Would you want to hear your favorite artist update the lyrics of their songs?

[John Watt]

This is an easy question for me because I'm my favorite artist and I'm updating all day.
I'm known for wandering around with an electric guitar and portable amplifier,
both strapped over my shoulder,
singing songs and, as there divided opinions about this,
I'm either just making up my own words because I don't know the real ones,
or I'm updating classic and classical music with words of the new millennium.

Here's the first of two videos I have today that illustrate this new trend.

If there's one thing that stands out for me as a vocal admission,
it's the fact that right from the start there wasn't any irony in this song.

 

[John Watt]

I used "Isn't it Ironic" first because this new millennium sensibility is very ironic,
considering how magical modern high tech is and how down-trodden society has become.
Part of my updating is saying I'm going to write "The Book of John Watt",
so it's a chapter in "The Testament of the New Millennium".
Either that, or I'll write "The Book of Soles", Tales of the Down-Trodden.

Please prepare yourself, one of the biggest folk songs in American history is getting the full treatment.

 

[John Watt]

I really liked the first version that I saw of "All About da Bass",
featuring Meaghan Trainor on ukulele, singing with a guitar player helping her out.
They were sitting in a small room, maybe at a radio station as she promoted her stage act.
You could call it a novelty song, but now it's not just about da bass.

 

[John Watt]

I sent the link of the James Taylor update to an acoustic guitarist-vocalist friend who performs professionally.
He said he had to force himself to sit through it to the end.

 

[John Watt]

Sometimes the timeless beauty of a song makes you want to make it feel real today.
This isn't about the sun and the hole in the ozone, but that could be another verse.

You are my country, my only country, you made me happy, but now you don't,
I saw the great lakes, I saw the great plains, don't pollute that beauty today.

I always voted, my votes were careful, I heard some great men speak to me,
but now we're losing, love and devotion, and it's all about taking my money.

The newest scandals, the older scandals, the media keeps going round and round,
it's like we're watching, but we're not seeing, who is driving this country to the ground.

There is the sunshine, not the screen shine, it's time to go out 'cause we're not dead,
one day we'll rise up, after this falling, as the world sees and shakes its global head.

You are my country, my only country, you'll never know the love I have,
if you don't take me, for what I can be, it's my freedom that I want to save.