‘The lyric idea for In Repair came from this kind of knowledge about the way people are, that we’re always either on the way down or the way up. You never really enjoy the moment when it’s all put together, ‘cause it probably never really is. Those moments where things come apart is only setting you up for that moment where you put it back together again, and you’re so surprised that it’s coming back together again. There’s this beauty in the idea of being in repair. ‘
“Sometimes you can miss the human aspect of somebody enjoying what you do, if you look for the inhuman aspect of numbers with loads of zeros after them. And for me, it’s people who hand back change or help me to my room or something and say how much the record means to them, people on the street.”
Something happens when you play a good song for people who aren’t musicians. And they come up to you and go “Thank you, thank you so much”. They will open their hearts to you right in front of you. And you’re still sweating drinking Gatorade and they’re going “My dad had a stroke, and I don’t even know what to do. But listen, that song. Thank you” and they’ll give you a hug. And that’s a hell of a lot better than “Was that in mixolydian?
— John Mayer (via misslellow)
gravityisbringingmedown: “I’m gonna tell you the truth, pretend you’re me and I am you. I swear, I have a good upbringing, I just love playing guitar, I love being a musician, I’ve got dreams like everybody else has dreams and I have this unbelievable thirst above everything else to make those dreams happen. From the detriment of my life I was born to follow where this guitar takes me. Now, I am going to really break it down for you right now, because I don’t know the next time we’re going to be on a stage except for 2 or 3 more shows, it might be a while. Pretend you’re me for a minute, pretend you’ve spent your entire life playing the guitar because it’s the only thing that makes you feel like it’s going to be there tomorrow and love you just as much as today. It’s going to say “I love you” today, and it’s going to say “I love you” tomorrow. It’s not going to treat you like shit tonight and then be nice to you tomorrow and you’re going to be like “Wait a minute, guitar, you treated me like shit tonight and I was ready to be like “Look, you treated me like shit, let’s work it out but now you’re being nice to me.” Because it’s the only thing that was consistant in my entire life so I was like “You know what? I am going to give everything to this” and I am lucky, I had a little bit of talent and I was brought up in a place where I was able to keep making that talent happen. So then I get to a part in my life where it’s all I want to do, and I get good at it fast, and I am so lucky that I have the talent to build into something bigger. So then I see the target and I am just going to aim and shoot. Now when you are me, pretend you’re me again, you’ve got a whole plan in your mind, and you’re going to be like “Love the world over, and they’re going to think you’re awesome, and you’re going to play music,” but then you aim, shoot, and now you gotta walk to the target and see what you got and you realize that the bullseye was over here, and your arrow is way on the other side, and you go, “Shit!” And the world says this guy is a terrible archer. And you say “Well, I am not a terrible archer, I’m a terrible shooter but I really did see the target there, you know, I’m a nice guy, I try to be nice to everbody, I just want to be loved, I wanna love everybody back; How can it all just go all the way over there? Just whoosh! And then I realize you know screw it because really every archer has to account for wind, right? If you’re a sniper or an archer is you do any long range shooting, you have to account for the breeze. That breeze is not your friends, it’s not your family, it’s what everyone else says when you google search yourself. Because I think, may I say, when it comes to my friends and my family, I do a rather beautiful job of taking care of the people that I love. Sol let’s review my assets here, I’ve got a band that’s amazing that continues to play through my complete babbling, I’ve got a family that loves me, that I love. I’ve had the same close friends that I’ve had for 10 years. I’ve got a career where you guys show up and let me wear the jersey of the most rival team of all time and still you’re here cheering for me, I am never going to get over that. I get to make another record, I get to go home to an apartment which is absolutely mine because of you guys and I thank you. So yeah, maybe if you google search my name the word douchebag comes up. But that google search isn’t going to take you out to dinner, you can’t ask google search to take care of you when you’re low, you can’t ask google search to come over on a Sunday night when you can’t sleep and you’re wondering if you’re an okay dude and you just need to talk to some else. That’s why, friends, got ‘em! Family, got ‘em! Little bit of money to take care of those friends and family, got ‘em! Crowd, got ‘em! Guitar, got ‘em! The best record I ever wrote in my mind, still in my mind, got it! So really what’s wrong?! My friends thank you for loving me ‘cause nothing is wrong and I am going to carry on the next 18 months of my life without being on stage believing that nothing is wrong! If there is anything that I said that you can relate to, will you please consider that nothing is wrong, it’s all garbage! Go to your friends, your family, your job, your place to sleep and the love you actually get from 1 on 1. Do you hear what I’m saying?! Cause we’ve got dreams, dreams to remember…”
—
John Mayer (Best speech ever!!! WPB 9/11/2010)
What an amazing way to end the tour.
