June 2024

The Hypocrisy Of Life Online

By |2024-06-04T23:47:50+00:00June 4th, 2024|Uncategorized|

This site is to share music, video, communicate, not preach… but to share whatever might be on my mind on that day.  I care about the world.  I care about people.  I’m a thinker, probably an over-thinker at times, but studying people, body language, words chosen, media hypocrisy etc.  It’s what makes me a songwriter.  In any event, a thought for the day…

Knowing we’re all human and physically individual with different shapes and sizes, the result of a video capturing a hypothetical UFC fighter bullying and beating a young, scrawny male would evoke strong emotion in us.  We’re simple creatures.  We can clearly see the disadvantage of a 120 lb male vs. a 220 lb, all muscle fighter.  And if that scrawny young male happened to be gay, trans or queer, the results would be written.  The bully would be publicly doxxed, shamed, deplored, forced to apologize then seek counseling.  He’d lose his job wherever he worked and lawsuits would follow.

Yet, in this very same world of news, which really now means ‘shit we captured on video’…  if one man were to be of higher intelligence than another, it’s completely acceptable to call him a moron, shame him for his stupidity and publicly ridicule and humiliate him.

We can agree that nobody should be body-shamed or bullied, while we accept the relentless attack on someone who doesn’t see things the way we do, or is ‘slower’ than another.

I also see scores of memes featuring unknowing citizens, maybe in a Walmart or on the street, dressed in a way that might seem laughable to some, but reveals an out-of-step taste to society, maybe a poverty or drug addicted life, or possibly mental issues.  We laugh as though they’re not real, or as though they’ll never see it.

I sincerely hope we evolve from here.  Kids are growing up with serious challenges.  Anxiety, ADHD, OCD and 101 other disorders already named or unnamed.  Social media is not only a bathroom wall, but it’s become an integral part of our news cycle.  A news anchor sitting behind a desk reporting what someone else tweeted.  This is equivalent to stopping at a 76 station on highway 15 in Baker, California, reading lines written in a bathroom stall and claiming it reflects the town’s attitudes or somehow has some social significance.

Our world, witnessing almost everything in 2D from a television or computer screen has become a toxic and dangerous environment to live in.  A person filmed being rude to an employee is all it takes to go viral, the audience weighing in venemously, with no context as to what happened before the incident.  We’re monkeys flinging feces from the cheap seats.  Something’s gotta give before it breaks.

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May 2024

Poison

By |2024-05-26T20:48:26+00:00May 26th, 2024|Uncategorized|

If you want to kill someone quickly, you put a lethal amount of arsenic or rat poison in their food, watch as they get violently ill, then drop dead.

If you want to do it slow over time, you might use the same ingredients in trace amounts so it builds up, causes illness, creates a 3rd party disease and ultimately kills by another cause… i.e., heart failure, diabetes, kidney or liver failure etc.

This is the state of our food.  It’s almost entirely poison.  Not the kind that kills you same day, but the kind that happens over a number of years.  You grow an illness, go to the doctor, they put you on a drug, that drug begets another drug, and now you’re in the medical loop.  They got you.  Not only do you devote much of your life to doctors and hospitals, ultimately resulting in death, but they turn you upside down and shake the money from your pockets before you go..

Queen Elizabeth II ate the same meal every single day.  Don’t make me look it up, it was something boring like 2 eggs, a piece of toast and some tea.  The Royal Family has their own fruit and vegetable gardens.  Wanna bet they’re not Monsanto?

King Charles has cancer.  I’m skeptical.  Trust nothing this family says or does.  They don’t get cancer.

The point is, nearly every item in the aisles of a mainstream supermarket are laboratory processed and manufactured.  Almost nothing that comes in a bag or box is good for you.  It’s poison.  It’s designed to kill you.  Queen Liz II wouldn’t touch it.

Yesterday I wanted a hot dog.  After almost 5 years of passing by fast food joints, deciding otherwise, I finally broke and got a chili-cheese dog at Weinerschnitzel.  As I took 2 bites of the dog before sharing some of it with my real dog, then throwing the rest away, I wondered…Why can’t we just know our food is good for us?  It’s just meats (theoretically) wrapped in edible casing.  Why do we have to wonder what’s in it and how harmful it is?  Why would there even be a question about the ingredients of something we eat to stay alive?

Taco Bell 70’s & 80’s

Taco Bell today           

Is their one-eye sign a signal to keep them away from the poison they feed us?  Everything these folks do has symbolism,  so what’s it for?

And why do fast food and corporate food chains spend billions trying to find out what appeals to our taste buds vs. what’s healthy?

They showed us first with chewing gum and breakfast cereal.  Chewing gum was made from real sugar cane.  When a ‘scientist’ developed the chemical equivalent to a sweet taste in our mouth, though it killed rats, they sold it to us with a healthy slogan…  “Sugar Free” is almost all you can buy now.  Because they care?  Fuck no it’s cheap!

