John Mayer

[whygohome?]

Love soon kind of sucks though IMO. Not a better song than walt grace by a long shot

[CrashDMB237]

Paradise Valley is borderline unlistenable for me. I love almost every other album with Battle Studies being a little meh. PV is just garbage though.

[Speilmen230]

Originally Posted by whygohome?

Love soon kind of sucks though IMO. Not a better song than walt grace by a long shot

I dig on Love Soon. I really enjoy john's early personal relationship based songs because he is brutally honest about them and more often than not, we've all been there. I connect with it way more than some story about a guy who builds a submarine and makes it to Tokyo and gets to rub it in his friends and families faces.

[Speilmen230]

Originally Posted by CrashDMB237

Paradise Valley is borderline unlistenable for me. I love almost every other album with Battle Studies being a little meh. PV is just garbage though.

Yup. Paper Doll, Dear Marie, & Call Me The Breeze are the highlights for me on that album, and none of those are great songs. Dear Marie is probably my favorite, but I'd take Wonderland over it and everything else on PV.

[whygohome?]

Originally Posted by Speilmen230

I dig on Love Soon. I really enjoy john's early personal relationship based songs because he is brutally honest about them and more often than not, we've all been there. I connect with it way more than some story about a guy who builds a submarine and makes it to Tokyo and gets to rub it in his friends and families faces.

Holy fuck did you miss the point of that song. Whoa

The basic gist of it is: when you find yourself in a rut and are not happy, only you can get yourself out of it. If you aren't afraid of failing or even dying to escape mediocrity, you can witness the sunset in the open sea or whatever your version of that is.

[Speilmen230]

Meh. :shouldershrug

Care to elaborate?

[whygohome?]

Which is also why it's irrlevant if he lives or dies in the end of the song. He accomplishes what he set out to do: find peace and be remembered. This is accomplished we know bedause 'for once in his life, it was quiet/as he learned how to turn with the tides' and 'his friends bring him up when they're drinking'.

Whether he dies or not, he did what we all want with our lives. By doing something crazy and refusing to live the mediocre status quo for another day. It's extremely inspirational if it hits you at the right time, on the way to work or something.

[Speilmen230]

Don't get me wrong, it's a fine song, and if that is the big overall gist, i still don't think it is all that amazing. Just a 'pretty good' song for me in his catalogue.

I'd take all of Room for Squares, Inside Wants Out, & Continuum (sans Dreaming with a Broken Heart) over Walt Grace. Best part of Walt Grace is the opening to it.

[whygohome?]

Faith in one's self is really powerful and not easily attained. We spend our childhood relying on our parents. Then after college we rely on relationships and friends. In the end if you aren't happy with YOU nothing will fill that void. At a certain point it takes something extreme (like building a motherfuckin submarine and pedaling across the pacific) to bring yourself that inner peace. It sounds a little hippy but it's very, very real and I can see how someone like john who seemingly has it all but obviously sometimes isn't happy with himself (as evidenced with almost everything on born and raised) would explore this theme. Ok im done now.

Eh it's ok you don't think its that great. You will one day. It's certiainly better than 'hey I like fucking you and if we keep fucking it might end up being love!" A la 'love soon' but that's my opinion

[MOWJO8185]

For me, Walt Grace is great, but If I Ever Get Around to Living is the MVP of B&R. I literally never get sick of that song.

[CrashDMB237]

I find myself listening to Born and Raised a lot when I travel for work. Something very soothing about that album. I don't dislike flying, but it certainly helps with the whole flying experience. I have a cross country flight to San Fran coming up at the end of March... might knock out the entire JM catalog.

[recentlyJTR41]

Love Soon is about meeting a girl on the internet

Dude is/was super weird

[justink]

Originally Posted by recentlyJTR41

Love Soon is about meeting a girl on the internet

Dude is/was super weird

whaaat? no it's not.

it's weird that you would think that.

[recentlyJTR41]

Originally Posted by justink

whaaat? no it's not.

it's weird that you would think that.

He explained it during the 6-15-99 Eddie's Attic show that it is

[justink]

Originally Posted by recentlyJTR41

He explained it during the 6-15-99 Eddie's Attic show that it is

eh, john uses a lot of "for example" stories. but there's nothing about that song that says... "hey, so i met this chick on aolim. she's pretty rad."

