Songs of "All My Own Stuff" by Jerry Lott

CDBaby.com/CD/JerryLott

Since they don’t go into much about the individual songs, the following is a comment or two about them, in the order they appear on the album, just so you have a bit of background to which you can come for a little help with your choices:

1. “I’d like to hear from you” ; Creative writing instructors will tell you to “…write about what you know.” That was apparently so with this one. It’s a piece of my own history that many people identified with, and many found emotionally touching [so they’ve told me]. It’s been one of my most requested songs.
2. “Femme Fatale”; This was a fun stroll through a darker side of whimsy.
3. “Whisper in the Wind”; I had the lyrics and tune for this one long before I had the guitar parts worked out. I think it leans toward “Country”…What do you think? It was one of my favorite pieces to perform.
4. “Another You”; Love found, then lost…
5. “Heartfelt”; I had been working on the guitar lines for this one for about two years, exploring a novel tuning, a full dropped “D” tuning, requiring new runs and their placement, and even entirely new chords. It was excitingly strange, but very beautiful in which to play. My son announced his engagement about this time and I found myself considering writing a song for his wedding; Could I…?,Should I…?, etc.. While playing this piece one day, two entire lines of lyrics popped into my head. As a writer of songs, one does not ignore these things and I quickly wrote them down, which prompted another line, then another…and it just kept going until, about 45 minutes later, I had the whole song, more or less. A few more minutes of refining touch-ups and it was completed. I’m still undecided as to whether to deem it my “Master Piece” or just my most inspired. [ Okay, I’ll tell you; it was a hit at my son’s wedding.]
6. “Movin’”; Yeah, yeah, I know this one’s not very “P.C.” these days, but don’t take it too seriously. I don’t always share the philosophies of the characters in my songs. I found my self unreasonably depressed with how my life was going at the time and needed a song that would [or could] pick up my spirits when I played it. I have enjoyed it and happily played it, now, for many years. [It’s a joke, ladies, a joke…]
7. “That’s all over, now”; Another love’s lost…Alright, so I’m a borderline hopeless romantic.
8. “Baby’s Pissed at Me Blues”; Ha!...Love NOT lost, but his lady is not real happy with him right now [or even lately]. […Been there, thanks]. This one usually got a laugh or two, as intended.
9. “The Reaper’s Comin’”; My only good-old-fashioned Protest Song. I guess, one day I just got tired of seeing the same old totally useless and unnecessary crap happening, seemingly everywhere in the world, that you and I and every other decent person sees handed down to us from “The Powers That Be”, every single day with no end in sight…Whew!...I still get wound up whenever I dwell on it! Don’t you? When the lyrics came, they flowed thru me so fast it was like Automatic Writing. I just let go and watched my hand write it. It didn’t stop until they were finished. I suspected that they were coming, after the music and guitar parts came streaming out of me the day before in the same way. [My songs often write themselves like this, kind of like from another Plane, you know?] […40 years of meditation may have something to do with it, also.]
10. “Grounded”or “Teener Blues”; A fun little ditty that came popping out of my pen after a nostalgic visit with my brother. We started reminiscing about our own teen-age years and comparing them to the same years in our own kids’ lives, long grown up by this time. Seems like, generation after generation, things are just the same, only different, right?...Maybe it will remind you of someone you know.
11. “Sit up and eat your vegetables”; Very popular among all ages, but definitely the most popular among the elementary kids, at the school concerts I did from time to time. I gave copies of my album to family members, and my cousin said she couldn’t get her husband to stop singing it around the house for weeks. Get this one for the kids as a gift and I’ll bet they not only thank you for it, but they’ll be the ONLY ones at school to have it in their collection. [Please, tell them where the other kids can get their own copy.]

This would also be a good time to mention a word about artistic piracy. The world is losing artists every day to this insidious act, not to mention that it’s illegal. Please, when someone says, “Here, I burned you a copy of this new CD I bought.”, just say “No, thanks, but, if you thought I’d like it, where can I buy it?” I hope you agree.

12. “Jimmy the Ape”; Based on a true incident I witnessed [repeatedly] at the San Diego Zoo, back in the early nineteen-fifties. My older brother and I were in our “ ’round-tens”, and we thought that it was the funniest thing we had ever seen at that time of our young lives. Many years later, I discovered that similar scenarios were not uncommon at other zoos, apparently worldwide. You’ve probably guessed what the subject of the song is, by now, but I’ll let you find out for yourself. When ever I was performing this piece, I could almost guarantee that the audience would be singing along with me by the second chorus and practically screaming it by the last, great fun for any performer. [Barely PG-13].

13. “Comin’ Along”; Instrumental
14. “Desert Rendezvous”; Instrumental
15. “Due Home”; Instrumental
To me, instrumentals are just musical pieces that never lent themselves to use as a springboard for any lyrics that may have presented themselves at that time or since… […sometimes I find the lyrics, sometimes they find me. No, I don’t completely understand it yet, either, but then, I’m not finished working on that…]…but some were still fun enough to just play that I didn’t care. CDBaby.com/CD/JerryLott