Operation 365... Blog 242

Operation 365 - Jefferson Jay - Archives - 248 Jake Allen - 5-14-2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zVFLQ16ULw

Jake is a phenomenon and I can't believe it took me this long to get to him on the 365. I haven't see him in awhile. Jake was always a delightful guy to be around and his music is mind-altering. To play a guitar like that truly blows my mind. I hope he's doing well and I hope I get to see him before too long. Enjoy his mastery of this six-stringed instrument.

Enjoy after the performance as Richard Romero, Robin Lee and The Soul Man marvel at what Jake Allen is able to do. The dumbfoundedness in their reaction is palpable and these folks have seen more than a few talented folks throw down in their days.

Operation 365 - Jefferson Jay - Covers - 248 "Oh, Happy Day" by Gene de Paul and Johnny Mercer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=konyOr8Z1e4

This song was in my head this morning and it dawned on me how prescient the songwriters of "Oh, Happy Day" were. So I got into the arts, theater specifically, in the spring of 1989. I earned a small part in my high school's version of "L'il Abner." All was going well. I was liking my initial inroads into theater life; rehearsing a lot, hanging out with girls. Much fun. All was rolling along in my freshman year until a 6-man tag team match up at Tony Russo's housewarming/birthday party that February. My friends, Tony, Mark Greenberg, and Jeff Glenn triple-teamed me for half an hour about. My teammates Chris Boghosian and Craig Cohen did nothing to come to my aid. I had to actually lose my temper for a hot minute to escape and make the tag.

As the night wore on, my knee tightened up. I assumed it was nothing. So I sat on my foot and rode an exercise bike set to the hardest setting. I went to bed eventually in Tony's new pitch dark basement on the floor. I woke up around 5AM and I could not move. My knee swelled to fill up my jeans. I hobbled my ass out of the house, with Tony's help and my next stop was the emergency room. It was broken. I had a bipartite patella. That means one quarter of my kneecap broke off. So I did L'il Abner in a full leg cast. My character was "Available Jones," but I was also in the chorus and did my part singing and dancing in the production number, "Oh, Happy Day."

I always liked this tune and the worlds could not be truer. We now live in the world of push-button homes, where"boys and girls on dates, can tell electric’ly if they are mates." It has happened, folks."Oh, Happy Day." Listen to the lyrics and laugh. That's my adice. They're spot on. What else is left to do at this point. We'll see. Oh, we will see.

I had to figure out the chords to this one myself. They're not easily obtained. I think I got 'em right, for the most part. I didn't remember the change part existing at all, so I winged as best I could. If it's wrong, my apologies. I hope you enjoy "Oh, Happy Day."

Operation 365 - Jefferson Jay - Originals - 248 "Doctor Life"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4kcfgYraB4

I had a crush on a girl for a minute awhile back who was a obstetrician. I always thought it was wild when she would run off and go deliver babies. She was super cool about it, like, to her it was no big deal. The marvel of the whole thing, was not lost on me. She was also in a this Taiko drumming group. She is the only white girl in a troupe of Asians playing ancient Asian music. I thought that was pretty cool too. At about the same time, I found myself the owner of a gu zheng, which is an ancient Chinese zither. I took a few lessons and everything. It is a beautiful instrument.

So all of these cross-cultural factors converged, and I wound up writing "Doctor Life," on the gu zheng. Here it is translated into the guitar version. The last line is in Chinese. "Yi sheng sheng ri" I am mispronouncing it badly. It means "Doctor Birthday." Oh, it never worked out. I'm pretty sure she thought she was too good for me. God bless 'er.