I was at work when The Everly Brothers' song "Walk Right Back" came on the loudspeakers. I was astonished, as this song is amazing and is sort of a deep cut to play in a grocery store. Then POOF! The roof flew off the building and even though it was the middle of the day, the sky was filled with night time stars. I stood agape, stunned by this obvious miracle. Then one by one, the stars fell from the sky and came directly at me. One by one they landed right in my fucking heart! Every time they hit me, jewels popped out of my mouth. If I could catch these jewels, they turned into poems. Slowly, the roof re-appeared and I looked around. No one seemed to notice. Everyone was just shopping. The Everly Brothers song ended and it was just me. No one saw the stars, no one saw the stars hitting me. The only proof I had was a pocket full of short poems that just flew out of me. Why me? Why am I so lucky?
Every single short poem that is the basis of this song is small portrait of a real actual person. Two are me, two are ex-coworkers, two are family members, one is an old housemate, there's a rando who would not like what I had to say and one was a life defining interaction on the street with a stranger.
The music was recorded on Pam's lil Martin guitar. She has a half sized that she calls "a Martini" and I sadly play it more than her. Unsurprisingly, it has a great sound: not a boomy, large dreadnaught but a wonderful rhythm guitar sound. Strummy strummy strummy not sounding so dummy dummy dummy.
If this sound were not a solo acoustic version, I imagined it being a pre-80's punk song. Something like Patti Smith's "Gloria", Johnny Thunders' "You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory" or "Sonic Reducer" by The Dead Boys. Is it just me or is ALL punk recorded before 1980 fucking perfect. I have yet to hear a recording that could be called "punk" that was recorded before that decade that wasn't exciting, excited, vital and interesting. In a way, it's all just rock n roll. But also something was there. It'd be what I would have wanted to tap into. Maybe I still will, someday.
lyrics
Subtle Joy is screaming at people passing by
"Don't flinch in fear
Come!
Look me in the eye
My frame it is is failing
My condition has no cure
My body may be broken
But I'm still here"
Sad Eye Smile says his dad's his best friend
You gotta look away, afraid how this will end
Admiring abandoning Soft Sand King?
Your future looks bright kid
If you survive the spring
Everybody's doing the best that they can
Quick to Laugh cries "All men are trash!"
And tells her sob stories to Living In The Past
Nana just sighs, "so it goes, so it goes
Don't tell it to me, child
You're telling the one who knows"
Loudest In The Room is trying to make a change
But it never really stuck, just made her feel strange
Some truths you know from childhood
Some lies hold as firm
Quiet she confesses
Which is which she couldn't learn
Everybody's doing the best that they can
Look Em In The Eye is standing very still
Writing everything down he sees from his window sill
But it wasn't stream of consciousness
That was steady glued
The thoughts in his head are the only thing that never moved
Everything that Golden Boy touches turns to shit
But the only thing this niño cares about is getting his jimmy licked
He sobs and he sighs
"It is what it is"
I walk among you
But I will not walk with
Everybody's doing the best that they can
Damaged Goods is singing songs about his first go
About how the dust was settled and the seeds that we sow
But Nobody's listening
No One is there
Nobody paid attention
And No One cared
So And So is so alive
Her thoughts are all on fire
If she ever told the truth
You'd call her a liar
But she put it on a poster
She whispered to the kids
"Teach it to the teachers
Never keep a fire hid"
Jemmy Joe is a twin. An unreliable narrator. An acquired taste. Mixing traditional folk, jazz harmonic taste and a sardonic
optimism, Jemmy Joe has been making music for no one his entire, god damn adult life. Though he has very little to show for it, it is the train he is on and will not be jumping off any time soon....more
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