• From: The Land Of Song
  • Registered: 2007-12-10
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Topic: anyone but me

Anyone But Me.                      Phill Williams.

I was a cowboy. When I was a kid.
I rode a stallion. With a stetson on my head.
I drank rough whiskey. Six gun slung down low.
Sometimes I was a red skin. Shooting arrows from my bow.
I'm Robin Hood. I'm Jesse James.
I'm William Tell. What's in a name?

I was a soldier. In the first world war.
I shot down Red Barron. Saw him hit the floor.
Sword fight with Lancelot. Pushed the Vikings back to the sea.
I was Mark Anthony. Anyone but me.
I'm Robin Hood. I'm Jesse James.
I'm William Tell. What's in a name?
I'm Gunga Din. I'm Gengis Khan.
I'm Sherlock Holmes. I'm just a boy on a farm.

I'm tired of being someone else.
I want to be just me.
I'm growing older by the day.
Let those daydreams be.

I was John Lennon. I played with the best.
I won the F.A. Cup. Flew passed the rest.
The girls were all over me. I could do no wrong.
Truth is... I couldn't score a goal. And I couldn't write a song.
I was never, Romeo. I was never, Peter Pan.
I was never, Jack the Ripper. Or that.... Adolf Hitler man.
I was never, Joseph Stalin. Or Vlad the Impaler.
Sadam Husain. Or, Mao Zedong.

I'm tired of being someone else.
I want to be just me.
I'm growing older by the day.
Let those daydreams be. 

Ask not what Chordie can do for you, but what you can do for Chordie.

Phill Williams's Website

  • From: Nova Scotia, Canada
  • Registered: 2013-01-20
  • Posts: 4,083

Re: anyone but me

Hahaha ... I love this, Phill. It has some echoes of my own personal aspirations, some syrupy satire, and a wonderful resolution at the end. What a great picture this paints of how we can become captive to our own daydreams ... excellent work!     

  • Registered: 2015-07-31
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Re: anyone but me

Phill your excellent poem  captures some of my day dreams as a kid. It was amazing the number of times my push bike turned into a horse when I became a cowboy for the day. When I did ride friends  horses, I was never me, always someone out of  cowboy movie. The number of times the hair brush turned into a microphone and I became Elvis or another pop singer wasn’t funny. The small rock  bank about 12 foot high at my Grandparents house turned into Mount Everest on many occasions . The tree’s we climbed sometimes  became sailing ship masts. Ahoy me hearties we sailed the world in those trees.
Oscar Wilde once said with his usual wit: Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.     

  • From: Perth
  • Registered: 2017-09-27
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Re: anyone but me

Heh - great poem!!     

-[ Musician, writer, guitarist, singer ]-
Bandcamp     https://richardmortimer.bandcamp.com/follow_me
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  • TIGLJK
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Re: anyone but me

Nice one Phill

Lots of childhood memories come to mind

Imagination - the key to creativity - begins in a child - often gets stymied by the adult world

glad to see you've still got that spark !

Jim     

Your vision is not limited by what your eye can see, but what your mind can imagine.
Make your life count, and the world will be a better place because you tried.

"Use the talents you possess, for the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except only the the best." - Henry Van Dyke
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  • From: WASHINGTON ST
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Re: anyone but me

I like it also. My bike was always a chips  police bike! and darn if I didnt buy a police bike 16 yrs ago!  its gone now, but it was really fun!     

“Find your own sound.  Dont be a second rateYngwie Malmsteen be a first rate you”

– George Lynch 2013 (Dokken, Lynchmob, KXM, Tooth & Nail etc....)
  • From: The Land Of Song
  • Registered: 2007-12-10
  • Posts: 5,704

Re: anyone but me

TF, it's funny how things come back, cowboys and indians, robin hood, knights of the round table etc. the things you cant be seen doing as you get older? glad you saw the funny side.     

Ask not what Chordie can do for you, but what you can do for Chordie.

Phill Williams's Website

  • From: The Land Of Song
  • Registered: 2007-12-10
  • Posts: 5,704

Re: anyone but me

Peatle. for me the hearth brush was a guitar!!! i saw tommy steel on 6.5.special..."singing the blues", me in the doorway singing out on top of my lungs for the family.
spent many a happy summers day on top of a tree...just sitting there was great, i'd still like to do it now.
we used to play helicopters in privet hedges....anyone remember "whirley birds?     

Ask not what Chordie can do for you, but what you can do for Chordie.

Phill Williams's Website

  • From: The Land Of Song
  • Registered: 2007-12-10
  • Posts: 5,704

Re: anyone but me

thanks Neo. i wrote it as a song, it took 3 sittings on different days which is why it gets a bit acerbic towards the end     

Ask not what Chordie can do for you, but what you can do for Chordie.

Phill Williams's Website

  • From: The Land Of Song
  • Registered: 2007-12-10
  • Posts: 5,704

Re: anyone but me

TIGLJK wrote:

Nice one Phill

Lots of childhood memories come to mind

Imagination - the key to creativity - begins in a child - often gets stymied by the adult world

glad to see you've still got that spark !

Jim

thanks Jim, one tries ones best you know? yes it's all innocence at 8 years old, it's all football, rugby and pop stars in teenage years. then fretting about the warmongers and mass murderers later     

Ask not what Chordie can do for you, but what you can do for Chordie.