(via tropicalblitz) He is amazing… — Eli’s blog:
—
John Mayer (Best speech ever!!! WPB 9/11/2010)
What an amazing way to end the tour.
(via tropicalblitz) He is amazing… — Eli’s blog:
I really though my heart was going to explode at this show.
I wish that when I was younger I could have met my current self. We would have sat down at a coffee shop so that I could explain life to young me in terms that only we would understand. It would have saved me a lot of hardship.
— John Mayer (via mayerology)
(via elisblog)
Eli's blog: Quality JM Quotes
Famous people make really bad records, so I make music as a musician.”
“The people who have the hardest time are the people who are fighting the future.”
“I know that I’m supposed to say that my newest one (album) is the best one. Bullshit. Continuum is my best one.”
“Those barriers are there to protect you from me. If you get within 10 feet of me, I’ll ruin your life.”
“Painful as it may be sometimes, I recommend going through life without the epidural.”
“I’ve realized that I’d rather follow a person into battle who’s got a bunch of heart rather than a bunch of head.”
“I will always care about things I shouldn’t, but that’s a good way of making sure I don’t miss caring about something important.”
“You can listen to all the sage wisdom you want, but things only make sense when you can explain them to yourself in your own words.”
“Think of how much mental capacity I’m using to meet the right person so I can stop giving a fuck about it!”
“I have a good heart. I think I may have gotten lost a couple of times, but so does everybody.”
“I get to this point now where I start learning that: when all else fails, go with the heart.”
“Am I lonely? on such a fundamental level, it’s ridiculous. I’m dying from inside out and only music is my saviour.”
“Success is not measured in how much money you make, it’s when you say you are going to do something and you do it!”
“I’d recommend full on global formal nuclear war before I’d recommend to try to get a lady jealous on purpose. It doesn’t end well.”
“Anybody who criticizes you is a wimp. So be you. And be you loud, and be you strong, and be you to the maximum.”
“For as badass and unaffected as we try to come off, we’re all just one sentence away from being brought to the edge of tears…”
“I’m just saying, one thing that girls gotta learn to understand is, 3 words: “I’m - not - him.”
“Be the only thing I can’t outsmart in my life. Be the only thing I didn’t see coming, ‘cause I see everything coming!”
“If they’re worth something still, cancel your plans and go to them. It’s okay to give your heart to someone you already gave your heart to.”
“There’s always gonna be grey area. And I ruined a lot of years of my life trying to turn grey area into either black or white. You can’t.”
“The truth is going to catch up with us whether we want to run from it or not.”
“Sometimes you have to throw in the towel and call that ‘re-occuring flaw’ a character trait. Someone will love it.”
“Sometimes it feels like my life is just one long day.”
Article about John Mayer 2/13/04 in The CT Post right before the Grammy Awards
I moved from NJ to Bridgeport, CT the summer of ‘83 where we lived for one year. My daughter went to Bridgeport High School for most of that year when JM’s father was the principal, though I don’t remember him. Thinking back to that time, I wonder if I could have “passed him on the sidewalk” while I was out and about. JM turned 6 that year…that beautiful little boy who grew up to be a beautiful man.
I love the last few lines…
But the memories of selling out a club that holds 180 people for the first time, what that drive home was like, that’s mine. “Those were really special days for me. Playing Eddie’s Attic [a club in Atlanta] and selling a bunch of CDs and getting a handful of cash, those were really amazing days. Those were the big steps. The way up, that was a great time.”
If you wanna be free you’ve gotta go it alone and if you wanna go home you’ve gotta build your own,
Cuz you’ll never find what you’re looking for til you open the door to the sweet unknown.
— John Mayer, Berklee Clinic 2011
“Can I write a song because of somebody but not about them? By way of my experiences, but not as a sordid retelling of them? Because if I can’t, I need to rewrite the last line to my new song “Boning you on my helicopter”.”
-John Mayer
ooooh mmmyyy goodness
ABC interview, AU, 2009.
- John Mayer: My job is to play songs for people, my job is to transport people, my job is to give people 45 minutes on a record and two hours on stage of escapism. And I think for me to take the role of tutor, and trying to explain to people why they should feel sorry for me, or why they should have a little more sensitivity to the fact that I'm not just complaining because I'm a celebrity, this is actually a problem. I don't necessarily want to do that. Because I think in explaining that, whether you were successful at it or not, you've taken that ability to transport somebody away, you know what I mean?
- Interviewer: It's not just escapism is it, I think you also have a desire to reinforce our essential humanity and brotherhood.
