Even with my tolerance. I suppose it wasn’t so much of an issue in the 60’s. Now I’m not sure if this happened in Cowgate road, but I’ve been told by my father about Lulu and Brian Poole of Tremeloes fame. My father never really liked Lulu. He had a few names for her but none of them are repeatable here. He informed me that Lulu used all the tools at her disposal in order to achieve fame. I don’t find that sort of thing surprising. Many people did that. Don’t quote me on this because it was my father that told me that Lulu and Brian Poole were having sex behind my grandmother’s settee. Floors are cold and hard. Well this one was. Why didn’t they use the couch. It would have been far more comfortable. Unless someone else was sitting there :)

To be continued…….

As always. Here are the Youtube figures to up to the time this was posted.

My subscriptions have increased to 953.

The amount of viewings for my channel are 22,268.

Aggregate video views are now 374,240.

Another original next that was a result of a suggestion.

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