Tomorrow will be the official release of “New You-niverse” both single and lyric video.  This song was written for the ‘Start The Car’ album, but because the lyric wasn’t finished in time I had to let it swim.  Recently upon transferring my analog tapes to digital I heard the guitar part, got inspired to finish the song and recut it.

A lot of people are on social media testifying to the fact that money has been taken from the artist on all fronts i.e., labels, publishers, PRO’s, Live Nation, the venues and now the behemoths Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube.

At the same time, you can’t believe how difficult it is to get people to comment, add to playlists, give likes…  It’s a simple gesture that costs nothing but a minute of your time and means so much to the artist.  As you know, people read comments.

To reiterate this point I’m going to personally choose a random comment on YouTube and send another copy of the vinyl “A View From 3rd Street”.

For some reason Spotify wouldn’t allow me to set this single up.  I think their software has been funny lately because last time it was no problem, but because i’ll have to promote it after the release, it disqualifies me from any curators adding to playlists.  This is where people who listen to my music can really help, so once again if you can find the time to leave a YouTube comment, not Facebook that just goes away, but YouTube, and add the song to any Spotify playlists you can, it helps so much.

Thanks to all who’ve subscribed and supported.  It really means a lot!
Cheers-
Jude

Coincidental yet couldn’t be more fitting, today’s number is 25!  Long time friend and fan Angelo Valenti is #25 and the first winner of a signed A View From 3rd Street album.  Congrats Angelo and thank you for many years of support!

You’ll be receiving a notification where you can give us an address and specify how you’d like the album signed.

Much more coming to other subscribers and a continued thanks to all-

Jude

I love records that are spectacular in all directions where writing, performance, recording, production and vocals all come together in one cohesive package.  Innovation and inspiration… all the pieces make us feel something special.  It’s a gift when it works.

Before even studying a record, I know it’s great because there’s this feeling of envy in my gut.  I can’t not play it, no matter whether I love the artist or not.  It makes me want to get to work.  Great records have always done this to me.  On the contrary, lifestyle records or trendy, hipster fads do just the opposite.  I listen, nod my head, and know I won’t be putting it on in the car.  Rarely have I been wrong.

Elvis made me pick up a broom and imitate him.  The Beatles made me want music as a life.  Santana’s “Samba Pa Ti” inspired me to play lead guitar.  CCR made me want a band.  “Pump It Up” and “Working Week” by Elvis Costello made me want to be a songwriter.

Nowadays it’s songs/records with creative chord changes, lyrics that inspire, smart production, sounds from an innately talented mixer, a smooth, instinctive vocal and maybe most of all grooves with a solid bass line and beat… everything.

First entry, and in no particular order but just what’s in my head at this time may be a surprise- Corinne Bailey Rae’s “Put Your Records On”.

“Three little birds sat on my window – And they told me I don’t need to worry”.

It’s a carefree lyric, but clever in it’s use of images to create the feeling of someone breaking through the walls and challenge in life.  The birds (innocence) swing by to console and remind her how to find herself, and the next line is beautiful:

“Summer came like cinnamon, so sweet
Little girls double-dutch on the concrete”

A rich vision here, conjoining the senses of sight and smell.  When a female sings ‘little girls double-dutch on the concrete’, it’s a strong inner-city image.  A reflection of innocence she now longs for.  She’s reflecting back to a time there were few problems in her world.  The scent of cinnamon is reminiscent of something mom (your best friend as a kid) would be baking in the kitchen.

Pre-chorus conflict:

“Maybe sometimes we got it wrong but it’s alright
The more things seem to change
The more they stay the same   Don’t you hesitate”

Somewhere she messed up.  Haven’t we all.  She thought she graduated from one hard place, only to find she’s in another.  Pain is pain.  So you moved on, got stronger but the hurt feels the same.  Forgiving ones self is usually the first step to fixing.  Don’t even think about it, just go.