- John: Which you can do with music without having to explain outside of music why somebody--you know somebody could come up to me and go ''Dude, why not just let them have the picture?' Now, I have two choices. I could sit them down and talk to them, and 5 minutes later their head would be on backwards, they would go 'I had no idea.' But the question is, do you really want somebody to carry that load? Isn't it sort of completely antithetical to what you go and see an artist for? To take on his load, you know. That's why I say to people 'It's awesome, it's fine, don't worry about it.' There might be information that I could give people that would exonerate me as being a douchebag as people call me, but I think overall, it's a really bad idea. Because you will in having done that, removed this relationship that's essential in somebody saying 'Just play me a song, and let me just disappear into it.'
- Interviewer: Yeah, I don't want you to dump on me, but I love it when you celebrate your humanness and I love it when you celebrate your vulnerability.
- John: Oh no no, that's fine, I just mean talking about--trying to explain the vitriolic media, I don't think that should be my narrative. So I'd rather deal with that on my own time, and if it is terrible, then I'll deal with that. But I think to interject that into the stream of communication I have with people with a guitar around my back, and a record coming out, I think if the music is good enough, you can erase all that stuff. And let me deal with the stuff that might be not as fun as I wish it was, but then you at least maintain that ability to communicate with a fan. I don't want anybody worrying about me. I don't want a fan going like 'I had no idea.' That's terrible, and they don't realize that their head is hung low and they're walking away from me and they've realized that I have just taken away everything from them that they believed in.
Some of you out there has made some decisions recently to leave somebody that you love, thought loved you, thinks still loves you, and you still can’t find a way to work it out. And if you done it three days ago then you’re still on the straight and now. But if you done it three weeks ago it’s getting tough. It’s getting tough to hold on ‘cause those dreams are coming in, yeah. Things happen you want to tell the other person about, you know what I’m talking about? Yeah, then you start getting the dreams where they’re cool. You wake up like ‘Oh, I think they’re actually cool.’ Nah, that’s just dreams messing with you, all right. So, a lot of people here are trying to stick to their guns. But now it’s getting harder and harder not to write back. ‘Cause when you resist, they persist. That’s just how it goes, right? But I’m here to tell you that you are not psychotic. You are not crazy, you’re just lonely, and loneliness is a hell of a drug. Loneliness is a hell of a drug. So I’m here to take over your brain for a moment if that’s how you actually feel and remind you; do not have contact. Do not have contact, I don’t care how lonely you get. Loneliness is part of it, right? You’ll be lonely, but I know you’ll be OK. You’ll be lonely, but I know you’ll be okey, ‘cause good love is on the way. So when that Blackberry goes off, or that iPhone goes ‘brrrfff brrrfff’ and it is who you think it is; turn it over and go back to bed, and sing yourself a little lullaby.
— John Mayer, Perfectly Lonely, Noblesville, 2010. (via samanthaaurelie)
We all go around in circles, we get into something, we go all the way into it, blow it up, and then leave it.
— John Mayer - in NAMM 2012. (via dreamersmind)
Jimi Hendrix by John Mayer Jimi Hendrix is one of those extraordinary hubs of music where everybody lands at some point. Every musician passes through Hendrix International Airport eventually — whether you’re a Black Sabbath fan or an Elmore James fan; whether you like Hanson or the Grateful Dead. He is the common denominator of every style of contemporary music. There were so many sides to his playing. Was he a bluesman? Listen to “Voodoo Chile” and you’ll hear some of the eeriest blues you can find. Was he a rock musician? He used volume as a device. That’s rock. Was he a sensitive singer-songwriter? In “Bold As Love,” he sings, “My yellow in this case is not so mellow/In fact I’m trying to say it’s frightened like me” — that is a man who knows the shape of his heart.
So often, he’s portrayed as a loud, psychedelic rock star lighting his guitar on fire. But when I think of Hendrix, I think of some of the most placid, lovely guitar sounds on songs like “One Rainy Wish,” “Little Wing” and “Drifting.” “Little Wing” is painfully short and painfully beautiful. It’s like your grandfather coming back from the dead and hanging out with you for a minute and a half and then going away. It’s perfect, then it’s gone.
I think the reason musicians love Hendrix’s playing so much is that the language of it was so native to his head and heart. He had a secret relationship with playing the guitar, and though it was incredibly technical and based in theory, it was his theory. And I think that was sacred to him. That’s why you almost never read an interview with him explaining his live-gear setup or his favorite scales. That’s part of what made his playing so compelling — all you heard was the color. The math is what’s been applied ever since.
