So I did a special thing today. I wrote y’all a tune. This
is a slightly different and more involved process than just hitting record and
creating one straight form the imagination for ya. This time I actually grabbed
a notebook, a pen, and wrote down cords and words. , verse, chorus, bridge, the
whole thing. It’s fairly satisfying. Although, I’m not at all certain “writing”
tunes creates “better” tunes than just winging it, it is satisfying to me in a
different way. Art is always so personal to the artist I guess. I just hope it
opens a channel and crested some connection, some thought and some
communication between me and all of you. I truly do.
So let’s briefly discuss what I’m singing about here. Why
not? “Our State of Mind” is a good title, I guess, ‘cause that’s exactly what
this tune is about. We all have thoughts in our head that we never share, our
deepest inner-most dialogue. This is where our true honesty feelings, thoughts,
beliefs, opinions and ideas exist. This is a private forbidden place. This
space is taboo. Very few taboos remain in our modern world, but out true raw
thoughts are one of them. Why share passions and risk being embarrassed,
ashamed or worse yet, not entirely understood? It is a nakedness beyond even
nudity itself these days. Ironically, outing ourselves, discovering what we
believe and connecting, growing and building upon those connections is what our
world needs more than anything else for us to flourish and prosper in the
modern age. We are scared to confront our problems, individually and as a
society so we allow trivia and minutia to carry the conversation and try to
hide away from our thoughts.
More irony is that we have inside is beautiful like a
sunset, or a giant tree in the breeze. It is natural and it is nature. It is
animal and it is spirit, cosmic, truly magical. So this song is about us
confronting our fears, finding the courage to reveal to ourselves and the world
our state so find so we can ultimately all connect, invest and evolve our state
of mind as a people. Money is an illusion. It’s a silly game. We place paper
over brains. Illogical realities like these have led to us to hiding our
selves, our passions and our transcendent inner beauty. That inner beauty that
we have and share, that is what saves the world, when it’s all said and done.
If and when we let it. That’s the beautiful truth.
Operation 365 2 - Jefferson Jay – Covers - 144 “Suddenly
Seymour” by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman
When there isn’t an ready answer in the present, like on
what cover to play for today’s 365, you can always count on the past to steady
and support you. Today, went way back into my past, 1992 specifically to
conjure this classic for you. Yes, Little Shop of Horrors, the musical from
which “Suddenly Seymour” comes goes back far further, but to me it will always
be 1992.
Senior year. High School. Those were hard times.
It shoulda been a simple time of celebration those final
days of senior year. Senioritis. Proms and the like. For me, not so much. My
best friend, Tony Russo, had passed away under extremely questionable
circumstances just one month before. The administration of the school made me
decide while he sat in a coma if I was going to stay in the play or not. I was
Seymour. I had the lead role and we were rehearsing a lot during our February
vacation then and the needed an answer. I did it. Rehearsals happened.
Characters clicked. I channeled more torn up soul into the Seymour character,
which was much darker than the movie version portrayed. It was therapeutic, the
beginning of my long road back to health.
I remember a sold out auditorium filled with 800 people. I
remember standing on the little side stage they had built for this number hand
in hand with Laura Currie, singing our hearts out. I had known Laura since we
were little kids, elementary school. I can still feel her squeezing my hand
tighter to pull my up to the exact right pitch for that last climactic note of
this anthemic song. It is vivid as anything.
I am sure many high school students in every tune have
similar memories. The details our different. Which song, what show. Hopefully,
and thankfully most of those kids didn’t have to do it amidst the darkness I
was living, but we all have our paths before us. Exactly what we need to go
though. Survival, each day, is an accomplishment. That’s the truth.
Operation 365 2 - Jefferson Jay - Words - 144 “Don’t Joke About
Your Mother”
Folks, a serious note today. If you want to wind up like me
at the end of this video, don’t heed this advice, otherwise “Don’t Joke About Your
Mother.” A very serious message from your friendly neighborhood Operation 365
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