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

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

Peace and Kindness on Earth and good will to All

As Winter begins and this year ends, I just want to thank everyone for your friendship and support. You guys mean the world to me, and if you’re reading this, now you know. I care about you.

Stay safe and be kind in the coming shitstorm. Remember, there are others who can’t avoid getting hit in the face with it.

~jamie

Twas the Weekend Before Christmas

Twas the weekend before Christmas
We were broke as could be
We were freezing our asses
By the fire and TV
When what did our half-frozen
eyeballs then spy
Was a snowstorm to bury
All our firewood in ice
It got colder and colder
We shivered and shook
As the wind howled and sliced
Out the window we looked
More snow was falling
I can’t wait till it melts
The basement gets flooded
mud up to our belts
May your Christmas be white
May your driveway stay plowed
May we all make it through
All this hate, fear and doubt.
May the season bring joy
May you somehow find peace
In the dark years ahead
Love and light will not cease.
~

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

In The Beginning…

In the beginning, man created God. And in his image he created Him. And when man had learned to use his God as a power to control and exploit the fears of his brother’s and sisters, he looked upon his creation and decided it was good.

In later days, Jesus came out of the desert, and tried to show people the path to inner freedom, free from the slavery to a false god and it’s creators. The same church people who created this God, put Jesus on the cross to shut him up.

Now, as we stumble blindly into the apocalypse, Jesus has come back many times since, an archetype for a stubborn world that never learns. Each time, the Church, or King or council of elders, or right-wing political party, uses their influence and power to silence His voice. Before He can get people to listen. To wake up.

The ‘religious elite’ have learned their lesson about making martyrs though, so they no longer have public trials and executions of people for heresy and witchcraft. The modern church has evolved, and secular government has replaced many of the functions previously served by religion. Now they work together.

The faceless elite, churchy or not, now know it’s much easier to ruin reputations with baseless accusations, or imprison their critics for crimes they didn’t commit. Or for treason or terrorism.

Another Jesus silenced. The power struggle continues. With Them on top, because They control everything. Except our thoughts, though They are trying to do that too, using the mainstream and social media to spread propaganda.

The voice of the next Jesus may be crying in the wilderness already. Somewhere nearby, a ‘faithful Christian’ is planning to ‘shut that heretic up’, any way possible.

(Authors disclaimer: for any MAGA moron who might read this and think, I’m talking about Trump, you are wrong!)

This is not a Christian nation. It’s a nation in which you are free to be Christian.
For Now. Keep pushing this unconstitutional bullshit, forcing your beliefs upon the rest of  us at your own risk. Fuck around and find out how fast we start crucifying your hypocrite asses.