Same with breakfast cereal.  It’s processed wheat, artificial sweeteners, food coloring and some handsome packaging.  It’s all chemicals, but “fortified with Iron!”

I’ve compared GMO foods to taking a Beatle record into the studio, re-timing it perfect so that it lines up to a metronomic grid, then repackaging it as my own record.  On top of that, I make the original Beatle record illegal to buy or sell.

This is what they do.  They modify the earth’s fruits, vegetables, meats and everything in between, and call it their own.  It’s the original AI!  They invented nothing.  They tamper.  They’re like Sid in Toy Story… pulling the wings off a fly to call it a new bug.  These people have no talent except for lying, cheating and counting money.  They also have no shame.

Please, think about what you’re sticking down your pie-hole.  We’re all going to die, yes… but we shouldn’t let it be so easy for them.  And think about how high up you hold these billionaires.  They love nothing but money.  It’s not a coincidence they have more than they could ever spend.

 

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Songwriting

By |2024-05-14T18:38:58+00:00May 13th, 2024|Uncategorized|

I started writing songs at 18.  Believe it when I say I was no prodigy.

My first song was called “I can see through you (like a window)” It was less than stellar.  Elvis Costello was a big influence at the time… and I loved how cynical and intelligent his lyrics were.  I possessed no such skill, yet… but had such a desire to GET good that through mimicking him and other writers, found my own voice, my own signature.

Now I doubt anyone would listen to one of my records and say ‘oh i’ll bet he was an Elvis Costello fan!’.  That’s how copying works.  Bach was a copyist before there were electronics, and would work through the night by candlelight to finish.  It’s no coincidence or sheer genius that he ended up being the greatest composer of all time.  So aware of the works of his day being a copyist, he was able to borrow, avoid and overall learn from the greats before him.

The library is where I started.  Each day i’d walk there and read, keeping a notebook and writing down lines that felt rhythmic or unique in a lyrical way to me.  I still have them in a trunk somewhere, and there are many… filled with lines from Anne Sexton to John Fante, Langston Hughes to Neil Young.  Anything was game as long as it opened up the window of creativity.  So with 46 years of experience, here’s a few tips for new songwriters.

  1. Be agile.  Allow all your walls and floors to move.  Never get so married to an idea that you can’t bend it.  This is the greatest way to end up with little pieces that never see the light of day.
  2.  Don’t try to re-invent the wheel.  In other words, don’t try something chordal or melodic, lyrically or structurally so outside the box, you find yourself outside of the realm of platforms in which to be heard.
  3. Use anything and everything for inspiration.  I used to play a C on the piano with my middle 3 fingers… but quickly learned by changing bass notes on the left hand, a new universe of chords were possible.  Hits are usually made of interesting chords.  Not C-D-G.
  4. Use cheats.  If your brain isn’t feeling too creative, open a book of poetry, other lyrics even, and let the single words and images provide you with some inspiration.  I.e., Bob Dylan from the album ’Street Legal’-
    “I stepped forth from the shadows to the marketplace
    Merchants and thieves, hungry for power
    My last deal gone down
    She’s smelling sweet like the meadows where she was born
    On midsummer’s eve near the tower”
    For me, the words that stand out here are marketplace, merchants, thieves, meadows, tower… but whatever may grab YOU is key.
    “In the marketplace, that’s when I saw your face – On a hot summer night in the city”
    See how I use the word marketplace and borrow ‘midsummer’ and made it ‘hot summer’ instead?
    It’s not rocket science, but when we’re blank for words, this technique can kick-start your thinking.
    Just don’t plagiarize.  Nobody likes that.
  5. Don’t bore us, get to the chorus.  It’s not fun to watch someone look in a mirror, or to listen to an artist with a 1 minute intro.  They’re both masturbatory.  Stop it.  Become a good editor.  If you have a re-intro, make it half as long as the first.  Cut the solo in half.  Try starting the song on the lyric.  Where radio used to love intros so they could do their ID’s up until the vocal starts… nobody’s listening to radio anymore, so get on with the song.
  6. If you’re not a natural hit melody maker, topline writer as they call it now, cowrite!  There’s a reason Robert Fripp is an exceptional musician but not a hit writer.  Melody isn’t his thing.  He’s into notes and difficulty.  Whole ‘nother skillset there.  McCartney is a walking topliner.
  7. Stay away from trite.  Nobody wants to hear “You broke my heart, when you told us we’ll part”.  It’s not 1952.  Don’t do that.  Instead use false rhymes, new words, contemporary themes.  Study people, become a good listener and write down what you hear that grabs you.  You’ll be surprised how creative it gets when you start writing down anything/everything.
  8. Write the song before you start zooming in on the track.  One way to lose sight of a well written song is trying to produce the track too soon.  Get off the DAW and stick with your piano or guitar until the song is realized.  Then, the possibilities are endless on where to put the beats and all the bells & whistles.
  9. Sometimes that thing that makes us feel self-conscious is really our signature trying to find it’s way.  Lean into that.  If you sound like John Mayer or Adele, remember there’s already one of those.  Be brave enough to suck a little.  My bet is something original will start to emerge.
  10. Know there are no rules.  Everything I’ve just stated is not an absolute.  Lennon was a great rule breaker, but he trusted his gut.  We’re not all blessed with the same killer instincts, and Lennon didn’t have as many hits as Max Martin or Dr. Luke… but if you have a unique enough idea that makes you feel something deeply when you sing or play it, then to hell with rules.
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How Important Are You?

