(via elisblog)
Now this might not have been on a list of songs that you were expecting to hear this evening but something happens to me when I get to play this song. And that’s what writing a song is so wonderful for, is that you can sorta make a note to yourself, a musical note to yourself. I would say…
Regarding War Of My Life.
I don’t want a developed web site right now. I’m not a developed artist. I mean, I was. three times now.
But to evolve you have to dismantle, and that means accepting the idea that nothing you’ve created in the past matters anymore, except that it brought you here.
To pick up your new marching…
War Of My Life @ Hershey | John Mayer
“Now this might not have been on the list of songs you were expecting to hear this evening. But something happens to me, when I get to play this song. And that’s what writing a song is so wonderful for, is that you can sort of make a note to yourself. A musical note to yourself. I would say this song is a bit like a horoscope, or a psychic reading that was designed to make everybody think that it was spot on. Because quite frankly, I feel like everybody thinks that they’re currently in the war of their life. It’s what makes it interesting, you know? It’s a different battle for everybody out there. But I like the song, because it might sneak up on a couple people out there who are wondering how they’re possibly gonna carry on with life as they know it. And the answer is; don’t. But don’t get me wrong, you’re not gonna carry on with life as you know it. You’re just gonna know it differently, and then you’re gonna carry on with the new stuff that you learnt. Then you’ll get through it. So you might not have the answers now, but if you stick around you’ll pick up the magic flute. Yes, it’s a Zelda reference. Oh, I know that we’re all in the war of our lives. Not quite at the door of our lives. We’re out of time and there’s nowhere to run. So fight on. Just fight on everyone. I’ll fight on if you fight on. We got no choice but to fight till it’s done. And I won’t give up, don’t you give up now. I won’t run if you don’t run. I won’t stop if you don’t stop for anyone. Don’t you run, don’t you stop for anyone.”
John Mayer.
(via elisblog)
(via elisblog)
I needed this today.
“Everybody’s life has lines in it…chapter marks. Everybody’s life has chapter marks. Some people’s chapter marks in their life…some of them are really good. Some of them remind you of a time when everything went really well or some of them remind you of a time when it didn’t go well or maybe it didn’t go well at first and then changed you and things went even better than they were before. And there was a line in my life when I was 19 years old when I said to my guitar, almost literally “you know better than me. And therefore, I’m going to follow you wherever you take me” and I’m going to trust this guitar. And I’m gonna trust this guitar. I’m gonna trust this guitar.
And if that takes me to sleeping on a pool table, or if that takes me into a bout of loneliness I never saw coming…well, I’m gonna still do that because I think I have a calling. And I know…and I know… and I know …that I traded certain things as a human being, I know that I did. there are certain parts of my brain that will never be the same, certain parts of my brain that are now converted to being able to do things on this level, that are at the expense of being able to do things on a somewhat of a more docile human level.
But I know…but I know…that is the very making of a calling! Callings are not perfect. When you have a calling, you have to give a lot up to follow the calling. That’s why it’s called a calling…BECAUSE THE SOUND COMES FROM FAR AWAY!
And you have to follow the sound of your calling. And it’s one of the hardest things in the world to do. It’s the reason the world is full of really talented people who didn’t go try it, and that’s okay. But to the people who hear the ringing of the bell of the calling…that sound that they have to follow, you will have to give up certain parts of your life. And yes, I have given up certain parts of my life to follow this sound and I have found a beautiful thing in it.
On a night like tonight, I need to thank you, for making this journey feel so unbelievable and so unbelievably worth the trip and the getting lost and the found and the lost and the found on the way to figuring out what my true calling is. I would never ever ever ever trade this back again for the rest of my life. I love this all, thanks to you.
Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you”
John Mayer, 3/12/10 - Nationwide Arena, Columbus, Ohio
(via elisblog)
“I kinda had this melody come up and I had this idea for a long time, a song called ‘Heart of Life’, and- and, uh… Something very interesting about death in the natural- sort of ‘natural cause’ kind of way when somebody dies like, like, the slow fade-out, y’know, like, literally, like- they’re like a leaf in water, it- it’s so bea- it’s kinda beautiful in a way because it’s just like a leaf curling up or anything in nature that just kinda loses its- its life and kind of turns in. An-an- and I was witnessing it a couple years ago, and, um, it was just beautiful and compelling and strange and I remember I… just couldn’t- didn’t blink for a long time. I was just like, y’know’ I wonder if, at the end of the game, it- do you go like ‘I’m glad I did that’ like ‘that- that was actually kinda fun’ or, at the end of the game, do you go like ‘y’know what, I just remember being cold a lot’? I don’t know- or like- y’know, I’m like, ‘what do you- what do you take with you?’ and then, maybe more likely, it just completely balances out, and they give you a pad and a pen or something, like ‘go figure it out’, you come back and you’re like ‘I-I can’t, every time I come up with one from the left column, I come up with one from the right column’. And so, this idea of, um, ‘I know the heart of life is good’ and it was sittin’ around for a while and I was lucky enough to have my hands on the guitar when this idea came along… and, uh… it’s called ‘The Heart of Life’ and I really hope I don’t mess it up.”
John Mayer- The Heart of Life (live, Hotel Cafe 4.10.06).
omg I just realized…I have had this version for a long time and I didn’t know there was a little speech before it. Awesome.
SO EXITED that this one is still on the table. Do we have an acoustic version out there anywhere? Or a lap steel. That sound is absolutely DIVINE:)
(via misguidedportableheart)
(via elisblog)
(via elisblog)
His speeches are just the best. (via gas-oil-leather)
Running changes are the hardest things to make in life. As you get older, you can only make running changes, because you can’t press pause. Some of you press pause for the months of July and August and figure out how you’d like to change in September. But when you get a little bit older, the entire line blurs into one big game, match, theatrical event, you’re always on. You can’t stop. And so what you have to learn to do is change while you’re moving. And the way that I visualize that is being off at sea, because when you’re an adult, you’re just off at sea. You can’t pull into port and look at your boat from the outside in, you can’t.
You’re on the boat. You’re moving, you’re sailing. Sometimes, you get a tear in the sail in the middle of the storm, and you yourself have to climb the mast and fix the sale while you are still on the boat. and that’s incredibly hard, but it can be done. So I’m just trying to say to you tonight, that if you want to change - you can. You just decide to make the running change. And that ain’t easy. If you don’t like your job, don’t quit. Start looking around while you still have the job you have. It’s okay. We will fix ourselves along the way because there is no pitstop in life anymore, so you are allowed to fix yourself on the fly. It can be done, and I will tell you it is one of the most difficult things you’ll ever have to do in your life. Sometimes you need to swap friends. Sometimes you got the wrong friend in your situation and you have to ask that person psychically or verbally to please exit the scenario. And that’s the running change. You can’t pause that conversation. That’s your life in motion.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is your life in motion. You can do whatever you like with your life in motion. But all things in motion need at least as much inertia in the opposite direction than the motion you’ve already had. So it’s hard, I know. But if you don’t like it, decide during this next guitar solo, that you want to change it. You wanna go home? You make that phone call. You wanna say goodbye? You make that phone call. You wanna say I’m sorry for saying goodbye and like to say hello again? You make that phone call. But you can always change. If you’re still alive, you can still change.
— John Mayer (via wordsbyjohn)(via dreamersmind)
