These Songs of 2022 are not songs that I wrote this past year.
They are the songs that came back to haunt me; songs that I finally finished; songs that got into my head and fingers for many days at a time and songs that I will always connect to some of the events and moments of the year about to go by.
“Go!” first came to life in May, 2018.
I wanted to see if I could again write a song where every line started with the same word. I’d originally given myself this challenge back in 1989. The resulting song was called “What” and it has been a staple of my repertoire ever since.
In August of this year, I finally fixed the rather pesky third verse and recorded “Go!” with the addition of a harmonica solo as the finishing touch.
On your mark…
* * *
The beginnings of “Candles” – my personal “Happy Birthday” song – is a bit of a mystery.
None of the pages in my songwriting book containing the initial drafts of its lyrics are dated. I have a tape of a concert from 1992 where I performed it in a medley with an instrumental version of “Old Folks At Home,” so I guess “early 1990’s” is going to be as close of a date as I can get.
Most years I give it a whirl on or around my birthday, but this summer I also gave the second verse a serious rewrite and recorded the upgraded version around the time I recorded “Go!”
I guess I’ll call this: “Candles (2022).” The chorus still applies.
* * *
“Love Like Gold” is the song I wrote for my son’s wedding.
I started writing it in August 2021, not long after he got engaged. I sang it to him and his bride in October of this year as part of the wedding ceremony during their wedding celebration in Tamchen, Mexico.
I hope you enjoy it as much as they did.
* * *
There were other songs in 2022, but these three are the ones that first came to mind when I had the idea for this post. I tend to trust first impressions.
Happy New Year!
sixstr stories 
I’ve tried to listen but nothing plays. I switched browsers but still nothing.
Hey, Max. Sorry about that! Don’t what’s wrong. Did you try the links on my website or just through the initial email? I’d say, try the website.
I did the website and reader…I just tried again. Is it just me?
Hey, Max. Did you ever get the songs to play on my recent post? I know of a couple of other followers who were able to play the recordings. So, I don’t know if it was just you, but obviously something was not working like it should have.
It shows off the bat… 0:00/0:00 on all of them. I’ve changed to 3 different browsers. I’m going to work tomorrow so I’ll try there. I don’t get it. I don’t know why this is just happening to me.
Hey, Max. I just changed all three recordings on my last post to mp3 files from the original m4a files. Just an idea I had. If you want to try again, let me know if these new ones work… or not! Thanks for your persistence!
I will give it a shot!
They aren’t working, either in the Reader (phone app or reader in a browser) or on the actual site. Max asked me to test.
Dear The Hinoeuma, I just changed all three song recordings on my last post to mp3 files from the original m4a files. Just an idea I had. If you want to try again, let me know if these new ones work… or not! Thanks for your help!
Good job! WP can be picky with certain files. I have struggled, before, with posting things and it not working.
Call me Vic, Eric. Max is a buddy of mine.
Hi Eric,
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div>I love your beautiful songs with their backstories! Thank you for sharing th
You’re most welcome, Kathe. Glad you enjoyed the songs and the stories. Thanks for commenting!
I tried again but nothing…I also had another blogger try and they wouldn’t play for her either on her phone or computer.
Dear Anonymous (I’m guessing this is Max, but if not…)
I just changed all three recordings on my last post to mp3 files from the original m4a files. Just an idea I had. If you want to try again, let me know if these new ones work… or not! Thanks for your persistence!
Dear Anonymous, (I’m guessing this is Max, but if not…) I just converted all three recordings on my last post to mp3 files instead of the m4a files. Just an idea I had. If you want to try again, let me know if these new ones work… or not!
Dear Someone, (I’m guessing this is Max, but if not…) I just converted all three recordings on my last post to mp3 files instead of the m4a files. Just an idea I had. If you want to try again, let me know if these new ones work… or not!
I’m not sure why it counted me as anonymous….it’s working! Now I’m about to listen!
Another WP burp. WP is so jacked up. SMDH. They still can’t get removed posts out of the cache of my browser Reader. Other videos in my browser Reader have turned into pictures that link back to my main site. These were uploaded videos of my own that third party cookies turned into a picture. That mess with Pro Plan screwed up a lot of videos when they went from “wpvideo” to “videopress”, then did a server migration. Links broke all over WP.
Yea I’ve never been anonymous before….that caught me by surprise.
Nothing about WP surprises me, anymore. It is just Gen Z “happiness engineers”, flopping around in PHP & Javascript. They are all high or drunk…or both. Mullenweg needs to come back and jerk some knots in some asses.
I like all of them but I really like Love Like Gold…the melody and words are wonderful and certainly fit the bill.
I never share mine much but if you get a chance…here are two I had. I use Soundcloud to store mine. I overdubbed everything and the only thing that is not real are the drums…I used…for the life of me I cannot remember the name of the sampler I used. I mixed them with headphones…a bonehead thing to do so use headphones if possible.
https://soundcloud.com/badfinger20/she-says-its-me/s-OU7c8
Dude! Nice! If I’ve heard this, before, it’s been years. LOVE the bass work. You SO ROCK.
Also, too…read below…comment you may have missed.
Hey, Max. Thank you so much for your persistence in getting to hear my Songs of 2022. I’m so glad you liked them, especially “Love Like Gold.” I must say I’m pretty pleased with how that one turned out. Thank you as well for sharing “She Says Its Me” and “Rain Must Fall.” I enjoyed them both, very much – listening with headphones, of course! The words, melody, structure and arrangement of each song flowed perfectly from beginning to end. I especially enjoyed your guitar solos on each track! Very nice picking! There were a couple of spots in each song where the vocals could have been a bit clearer and the lyrics more discernible, but overall, I think that you are definitely a “real singer.” Thanks again for your interest in my blog and your continued support.
Thank you for that. I didn’t see this comment because I’ve been under the weather recently and missed work much of the week. I really appreciate you saying that. I wish I had your voice…you can sing with just acoustic…my voice was left there for a singer to take over.
I really enjoyed listening to your songs…you are the real deal. I’m sorry for all the trouble I caused…I don’t know what was wrong…and like Victoria said…we didn’t mean to take your blog over.
Apologies, Eric, for commenting all over the place. Max & I can do that, sometimes.
No problem, Vic. Welcome to sixstrstories! Please feel free to comment all over whenever you wish. Eric
Thanks, sweetie