My writing

Yesterday’s Songs Transformed: Format fixes

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I’ve uploaded an update to Yesterday’s Songs Transformed to fix some formatting issues. If you’ve already bought the book, you can downloaded the new version for free. The Epub version looks much better now, with properly single-spaced verses.

If you haven’t bought it yet, what are you waiting for? Don’t forget the coupon code QV69U, which gets you a 30% discount through August 20.

Yesterday’s Songs Transformed — It’s Here!

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Finally! Yesterday’s Songs Transformed is available on Smashwords!

Cover for "Yesterday's Songs Transformed."Did you know that “Charlie on the M.T.A.” started out as a song about a ship that never returned? That the “Streets of Laredo” follow a path from St. James’ Hospital in London? That “Yankee Doodle” originally was a song mocking the colonists?

This book follows the ways songs have changed and evolved over the years. It starts from the Middle Ages and conducts a tour that leads to Mad magazine, the Smothers Brothers, and Weird Al. It looks at where protest songs came from and how they changed with the times.

YST makes no pretense of being a scholarly book. It’s simply a look, with lots of quotations, at changing song lyrics and what lies behind them. You may learn a few bits of history you hadn’t known, and hopefully you’ll enjoy the ride.

The list price on Smashwords is $4.99, but I’m thanking readers of this blog by offering it at just $3.49 with the coupon code QV69U till August 20.
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Yesterday’s Songs Transformed: Update 1

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Yesterday’s Songs Transformed is getting close to completion. I’m working on the introduction, which traditionally is one of the last things you write. It deals with the relationship of the book to Tomorrow’s Songs Today. TST is about filk music. YST grows out of my interest in filk. It puts the rewriting of song lyrics into a bigger context. I expect a large part of my audience to be people interested in filk, people who love the idea of replacing old lyrics with new ones. I also hope that other music lovers will get enjoyment out of it.
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Yesterday’s Songs Transformed: Progress Report 1 2

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This weekend I made a big step forward on my book, Yesterday’s Songs Transformed. I took some of the accumulated material and started building chapters out of it. Here’s what I have so far:

  • 1: Living Songs
  • 2: Ancient and Medieval Songs
  • 3: The Child and Grandchild Ballads
  • 4: The Unfortunate Rake
  • 5: Colonial America
  • 6: The American Civil War
  • 7: Approaching the Modern Age

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