The chorus:

“Girl, put your records on
Tell me your favorite song
You go ahead, let your hair down
Sapphire and faded jeans
I hope you get your dreams
Just go ahead, let your hair down
You’re gonna find yourself somewhere, somehow”

Little in life gives you the immediate impact of taking away a hurtful, regretful moment like putting an old record on to make you happy.  “Sapphire and faded jeans” – I love that… Sapphire is a blue image akin to blue jeans, but sparkling like youth.  ‘Faded jeans’ are something we’ve all owned and felt a deep attachment.  When the day comes we have to toss them it’s like losing a chapter of our life.  A tangible metaphor for great times, hard times, people we found, people we lost, all of it.  If our blue jeans could talk…

Such a great lyric, and displays experience from the songwriter.  I don’t know which of the three writers were most responsible for this… maybe they all played a part… but so good.

The track begins with a 3 bar intro of a single gut string note, then two, then three… transitioning horn swell into the downbeat- ‘Three little birds’ verse begins.  An affirmative walking groove of 90 bpm is a perfect companion for shedding self-doubt and finding your strength.  The verse is comprised of the same chord progression as the chorus, with an 8 bar B-section & breakdown for a fitting palette reset to start dipping to the beat of the chorus.

This kind of neo-soul is implied but not as obvious as a Jill Scott or Angie Stone since it’s on a classical guitar and not a stereo panned Rhodes piano.  The ascending chord progression plays over a descending bass line, which lends symmetry to the lyrical ups & downs.  All these elements work together to make us feel like dealing with our problems.  Inspired!  Producers Steve Chrisanthou and Jimmy Hogarth did a flawless job.

Corrine’s vocal is silky, yet not manipulative.  She conveys the perfect sentiment of the words she sings.  The use of background vocals are abundant but not that noticeable unless you focus.  It’s more a subliminal group in her head like ‘we got you!’

This record was hugely successful in both the US and UK, and has been covered, synced and soundtracked many times.  Where there’s inspiration, success follows.  Spectacular!

Cheers-

Jude

Disclaimer:  I have no intention of making this a religion based page or to preach to anyone.  This is a current topic, and one way overdue.

SO… the world has stepped in to act as our conscience and lend at least a grain of sanity into the Cloward-Piven reshaping of this poor ol’ country of ours.  Never has a land tried harder to appease everyone’s everything.  Never has a land been so shamed for doing so.

The Olympic committee barred Lia Thomas from competing, because that’s the way it should have been all along, duh.

Then, with so many Catholic and Christian countries around the globe like Italy, Mexico, Spain, Phillipines etc., witnessing the opening ceremony to the games act out a Last Supper blasphemy ritual, these Catholic countries didn’t waste a minute to call out what has become a very normal blatant disregard for Christianity.

Thank you world.  America would never have the fucking balls.  If they did, they’d surely point out the equally hard to swallow beliefs of Muslims, Jews, Hindus and Buddhists…  but you’ll never hear that.  Why?  The answer is simple.  They don’t fear Christians.  It’s like that scene in 1985’s “Witness”, where the local teens are all picking on the Amish as they try to get through town, because they know the Amish won’t fight back.  It’s ‘against their religion’.

All one needs to do is watch any modern American or British show to see how our film and television makers feel about Christ.

Remember when Larry David ‘splashed’ on the painting of Christ’s face, and the naive and brainwashed Christian mother and daughter thought Christ was crying.  guffaw guffaw.  Not.

How about the more recent EVIL, where Kristen delves into the world of Catholicism and Exorcisms and becomes a demon who cheats, lies, murders.  The list goes on and on so much that it’s impossible to keep score.  I notice it in almost every show I watch.

It’s never a Muslim, never a Hindu or Buddhist, never a Rabbi… always Christ, and to be honest people have had enough.

If you don’t believe me, you’re probably not a Christian so you wouldn’t notice.  I’m not a church goer, but I pray with consistency, and i do come from that small town, middle class world of church goers and feel passionately willing to fight for their right to believe what they want without ridicule from a completely hypocritical media, who by the way pays homage to Satanic symbolism on an equal basis.

Walking on water, Immaculate conception, miracles… whatever.  I also believe in the rights for Muslims to believe in 72 Virgins, for Hindus to have a series of Gods and past lives, or for Jews to think they’re ‘ God’s Chosen Ones’, even though all are hard to grasp with our limited logical and dimensional minds.

If I had to guess, based on shows i’ve watched on Netflix, HBO and the rest, my number would be 85% of all shows have at least one scene with a smear toward Christianity, using insanity, violence, poverty, drug abuse, hypocrisy or worse… pedophilia, incest, child abuse, mass murder.  They’ve also managed to tie this to southerners in general.  The southern accent automatically makes you a Maga hat wearing AR-15 toting Christian right wing nut bag menace to society… an existential threat.