By |2024-05-11T16:50:02+00:00May 10th, 2024|Uncategorized|

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

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About A Band

By |2024-05-07T20:58:26+00:00May 7th, 2024|Uncategorized|

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 ❤️

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The church of “I Don’t Know”

By |2024-05-06T19:06:47+00:00May 5th, 2024|Uncategorized|

It’s God’s planet, but the devil’s matrix.

I believe making it through the matrix requires a respect and understanding of both. To just classify one as good and the other evil is simplifying things to a level of hypocrisy. This might offend the most religious, but it’s not intended that way.  If it does it kind of proves you’ve been brainwashed into thinking questions are sins.  I’m not saying to worship, but to respect a formidable force.

On one hand, God, creator of heaven and earth, also created a place where it’s kill or be killed. Survival of the fittest. Circle of life. We love the rabbit and torture the mouse. We detest those that would use horse meat in their meal, but kill cows by the millions and suck them down with ne’er a thought about the animal’s sacrifice.  Which one displays our love of God?  Which makes us evil?

Satanists, Freemasons, Jesuits (yes I would argue the Catholic Church has been overtaken by Satanists)… long list here.  The light bearer… many scientists, physicists, mathematicians, doctors etc. … they have an incredible work ethic, help many people with aches and pains, even bring some back to life, and also do not believe in God… or should I say their higher power is Lucifer. Some aren’t aware the groups they belong to have a hierarchy that do worship him, i.e. Freemasons (low level), Shriners Club etc.  Look at the emblems.  Satanic symbolism is everywhere.  Even your favorite pop star Taylor Swift pays homage to the serpent in some part of her uniform at most concerts.

Who devised the world and grid we live in? Was it Khazars? Mayans? Inca Empire?  Maybe it was The Nephilim or Anunnaki.  Should we thank them or despise them? Can you even imagine a different life on the planet? We have nothing to compare it to. We’ve been indoctrinated into this living. Life might be wonderful without cities, governments, taxes, regulations, pop songs, movies, sports… the ‘System’. Who really knows?
Is the earth a perfectly round sphere traveling at light speed or a somewhat flatter, still planet? It’s an argument that’s gone on for centuries, yet the argument according to NASA is now closed.  You think there’s proof, but you really only know what NASA tells you.  Are they even to be trusted anymore?  I don’t know.

You’ve never been in space to witness it for yourself. I’m not saying this to instigate an argument, but to open the thought process about what we truly know first-hand, and what’s taught to us since childhood. What’s a real photograph and what’s a painting?  Why would our own significance matter to people who want to see us disappear, eat bugs and stop wasting ’their’ resources.  Are we less than a grain of sand, or is God giving us a chance at eternal life in a one-of-a-kind heaven called Earth?  Once you realize how much we’ve been lied to, you begin to question everything.
So without a real way to find absolutes, we just do the best we can. We need to stop pointing the finger at other citizens who are making decisions and developing beliefs based on shitty multiple choice questions designed to keep the winners winning and losers begging.

I choose God. It’s not a knowing, it’s a faith. This is why I don’t preach. I honestly don’t know what’s on the other side of life, or for that matter what’s literal and what’s parable in the Bible, but I choose the path that led to the magic of classical music, giant beautiful and inexplicable structures called cathedrals crafted in God’s name, and so much more.  We walk amongst these creations and think we’re more enlightened than those who built it all.  We suffer from a toxic level of ignorance and arrogance.  This, too is by design.

Also, in my opinion, those who’ve openly sworn to Satan and have hundreds of millions or billions of dollars to show for it… they just never look happy.  There’s almost never that true life light in their eyes.  They worship the dollar, and the dollar has no spirit at all.  Nothing to give them back but more ‘stuff.

All we think we know our TV’s and internet taught us.  Some school books that were taken over by The Rockefeller’s long ago.  Same with the AMA, big Pharma and a hundred other institutions.  We know what they want us to know.  We believe what they want us to believe.  I hope we can find some humility and begin to ask questions of everyone and everything. Without a willingness to admit we could be wrong, we’re doomed.

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April 2024

Evolving Talent

By |2024-04-09T22:03:06+00:00April 9th, 2024|Uncategorized|

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.

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March 2024

Back In The Day

By |2024-03-02T19:40:27+00:00March 2nd, 2024|Uncategorized|

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 🙂

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February 2024

Single Release

By |2024-02-17T17:54:26+00:00February 17th, 2024|Uncategorized|

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.

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