Phill Williams's Website

  • From: The Land Of Song
  • Registered: 2007-12-10
  • Posts: 5,704

Re: anyone but me

beamer wrote:

I like it also. My bike was always a chips  police bike! and darn if I didnt buy a police bike 16 yrs ago!  its gone now, but it was really fun!

my parents steered me away from motor bikes, i was crazy enough on my pushbike! my first go on a Lambretta 150 saw me smash it up, and it would only do 40 down hill with a trailing wind! i kid you not. back in the 50's our police vehicles had bells rather than sirens, so my pushbike bell was as close as i ever got to being a cop!

thanks all for your great comments     

Ask not what Chordie can do for you, but what you can do for Chordie.

Phill Williams's Website

  • From: Perth
  • Registered: 2017-09-27
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Re: anyone but me

Phill Williams wrote:

thanks Neo. i wrote it as a song, it took 3 sittings on different days which is why it gets a bit acerbic towards the end

Ha! That's funny, because as I read it - I was singing it in my head smile     

-[ Musician, writer, guitarist, singer ]-
Bandcamp     https://richardmortimer.bandcamp.com/follow_me
Discogs          https://www.discogs.com/release/29065579
YouTube         https://www.youtube.com/@RichardMortimerMusic
  • From: The Land Of Song
  • Registered: 2007-12-10
  • Posts: 5,704

Re: anyone but me

neophytte wrote:
Phill Williams wrote:

thanks Neo. i wrote it as a song, it took 3 sittings on different days which is why it gets a bit acerbic towards the end

Ha! That's funny, because as I read it - I was singing it in my head smile

that's good, i'd love to hear what you made of it?     

Ask not what Chordie can do for you, but what you can do for Chordie.

Phill Williams's Website

14 Reply by Classical Guitar (edited by Classical Guitar 2018-10-24 17:26:18)

  • From: Virginia, USA
  • Registered: 2016-02-07
  • Posts: 923

Re: anyone but me

Phill I like your poem and how hard you worked on it shows in how good it is. It also brings back being small when each day you were someone else. It was fun  then not so much today.

Music is what feelings sound like.
Music is life, that why our hearts have beats.
  • Registered: 2015-07-31
  • Posts: 2,792

Re: anyone but me

Phill are whirley birds  those tree seeds attached to the end of a wing shaped extension which  has a slight pitch, causing it to spin like a propeller when caught by the wind when dropping .from tree branches,?????     

  • From: The Land Of Song
  • Registered: 2007-12-10
  • Posts: 5,704

Re: anyone but me

Classical Guitar wrote:

Phill I like your poem and how hard you worked on it shows in how good it is. It also brings back being small when each day you were someone else. It was fun  then not so much today.

Hi C.G. yes it's such a shame we have to grow up. Now games and dreams are called fantasy's and so frowned upon by other "adults" wouldn't it be great to run around on an imaginary horse?     

Ask not what Chordie can do for you, but what you can do for Chordie.

Phill Williams's Website

  • From: The Land Of Song
  • Registered: 2007-12-10
  • Posts: 5,704

Re: anyone but me

Peatle Jville wrote:

Phill are whirley birds  those tree seeds attached to the end of a wing shaped extension which  has a slight pitch, causing it to spin like a propeller when caught by the wind when dropping .from tree branches,?????

Hi Pete. I think those are the seeds of the willow tree? Which was one of my favourite trees to climb up and sit on a branch.
No the whirley birds I refer to was an American TV series in the 50s. Can't anyone remember it? I must be old!

Ask not what Chordie can do for you, but what you can do for Chordie.

Phill Williams's Website

  • Jandle
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Re: anyone but me

Phill, great piece of writing, thoroughly enjoyed reading it smile     

Laugh Lots ... Forgive Much ...  Love one another     smile
Covers and some Originals found over there    ------- >    https://soundcloud.com/ukulelejan
  • From: The Land Of Song
  • Registered: 2007-12-10
  • Posts: 5,704

Re: anyone but me

Thanks Jandle. It was a trip down memory lane for me.     

Ask not what Chordie can do for you, but what you can do for Chordie.

Phill Williams's Website

  • From: Perth
  • Registered: 2017-09-27
  • Posts: 1,453

Re: anyone but me

Phill Williams wrote:
neophytte wrote:
Phill Williams wrote:

thanks Neo. i wrote it as a song, it took 3 sittings on different days which is why it gets a bit acerbic towards the end

Ha! That's funny, because as I read it - I was singing it in my head smile

that's good, i'd love to hear what you made of it?

Here you go Phill, this is kinda how it went in my head (sorry for the stuff ups, I didn't practice it a lot ... )

https://www.chordie.com/forum/viewtopic … 70#p196370

Cheers

Richard     

-[ Musician, writer, guitarist, singer ]-
Bandcamp     https://richardmortimer.bandcamp.com/follow_me
Discogs          https://www.discogs.com/release/29065579
YouTube         https://www.youtube.com/@RichardMortimerMusic
  • From: The Land Of Song
  • Registered: 2007-12-10
  • Posts: 5,704

Re: anyone but me

Hi Richard, I was looking forward to hearing your version but your link just brought me back here. If it's on SoundCloud or YouTube you'll need to copy and paste the link there.

Phill     

Please disregard the above post.... I'm just not with it at the moment.

Ask not what Chordie can do for you, but what you can do for Chordie.

Phill Williams's Website