Producers of all film and TV need to be held accountable, for this is the REAL hate speech, and these are the first people at the podium calling others racist, homophobe, xenophobe, antisemitic.

I’ve seen so many posts on social media since the Olympic opening with people saying to Christians, ‘get over it’, or ‘you’ve jumped the shark of sensitivity’, but you know what?  People have had it… especially coming from those who profess to love so much, then publicly seethe, dox and spew venom on anyone who disagrees with their extremely narrow-minded rainbow agenda.

The world owes Christianity a profound and sincere apology.  One massive boycott from Christians would affect any product on the market.  They’ve done their able best to make sure most Christians don’t have a microphone to organize this, but keep pushing, media  -they’ll make a microphone of their own.

A poker tell, if you’re not familiar with the game, is when someone has a tick or habit they always do unconsciously with a good hand/bad hand.  If you’re up against a player enough times, you begin to learn these signals.  A lot of players wear dark sunglasses so you can’t see their eyes.  I don’t think it should be allowed, but then again I don’t play poker so … I don’t care.  The point is, the energy has to go somewhere.

These kinds of signals appear in life on every level.  I study people so it’s interesting to me, the body language, choice of words, tone of voice, emotions, levels of anger, the anatomy in general…

For instance, when a politician gets into office, especially high office… one tell I’ve learned is that if they didn’t truly earn it?  If they were somehow ushered in by some powerful money and flushed out the competition unethically or unlawfully, the tell is that they show no true emotions of victory.  In fact there’s an arrogance to their words and their wins.  They have something to teach us all now and have little shame in being preachy or indignant against any opposition.

A true showing of victory, like climbing Mt. Everest or winning an NBA championship would be falling to a knee or welling up with tears, a break in the voice, the face turns flush.  It’s a hard thing to hold back. But it transfers to those witnessing because it’s real.  Only you know how hard you fought, and how much strength, commitment and discipline it took.  You want to drop to the floor and profess….’There is a God and he loves me!’  And the entire audience feels it, not just those who are on the team or benefit from the win.

Too often we’re faced with someone we fight for in the voting box, only for them to get elected, then stand up before the world and tell us what we’re about and what we’re not about.  They show little emotion.  Like aliens reading cue cards… ‘laugh here’.  ‘smile big’.  ‘act strong and sincere’.  It’s pathetic.

There’s also a poker tell when you know you can’t lose.  I learned this from the desk side of the music business.  In my early days of making records I thought it was luck or un-luck.  I’d get down on myself for not scoring big.  Then I became a manager and learned, some are connected.  To who?  That’s for another time.  But connected to real power.

They can be mean, vulgar, short, stout, homely, or downright disgusting in appearance… even half witted (though few of them are).  Doesn’t matter.  They know they’re ‘made’ men & women and cannot be fucked with. They don’t get shaken by threats, and they deal death blows where you don’t even really know who killed you.  They exude nothing but confidence at all times.  And why wouldn’t they?  They know they can’t lose.

There are poker tells by those most under mind control.  Whether it’s a cult like Scientology who’s members believe they’re saving the planet, or ones faithful to a news network, newspaper or website who’s feeding them agenda-driven information.  They’re told what to think every day, every hour… who to love, who to hate. They get daily doses of soundbites with narrative.  Video clips edited with voiceovers telling us what we’re seeing.  Over time this indoctrination makes us angry to witness opposition.  “Don’t you fucking get it you moron!” we think.  We start to believe that if all these blind cult followers would just die, somehow the planet would be a better place. We don’t know we’re deep in a cult of our own.

This is a tell.  If you had an open mind and original thought… if you saw people believing in a God you didn’t pray to, or loving a country they came from that were our sworn ‘enemy’… would this enrage you?  If so, i’m sorry for you.  It must be hell on earth to feel this way.

If you found a friend was voting for a candidate you didn’t believe was good for the country, would it make you hate your friend?  That’s where we’re at now, and from my perspective, this is a poker tell.  It means you’re deep, deep under mind control.  You are fighting for your abuser.

Do with this information and perspective on human behavior what you will… or I will destroy you!

🙂