Operation 365... Blog 268

Operation 365 - Jefferson Jay - Archives - 274 Philly B "Barefoot Dancing" 2-5-2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtJ2D73clmY


I remember one time before the open mic, a long while back, Philly came over before the show and we practiced his tune, "Barefoot Dancing." I remember it came together really well and we had a lot of fun playing in practice and on stage. I think I played a mandolin on it. I don't even own a mandolin now. So much has changed since then it's absurd. Philly now lives in Tucson and owns several Starbucks, or something like that. Like I said, it's been awhile, I've lost track. I'm pretty sure his wife has singlehandedly brought back Roller Derby, all while they raise two kids. Fascinating. I miss those crazy kids, Philly and his wife, Jilimanjaro (that's her Roller Derby name) and I hope to see them real, real soon.

Operation 365 - Jefferson Jay - Covers - 274 "Any Time At All" by Lennon/McCartney
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaqnkMjoBOI


Here is The Beatles tune, "Any Time At All." I always liked this one. I even wrote a tune called "Any Time At All" once, of my own. Kind of a coincidence. I shared it on the 365 many months ago. There song is an early 60's pop masterpiece ands mine was a Steely Dan-inspired, jazz chord-filled, love song. I don;t play it anymore, even though I still think it's one ofmy better tunes. No real good way to play songs written about old girlfriends when you are happy with the one you have now. I'm sure there is some way around that. I just haven't cared enough to figure it out yet. It's fine the way it is. That is the least of my concerns these days.

I grew up wanting to do what The Beatles did. Not so much sell a zillion albums and be adored by everybody, but communicating with people, finding an appreciative audience, adding to a discussion amongst thinking folks about what really matters in this world. That has been my dream for some time. Not to say, I'm giving up, but I'm not even convinced the world wants that sort of thing right now. People seem to accept the way things are. No one seems willing to do much at all. That's why my goal is starting a discussion instead of actually fixing things. That seems several steps down the road I'm sad to say, and that's a best case scenario. That's assuming people will start to care enough to come together and speak from the hearts and from their minds at all. There I go, dreaming again. I have always wanted to devote my life to making things better off for everyone, but more often I feel like I'm barking up the wrong tree. Like the time I was meant to live in ended before I was born.

I don't mean to be negative, but I have been hollering up a storm to anyone who will listen for some time now, about all sorts of things. I'm not sure what it's got me. I know where it's got me. Right here, right now. I can live with that. I realize I have stood up for what I believe in for awhile now. I hoped events would co-operate more and I would find an audience amongst people who want to get the most out of life and make the world a better place. I have had some incredible, cherished experience, but making a living doing this consistently, simply hasn't happened. I can't say for sure it ever will.

Keep doing things for the right reasons and trust that it will all work out in time. That's that other voice in my head just said, the voice of reason. That's what it put in my head so I wrote it. Now I just have to believe it and make it a way of life. Seems it's always that way, doesn't it?

Operation 365 - Jefferson Jay - Originals - 274 " I Missed 1966"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXpKBtAKz4E


This is a song I wrote the other night that's pretty much about everything I just wrote about in the blog above. I feel like the folks of the late 60's and early 70's were so much more attuned to where I'm at here in the 21st century it's not even funny. In terms of priorities, how to treat people, the meaning of life, kindness, peace, love, and a million other things, that I think are important, that you just never hear about on the 500 channels of TV. I guess they're not important to everyone and America's just very well-bribed right now into not caring about what''s actually happening outside their homes. I feel that everyone's connected. I believe that we are all one. If the sun split, we'd all die. That's my proof. It seems to be that we are in some twisted saci-fi movie these days and I don't know what's going to happen to stop it. I do know I've been waiting for it all my life and I am ready to be involved in whatever will bering our world closer to being a warm, loving home to all of its inhabitants. Boy, do I sound like a Looney Tune? It wasn't that long ago, that people publicly thought things like this and weren't laughed it. Then again the Civil Rights movement and the Holocaust weren't that long ago either. The world is how it's been for a a long time. The truth is what we make it.

So, my fabulous girlfriend Leanne fell asleep a bit earlier than I did the other night. It was earlyish. She works hard. So I got out of bed and started writing. By the time I was done, I had written 6 songs. I don't need to tell you what a boon that type of thing is to the 365 here. Needing an original here each day, it is a nice feeling to have some tunes saved up in case I don't feel like writing something some day. I still do have a number of tunes available off my 4 CDs that are out, but I don't play some of them very much these days. They are available at jeffersonjay.bandcamp.com, incidentally, if you are interested in hearing and/or purchasing them.

This tune, "I Missed 1966" talks about my hippie-ideals mind in post-hippie America. I have studied the San Francisco hippies some as part of my Master's Program in History at San Diego State. There are a lot of specifics out of that era that make their way into this song. 1966 was chosen because that was before America discovered the hippies in "Time", "Life", "Newsweek," and every other periodical and newspaper in the country in 1967. People subsequently went there in droves. The leaders split the disaster that their beloved home was quickly becoming and the media drove the nails in the hippies' coffin, so much so, that hippies are now considered a mere filthy footnote in America's past, by most people.

The Diggers were the intellectual core of The San Francisco hippies and they were doing some really really cool stuff in 1966. The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and many other folks who lived there would become iconic figures in the years that followed. They were among those who split Haight-Ashbury and found huge financial success in corporate America's commodification of the hippie way. Way gone. Money made. Can you blame 'em? It's the American dream, right?

Now I sit here alone, 45 years later, still trying to pick the pieces.