If (Revisited for the 2020s, with no apologies to Kipling and Dr Seuss)

If you can keep your head
when you’re surrounded by idiots
who blindly believe

If you dream of a future
where no one goes hungry,
no one in need

If your head spins from lies,
corruption and greed,
from sources empowered,
trusted to read. us the news.

If you care about kindness
and feel pain when others,
are hurt due to ignorance
of assholes unkind.

If you respect all creation,
and don’t understand,
why people and creatures
suffer at the hands
of inhumane humans
who don’t have a plan
to make anything better
if they can’t make a buck,
I know they all mock us,
think we’re all dumb as fuck
keep telling us it’s just
a run of bad luck
while they reap giant profits
Did i say reap? I meant SUCK
till there’s nothing to suck
because they’ve sucked it all up

If you believe in equality
and justice for all,
while living in horror
or hiding or fear
at the hateful who profit
by war and division
and shameless abuse
of the poor and the meek

If everything around you
seems way too insane,
a fucked up new normal,
a pain in the brain,
each new profanity
a breath of insanity,
making the last one
seem comfortable, fuzzy and warm.

If this is a world
that ain’t one you prefer,
and the people in power
seem doomed to make things worse

If you keep falling and getting back up
when the world seems dead set
on knocking your ass
right back to the pavement
as soon as you do.

If making things better
still seems important,
even after all
we’ve all been through

Then remember one thing,
my friend most of all.
The bigger the asshole,
the louder they fall

For so many have eyes
but refuse to be able
to see through the lies
to the truth on the table
in Freedom’s last light
We fade into denial
with barely a fight,
Staring into the Void
of our future destroyed
Pretending the darkness
Is too fucking bright

time to wake up now
the nightmare won’t end until we do
If…

Jamie Gray is a songwriter from upstate NY

Eggsistential Hill on You Tube

Eggsistential Hill

Life’s a box of chocolates
When it ain’t a box of dicks (tricks)
Some folks think that farmers
Are all a bunch of Hicks?
I used to live the city life.
Got tired of all that shit
At least here on the farm,
you know when you step in it.

I got ducks out In my yard.
I got turkeys on my porch
Got chickens out in back
and a little herd of pork
We ain’t got a lot
But what we got is real
Everyday is perfect
Up on Eggsistential Hill

I work hard every day
Building stuff and chasing ducks
Nobody’s gonna bring me down
Cause i stopped giving all them fucks
Working for the man.
You can’t never get ahead.
Keep you running till you drop.
Unless you drop on out instead.

I got ducks out In my yard.
I got turkeys on my porch
Got chickens out in back
and a little herd of pork
We ain’t got a lot
But what we got is real
Everyday is perfect
Up on Eggsistential Hill

New Year 2025

My video message to all, complete with song fragment.

so here we are
the end of ’24
I made it thru.
so did you.
so here we are.

I have no optimism to share
no words of hope
nor any advice
except this:

(Song fragment: wake up)

don’t let them win
without a fight
don’t ever give up
gotta make it all right

no time for hate
no time for revenge
we gotta fucking wake up
for this nightmare to end

Eight Years of Gloom

The past 8 years have been a hard road. A lot of loss. A bunch of struggle and worry. Thanks to the pandemic, it seems like the whole world has been living under a shadow of gloom and doom, and me…I’ve been hiding under a rock, keeping my head down. Crazy fucking times. I rarely go anywhere anymore. Who can afford it anyway?

Strong emotions and insane politics tend to bring the muses round over here. A lot of new songs have come my way during the half-decade of torment, though I’ve been too distracted by my life to really bring any of them to into their own. I think some are pretty good, grain of salt, being my own post traumatic opinion. But I hope you’ll agree, as I share the songs, and some of the process, in the coming weeks.

I took up the bass, I’ve been playing electric guitar a LOT, and still working on making midi my bitch. I have a bunch of elaborate arrangements fighting for a chance to be recorded. I’m such a perfectionist, those will take time. I’ve been trying, but never seem to make much progress.

Well now, I’m tired of waiting. I want you to hear the songs. So, I’m gonna share the songs, raw, as they were written. I write most stuff on an old six string acoustic. That’s where everything starts. The roots of the song. Where everything the song will ever be already exists, hiding amongst the crude bangings and ringing open strings, with no distracting background vocals.

So later, when the ‘album version’ drops (not too much later, hopefully), we can all look back and say, “Why the fuck did you do THAT to it, man?!”.

Stay tuned. ~jamie

Guitar practice (in space)

From a live session on TikTok and since I spent way too much time making the video effects, I figured I may as well share it out. Sound is iffy, mastering by me, so not really, and the backing track gets annoyingly repetitive, but every once in awhile I hit a couple cool riffs in a row.

Enjoy. Or hit mute. idc

#TikTokLive #livestream #music

First Do No Harm

I’ve never understood why people want to become famous. Being famous means you can’t be yourself. You give up being ordinary. At least you used to. Ordinary people get pretty famous nowadays.

The Internet has changed the meaning of fame. You can have millions of followers (I don’t, but some people do) and still be pretty ordinary; obscure, in terms of the public eye.  You know…Including all those other people who are too good to Google. Too cool for TikTok.  For the rest of us, it’s sort of a golden age in a way. If you’re on the right apps, that is. If the Government doesn’t take them away because they’re afraid of the power we have.

What I want to know is where is the true music underground? The next breakout sound is out there, in some garage or dive bar. A bigger than life, but authentic scene. Where the music speaks the truth and the true seeds of destiny will spring. Not about the industry or money or fame. Music has the power to change. To change Us.

I’m a libertarian at heart. You don’t need a bunch of rules if you follow just one: first do no harm. When the industry is killing the product, the industry needs to change. The money is literally killing the music.

They will exploit us until we refuse to be exploited. Then they’ll find a new way to exploit us.