How important are you?

One of the patterns we can see from years of educational brainwash is that we are one in billions, maybe trillions of planets.  Meaningless.

They speak of UFO’s, but honestly, it’s a bit like bending a spoon with your mind.  They show these things in movies, but no one’s actually ever seen a UFO or been known to mentally bend a spoon.  Now with holograms, I wouldn’t trust a UFO if it landed in my own backyard.  They’d have to take me up into space and show me something unearthly to make me believe.

Has anyone noticed that Netflix movies almost always have someone vomiting now?  I think in the last 20 shows i’ve watched on that channel, 100% of them have someone visibly throwing up.  Not to mention the word ‘fuck’ is written into scripts on an habitual and obsessive level.  Like, someone had to read it and ‘ok’ it.  Who?  I’d like to interview this genius.

What would be the benefit for those who control money and governments to make us feel sick, dirty and insignificant?  Of course the answer is simple.  They become our Gods.

So when I see a field of grass, I’m reminded of how important we all are.  Is one blade so?  Yes.

It may be disposable, but how many can be removed before you have a cancerous patch of dry earth?  And how fast can that dead patch spread?

When one blade of grass needs to grow larger than the collective, it causes the neighboring blades to die from lack of sun.  Also, it tends to die young itself from too much exposure.  In a sense, it’s no longer a healthy piece of grass.  It’s a weed.

I wish to be a blade of healthy grass.  Don’t need to stand taller.  Enjoy just being.  Don’t gossip or ridicule.  Don’t hate… but learn to fight with conscious awareness of your lethal foe.  Life is a precious, rare, beautiful wonderful gift.  People are magic, but have learned to be otherwise.  Our collective consciousness has to change now.

I admire musicians on YouTube who can do nothing but talk about music, but honestly, it’s just not at the forefront of my mind.  I don’t think music is that important anymore.  I know… it can put you in a good mood, make you feel angry, powerful etc.  But it’s temporary like a new car.  The feeling fades and we’re left with ourselves.

Most of it’s manipulative, you know… tough voice, sincere voice, sexy voice, babydoll voice… it’s almost all meant to seduce you and gain your vote… much like a documentary.  Much like a film.  Big sports as well.  In truth, we are what’s important, not the distractions.

I care about people, our country, all countries.  I care about civilization.  I see what they’re trying to do via all the channels they have of groupthinking us, and am disturbed to see how many just swallow it and wash it down with the next big lie.

Get in touch with nature, from the grass to the trees, from the birds to all forms of natural beautiful life.  Just because we’ve come up with names for things, doesn’t mean we understand them.  We know very little about who we are, where we come from and ultimately where we’re going.

Jude

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1148440722997100

In this clip on FB today, Ringo took the words right out of my mouth.  To save you the watch, he was asked by Dan Rather how he managed to stay grounded, being one of the most famous people in the world.  Ringo’s response was that they saw Elvis when they first started, and Elvis had no one.  On the other hand, they had the band at all times, and together would keep each other in line.  If one started acting like a big shot, another just needed to give them that look.  Growing up in Silvis/East Moline was like that.

In essence, this is one of the empty pockets of my life in music.  I grew up in a blue-collar town playing in bands, and had a lot of friends from the same social status who could give each other ‘that look’.  When I got to LA, I continued as a sideman for different artists.  Tried to get a few LA friends to join me in getting a record deal, but they wanted to be paid.  Since there was no money to pay them, it was time to get busy and make it happen on my own, solo.

My gear in a 500 SF single apartment in 1985- A Yamaha acoustic guitar, 1982 Fender Strat, 1968 Fender Bass, Roland TR-707 drum machine, Panasonic boom box and a stereo with cassette deck.

I’d record the electric guitar, drum machine and live vocal to the boom box.  Then take that cassette, slip it in the stereo deck, put a new one in the boom box and record bass and harmony, and/or acoustic gtr.  This is essentially how I was signed to Warner Bros.  There were other more professional tapes too of course, but the song that earned the contract was Walls That Bend, done precisely as above.

