I'm in my 50's now, to some still young and other's old as hell.
When I was a boy the world was in Chaos, Nam was warming up and soon we'd have a President leave office because, even though he claimed he wasn't, he was a crook.
In the middle of all this mess was Music. We always had a voice with a melody to let us know we were not alone. That things will get better.
In 1975 Nam ended, that is Nam of the Viet kind.
Our goal, over all, was to change the world. To "Make Love Not War". For peace and equal rights among peoples of all kinds.
We won some we lost some. In many ways we dropped the ball.
But we did do something that will forever be remembered as our thing.
It was our grasp of a real need for people to know they're not alone, that somewhere in the lyric of a song there was someone else that could grasp our pain, our sorrow and our Joys.
We invented the Rock Star.
We set out to the change the world, to engage souls and reassure them that we know and we are, indeed, here. We made movies and music and plays and wrote stories and...articles...to aid others, to inform them.
In the end...Today...we have the same climate, riots, wars, sorrows and sadness. We do not have the Rock Star we had. No anti War songs, No love songs.
No, today our joys come from a place that we thought we'd outgrown as a people, Family and friends. Who else could know our thoughts but the people we share them with?
Yes, the Rock Star is nothing like it used to be, a Very few make it to earn a living. Most never do, even with a hit song or album.
How do I know?....I was a signed artist with Polydor Records 1990, same day as "Animal Bag". I worked with MGM after my deal fell through. The guys in "Animal Bag" had a hit song and a TV spot on "90210", at MGM. David and Rich were my friends until they died. I miss them.
To my credit, I was smart enough to work with musical geniuses. I have,and will remain,the least talented person in every room of working artists.
A portion of my body of work is on Soundcloud.
Today, every day. Tell the people you care about how you feel. You never know when our time is up.
The younger people today don't have the grasp of the past, how we had that voice on the radio to aid our soul in knowing. We must be the Rock Star for them.
To console and engage, to educate and reassure. To be the voice we used to hear.
Don't trust anyone over 30?.....the mantra of our past...remember? We should have listened. No one lives forever.
No matter what it is, it is not yours. You paid for it, have a deed. One day you will die and whatever it is will remain here. You are only the Steward of it, what ever it is.
Love can not be bought, although some claim otherwise, they are just happy in the way they spend their time. I can spend my day fishing....I am retied.
Wealth matters, but only as a tool to do what you want, when you want to do it, until you die and you leave it to some else you care about so they too can enjoy life on their terms.
For no matter who You are, you will die one day. Be aware, Joys happen seldom, remember them for they will be with you forever.
That You can take with you.
I am Jay, J1 to my friends and on GAB.com
Find me @AcidBrainWash on GAB.com.
I look forward to reading you there.
With a voice from my past I leave you with "Peace"