[recentlyJTR41]

Originally Posted by justink

eh, john uses a lot of "for example" stories. but there's nothing about that song that says... "hey, so i met this chick on aolim. she's pretty rad."

He explains that they met and she said she "was a little too old for him" He was like 18-19.

"I read your complaint, you'e needing someone older...."



Re-listening now. I fucking love Love Soon. Definitely one of my favorite Mayer songs.

[justink]

Originally Posted by recentlyJTR41

He explains that they met and she said she "was a little too old for him" He was like 18-19.

"I read your complaint, you'e needing someone older...."



Re-listening now. I fucking love Love Soon. Definitely one of my favorite Mayer songs.

"I know you've been sworn
I've read your complaint..."

That's allusion to a court proceeding.

great song though. he's really tried to distance himself from pre continuum stuff. which is a shame.

[fonzz41]

Originally Posted by MOWJO8185

Are all the Room For Squares fans like die-hard fans from day 1? Like the album has a bit of nostalgia for you in addition to being just a very good acoustic pop album? I didn't get really into Mayer until around the Continuum era, other than being aware of No Such Thing, Wonderland, and Daughters, and as such I don't feel like I've ever been as completely enthralled with it as early Mayer fans.

Yes, there is definitely some nostalgia that factors into my love for it. Just because of the way it changed my whole outlook on songwriting. I first discovered JM when I was randomly perusing the "M" section at a CD store (remember those?) back in like 2001 (I was 16). I had a habit back then of buying CDs just based on the look of the album, the song names, etc. I'd never heard of him, but the album looked cool - a guy on the front with a guitar, songs like "My Stupid Mouth", "3x5", and "Great Indoors". Plus, the CD was only like $7, so I bought it. I remember popping it into the CD player in my car for the drive home, and BOOM that intro to No Such Thing floored me. I think I listened to that song three more times before I allowed myself to listen to the remainder of the album. Even better when I started hearing it on the radio. Probably why that song ranked #2 on that silly every-JM-song ranking I did a couple pages back here. Other RFS songs rank higher on my list than probably on some people's (ahem, Great Indoors), and again, I fully admit to a nostalgia bias. But even then, Wonderland was at the very bottom - dead last - on my rankings. Can't stand it.

It's easy to see John's evolution from that album, but it still holds a special place in my heart simply because of how it changed my outlook on music. I'd always been a fan of the blues and jazz, as well as a fan of good acoustic folk/pop/rock stuff. But never had the idea occurred to me that you could COMBINE the two . I remember sitting down in my room trying to figure out No Such Thing early on. Finally I gave up and found a tab of it... I was like, "holy shit... he's playing jazzy/blues stuff over pop melodies and rhythms!!! Why didn't I think of that?!" A lot to handle for an innocent little teenager

Originally Posted by whygohome?

Faith in one's self is really powerful and not easily attained. We spend our childhood relying on our parents. Then after college we rely on relationships and friends. In the end if you aren't happy with YOU nothing will fill that void. At a certain point it takes something extreme (like building a motherfuckin submarine and pedaling across the pacific) to bring yourself that inner peace. It sounds a little hippy but it's very, very real and I can see how someone like john who seemingly has it all but obviously sometimes isn't happy with himself (as evidenced with almost everything on born and raised) would explore this theme. Ok im done now.

Very well said. I'd always kinda considered the song to be a metaphor of John's life; kinda autobiographical in nature. Even after I read/watched an interview where he said it was just a character he made up, I still can't help but wonder if he's projecting a bit of himself onto Walt. This was another song that finished near the top of my silly rankings.

[dvalukis]

Originally Posted by fonzz41

Yes, there is definitely some nostalgia that factors into my love for it. Just because of the way it changed my whole outlook on songwriting. I first discovered JM when I was randomly perusing the "M" section at a CD store (remember those?) ...

Same thing for me. I'm guessing most of us are around the same age. For those of us rocking 6 strings at the time, JM was like advanced pop writing for guitar. You know, you learn the Dave stuff, the classic rock riffs, but nothing 'next level' was happening at the time until RFS came along. That album and the unreleased early stuff that you could grab off Napster, Limewire, or Kazaa probably propelled a lot of us to that "next level" we were looking for.

That early stuff is 'church' for some of us. Catherine Gagne' anyone? lol

[bartender_man]

How is John live these day? I saw him 3 times back when his first couple of albums came out but have not since.