I discovered Hendrix by way of Stevie Ray Vaughan. I heard Stevie Ray do “Little Wing,” and I started working my way backward to Hendrix. The first Hendrix record I bought was Axis: Bold As Love, because it had “Little Wing” on it. I remember staring at the album cover for hours. Then I remember spending months listening to Electric Ladyland, which was very creepy. There’s something dark about it in certain places that maybe Hendrix was too honest to hide.
Hendrix invented a kind of cool. The cool of a big conch-shell belt. The cool of boots that your jeans are tucked into. If Jimi Hendrix is an influence on somebody, you can immediately tell. Give me a guy who’s got some kind of weird-ass goatee and an applejack hat, and you just go, “He got to you, didn’t he?”
Hendrix has the allure of the tragic figure: We all wish we were genius enough to die before we’re twenty-eight. People want to paint him as this lonely, shy figure who managed to let himself open up on the stage and play straight colors through the crowd. There’s something heroic about it, but there’s nothing human about it. Everybody is so caught up in the otherworldliness of Jimi Hendrix. I prefer to think about his human side. He was a man who had a Social Security number, not an alien. The merchandising companies made the Space God. They put Jimi Hendrix’s face on a tie-dyed T-shirt, and somehow that’s what he became. But when I listen to Hendrix, I just hear a man, and that’s when it’s most beautiful — when you remember that another human being was capable of what he achieved. I will always try to attain that kind of control on the guitar: Hendrix’s playing was sloppy, but it was controlled. Who I am as a guitarist is defined by my failure to become Jimi Hendrix. And that’s who a lot of people have become. However far you stop on your climb to be like him, that’s who you are.
(From RS 946, April 15, 2004) — Words by John
So often, he’s portrayed as a loud, psychedelic rock star lighting his guitar on fire. But when I think of Hendrix, I think of some of the most placid, lovely guitar sounds on songs like “One Rainy Wish,” “Little Wing” and “Drifting.” “Little Wing” is painfully short and painfully beautiful. It’s like your grandfather coming back from the dead and hanging out with you for a minute and a half and then going away. It’s perfect, then it’s gone.
I think the reason musicians love Hendrix’s playing so much is that the language of it was so native to his head and heart. He had a secret relationship with playing the guitar, and though it was incredibly technical and based in theory, it was his theory. And I think that was sacred to him. That’s why you almost never read an interview with him explaining his live-gear setup or his favorite scales. That’s part of what made his playing so compelling — all you heard was the color. The math is what’s been applied ever since.
I discovered Hendrix by way of Stevie Ray Vaughan. I heard Stevie Ray do “Little Wing,” and I started working my way backward to Hendrix. The first Hendrix record I bought was Axis: Bold As Love, because it had “Little Wing” on it. I remember staring at the album cover for hours. Then I remember spending months listening to Electric Ladyland, which was very creepy. There’s something dark about it in certain places that maybe Hendrix was too honest to hide.
Hendrix invented a kind of cool. The cool of a big conch-shell belt. The cool of boots that your jeans are tucked into. If Jimi Hendrix is an influence on somebody, you can immediately tell. Give me a guy who’s got some kind of weird-ass goatee and an applejack hat, and you just go, “He got to you, didn’t he?”
Hendrix has the allure of the tragic figure: We all wish we were genius enough to die before we’re twenty-eight. People want to paint him as this lonely, shy figure who managed to let himself open up on the stage and play straight colors through the crowd. There’s something heroic about it, but there’s nothing human about it. Everybody is so caught up in the otherworldliness of Jimi Hendrix. I prefer to think about his human side. He was a man who had a Social Security number, not an alien. The merchandising companies made the Space God. They put Jimi Hendrix’s face on a tie-dyed T-shirt, and somehow that’s what he became. But when I listen to Hendrix, I just hear a man, and that’s when it’s most beautiful — when you remember that another human being was capable of what he achieved. I will always try to attain that kind of control on the guitar: Hendrix’s playing was sloppy, but it was controlled. Who I am as a guitarist is defined by my failure to become Jimi Hendrix. And that’s who a lot of people have become. However far you stop on your climb to be like him, that’s who you are.
(From RS 946, April 15, 2004) — Words by John
When you’re alone a lot and it doesn’t go the way you want outside, you make it the way you want inside. You create comfort to make up for the outside world. You create, create, create, create. It’s all in your head, but you go to it, because it’s your safe place, and that’s what I did.
— John Mayer (via jmquotes)
(via elisblog)
A Look Back
ONE FORTY PLUS: HAPPY HOLIDAY
When you see a string of lights in some perfect sequence of colors,
or when you hear a Christmas song that makes you joyful and somber at the same time,
that’s the work of dozens of Holiday memories coming together.
That’s the collective memory of many Holidays’ past.
