Yesterday’s Songs Transformed — It’s Here!


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.

Please spread the word. I’d prefer that you link to this post, but if you’d rather link directly to the Smashwords page, that’s fine too. Reviews are welcome. I like it when they’re favorable, but that’s not a requirement.

I recommend getting the PDF version. The Epub version, generated by Smashwords, double-spaces the lyrics and loses the indents. It’s still readable, just not optimal. If I can figure out how to fix it, I will and you’ll be able to download the revised version at no additional cost. Sorry.

Here’s the table of contents:

  • Living Songs
  • Ancient and Medieval Songs
  • Child and Grandchild Ballads
  • The Rake’s Progress
  • Colonial America
  • The American Civil War
  • Sea Shanties
  • Cowboy Songs
  • Approaching the Modern Age
  • Songs of Protest
  • Everybody and Sullivan
  • Songs of Soldiers
  • School Songs
  • The Junior Division
  • Novelty Songs
  • The Songs They Are A-changin’
  • They’re Mad, I Tell You!
  • Christmas, Rewritten
  • Filk, with an “i”
  • A Song Goes Round the World