After signing, it became painfully aware this was a lonely job.  Decisions for photos, videos, you and a director/photographer.  What’s on the rider?  You decide.  What to wear?  Ask your girlfriend.  Flight to Dallas?  Alone.  Backstage?  Alone.  Meeting with record company where their ideas really don’t match your own?  Be diplomatic, it’s one against 10.  Great review?  Read it to your mom.  Bad review?  Crumble alone.

Today I can look at the past with little to no emotion.  I became a manager for 25 years, so it’s easy to look at my career with a different hat and healthy distance… but it’s plain to see I was never hungry for fame because frankly, it was a lonely gig.  I was born and raised a band guy.

Today I enjoy making records, end of story.  I’m loathe to go to a show.  I find older men walking around with bellies hanging over Les Paul’s unbearable.  If they start doing that 70’s dance-walk thing i’m liable to slit my wrist.  I think the rock & roll culture is antiquated and kind of sad, but much prefer pop artists, young artists, or if they are older, have modified their act with grace and a sound that matches their age.  I just never got in the business to see a bunch of grumpy old men.  McCartney, Clapton, Sting and a few others managed to do it right.  Very few though.  And they were superstars.  Much easier to be forgiven with solid hit songs that were a soundtrack to millions of lives.

Anyway, not to belabor the point but pop music is best right outta the oven.  And for sanity when you’re young, best to be in a band!  In the words of the great Ringo Starr, peace & love ❤️

I’m acquiring a new skillset.  I can often see in someone’s eyes that they are unable to compromise their belief system or indoctrination.  The type who will not only get angry at you for disagreeing, but wish you cancer or death for it.  This is a growing trend in America, and it’s coming more from the hard left than the hard right.  Who, in the 70’s, 80’s & 90’s would have ever believed this possible?

I had people so angry at me for not getting tested or vaxed for Covid, that I lost relationships.  More than one hand.

Now that the vax has been proven ineffective and worse, no one is stepping up or standing up admitting anything.  They’ve simply moved on to another thing to hate 🙂

Know you’re in a cult when corporate America agrees with you.  The conspiracy crowd has no such groupthink.  The only thing we have in common is knowing we’re being lied to.

Sometimes the hardest thing about getting older are the war stories.  When I meet a young musician, they want to open things up, play with them, create something new, then get another toy that helps inspire them to do the same.  When I meet up with friends my age or older, they often want to talk about things that happened 30+ years ago.  It reminds me of guys I knew that would glorify how high they were in the 80’s, how much they drank, how many girls they slept with…  they’d always end it with ‘i’m lucky to be alive’ but it was a way to glorify the rings around the tree.  It’s not as boring as it is constant.

We’re also in the age of disclosure.  If we were magicians instead of musicians, there’d be no more magic shows or magic wands.  All the tricks are freely given away to anyone willing to subscribe.

This was unheard before the internet owned us all.  You think I could find out Bob Clearmountain or Chris Lord-Alge’s process, entire list of boxes, chain etc.?  Only if I were their 2nd engineer.  That’s literally the only way you could find out someone’s secrets… if you had to set them up.

Now with YouTube everyone is showing everything.  There’s a lot of fun in this of course.  I love finding out the secrets I always wondered about.  9 times out of 10 the answer is much simpler than I thought… but the mystery is gone too.  Not the worst thing.  No need to have all this mystery… not in professionalism or in fame for that matter.

It was just different… back in the day.  There see I just did it myself 🙂

Releasing a song in the digital world is a new foreign experience… but the fact is i’ve spent enough time in the futile world of developing artists.  Now i’ll invest in promoting my own music, whatever way it seems practical and appropriate.

Which brings me to promoting on YouTube.  We’ll see if it means anything tangible or if it’s just a course in unfulfilled promises and ‘thank you sir here’s your invoice’

I’m hopeful it’s like Spotify in that you’re promoted, even added to playlists in countries you invest in, and those impressions over time result in growing an audience.  I can’t honestly say that’s the case yet, but it’s certainly worth a few solid efforts.

Anyway the single is out, and the climb begins.  For what you say?  I have no idea… but I hope people like it.