[dmbredsox36]

Originally Posted by CrashDMB237

I find myself listening to Born and Raised a lot when I travel for work. Something very soothing about that album.

Exactly how I feel - not necessarily the flying for work part, but in general, I really like songs from that album when I'm on the way to work in the mornings.

[Benny003]

I think I actually came across Mayer through collecting live music. Around 2000 (age 17) I was just getting into collecting live DMB shows, which led me to others like OAR, Matt Nathanson, and Howie Day. I think I came across Mayer through finding those others' live shows, so I had heard a lot of bootleg live shows of his before ever hearing his studio album. I went to buy his CD in a store and it was still the black and white cover version that didn't include 3x5. I remember when the video for No Such Thing first came out (saw it on VH1) and thinking that it was neat to see a musician I had been liking "making it" with a real video. I still love those live acoustic shows of his from like 2000 where you can hear the bear bottles being thrown in the trash in the background. He improvised a lot and did some fun covers.

[justink]

Originally Posted by Benny003

I think I actually came across Mayer through collecting live music. Around 2000 (age 17) I was just getting into collecting live DMB shows, which led me to others like OAR, Matt Nathanson, and Howie Day. I think I came across Mayer through finding those others' live shows, so I had heard a lot of bootleg live shows of his before ever hearing his studio album. I went to buy his CD in a store and it was still the black and white cover version that didn't include 3x5. I remember when the video for No Such Thing first came out (saw it on VH1) and thinking that it was neat to see a musician I had been liking "making it" with a real video. I still love those live acoustic shows of his from like 2000 where you can hear the bear bottles being thrown in the trash in the background. He improvised a lot and did some fun covers.

all of this post made me nostalgic. but the bold brought the truth. that's how you know you're listening to a real musician that's climbing.

i've recorded lots of those and battled those damn trash cans. i move them every chance i get.

[fonzz41]

Originally Posted by dvalukis

Same thing for me. I'm guessing most of us are around the same age. For those of us rocking 6 strings at the time, JM was like advanced pop writing for guitar. You know, you learn the Dave stuff, the classic rock riffs, but nothing 'next level' was happening at the time until RFS came along. That album and the unreleased early stuff that you could grab off Napster, Limewire, or Kazaa probably propelled a lot of us to that "next level" we were looking for.

That early stuff is 'church' for some of us. Catherine Gagne' anyone? lol

YES!!!! If the early stuff is church, Gagne wrote the bible. I've still got a binder full of her tabs.

Your post is SPOT on. I remember grabbing so much live stuff (like Benny mentioned in his post) off Limewire, then finding Gagne's tabs and just working away at it.

[oasisfan35]

Originally Posted by Benny003

I think I actually came across Mayer through collecting live music.

I did just this. When DMB was on the LMA it was pretty awesome and I do believe I snagged the 'Inside Wants Out' SHNs around this same time.

[saygood41]

I came across this early show of John Mayer today, not sure how many of you have seen it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJVKEamLbss
West Hollywood
October 10th, 2001
[DV-Masters]

Setlist:

00:00:58 Back To You
00:06:52 City Life
00:11:44 (Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic) »
00:16:48 My Stupid Mouth
00:21:02 Intro »
00:22:07 No Such Thing
00:27:45 Love Song For No One
00:32:47 Your Body is a Wonderland
00:41:24 Lenny (Stevie Ray Vaughan) »
00:44:00 The Wind Cries Mary (Hendrix) »
00:46:45 Everything Is Not Broken* »
00:49:39 The Wind Cries Mary (reprise)
00:52:18 Not Myself
00:56:54 3x5
01:02:55 Why Georgia
01:09:09 Jam (?) »
01:10:55 (LoFi Allstars Battleflag tease?) »
01:11:04 Neon
01:20:40 ----Encore Start---
01:21:30 Comfortable

* - Rare John Mayer song

[Speilmen230]

the song Quiet is one of my favorite dark horse songs of john.

Carry on.

[justink]

expect some movement from john coming in the next few weeks.

i'm excited!

[HoldemHart]

Originally Posted by justink

expect some movement from john coming in the next few weeks.



i'm excited!

Your subtle comments are killing me. I can't wait to hear what he's got planned.

[dontdrink36]

Originally Posted by justink

expect some movement from john coming in the next few weeks.

i'm excited!

What is your inside connection? If you don't mind me asking.