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PICASSO​’​S GLAM BAROQUE PSYCHEDELIC SUNSHINE (A collection of 12 way​-​out pop songs)

by Johnny J Blair w/Davy Jones (Monkees), members of The Badlees, & other lumineers

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DUMB ANGEL Words & Music by Johnny J Blair copyright 1990, 2007 Word2Soul Music BMI Don't know you well enough to call you buddy The kids laughed when I called your car a boat Thanks for the ride to the Bible study Even though it looked like ya needed a smoke CHORUS: I saw Elvis crying in the chapel The dumb angel writes his book The Carpenter is waiting at the seaside Used to have a ball in Avis Waxing nostalgic at 14 Man can sing like birds but the women saved us From basking in the music of the trees REPEAT CHORUS TWICE
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Sunday morning Brings the dawning It's just a restless feeling by my side Early dawning Sunday morning It's just a wasted year so close behind CHORUS: Watch out the world's behind you There's always someone around you who will call It's nothing at all Sunday morning And I am falling I've got a feeling I don't want to know Early dawning Sunday morning It's on the streets you crossed not so long ago REPEAT CHORUSES OUT
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Copyright 1969 UMG / Sony ATV Music BMI. Licensed and used by permission.
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I heard someone crying Waterloo Could be the big one, watcha gonna do? Yin yang, sorry Arthur You don't crucify for soap operas Some girl takin' motion pictures of some hillbillies in a union house with fixtures Envision trilateral Commission subliminal Chorus 1: It's indoctrination Gradual sensation Bugs in conversation Next assassination Could be a politician Or some kind of musician Now is the time of salvation I knew a young czar Local heavy punker dead Kaiser Got elected mayor (He say) no more Kinks, No more Stones No more Who, metal drone Saw him buying psychedelics At the coal mine, erecting the new relics He banned the cross, gave us all a new savior Gonna get the mark, or you're gonna get the razor Chorus 2: It's indoctrination ideological rebellion With no consideration Next assassination Deifies the politician Deifies the musician Still there is time for salvation A new prophet, new age centurion He's such a nice man with a nice one world religion One mind, one planet One utopia, one helmet Someone is pulling all the strings His name is backwards, and he'll tell you anything Riling up the left, ruffling the right But it ain't too long 'fore we tie him up tight Repeat Chorus 1 Song written by Johnny J. Blair copyright 1985 Singnorbertmusic, Inc. ASCAP copyright renewed 2007 Word2Soul BMI
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LOVE THAT'S HERE TO STAY Words & Music by Johnny J Blair copyright 2011 Word2Soul Music BMI The world is rough and crazy, and hearts don't get their lift You hear bad news about the people fallin' for some grift But love has a way of mending you when you're worn and ripped And I thank you for coming here and giving me a gift CHORUS: You build me up from clay With a smile you send my way And a love that's here to stay If I could say a prayer for every lip that was split If I could write a song for every time I was told to quit If I could break the news about the love behind my mask Amazing grace is in your face, all you have to do is ask REPEAT CHORUS BRIDGE: I have seen your eyes of green Looking across an ocean Your laughter echoes over the waves Fills my sails and gives me motion I have seen your eyes of blue Sunlight dancing iris Liberating soul ablaze Love can always choose us The heart can be so evil, the heart can be cold as ice But evil cannot stand alone in the blaze of a glorious light The world is rough and crazy, and hearts don't get their lift You hear bad news about the people fallin' for some grift But love has a way of mending you when you're worn and ripped And I thank you for coming here and giving me a gift VAMP CHORUS OUT
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THE SLEEPING GIANT (OF LOVE) Words & Music by Johnny J Blair copyright 1991, 2007 Word2Soul Music BMI Last night there was an awful storm We were so scared and quite alarmed Next day we found him quite unharmed A sleeping giant on the sand A face so gentle and so grand What is he doing in our land? We used to thank the Lord above We used to dance the songs of love Have we forgotten how? CHORUS: Now the giant's sleeping on the beach A bigger one can be within your reach Rejoice respond to what can overcome us when The giant's gonna get us The giant's gonna wake up The giant's gonna get us The giant's gonna wake up soon We send our shuttles to the moon We send each other funny runes But then we forget all the tunes And when the giant comes around He'll have the biggest laugh in town (ha ha ha) Yes we've forgotten how (Repeat Chorus out)
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UNRESOLVED Words & Music by Johnny J Blair copyright 1991, 2007 Word2Soul Music BMI How can I get through To the time to be one with you Lazy days and half a chance Make the straight man sing and dance Even when the Spirit fills your hall Many things go unresolved How did I get into this It's just what you call another fine mess Lazy days and half a chance Make the straight man sing and dance Promises on carousels Turn my heart and make it swell Even when the Spirit fills your hall Many things go unresolved
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about

MEET JOHNNY J BLAIR, A PICASSO OF POP

Pablo Picasso, the great painter, created work that reached people with images and ideas they could relate to, but he also challenged them with fresh uses of color and shape. Likewise, Johnny J. Blair crafts cogent pop songs, using a palette of diverse influences, painted with an economy of invention.

Daub together old school soul, psychedelia, British Invasion rock, and sunny California pop. Splash it with glam rock and rockabilly. Wash that in a vocalese and melodicism breathed by classical, gospel, jazz, and world music. The finished sonic canvas testifies to the passionate rock’n’roll of Johnny J Blair, “Singer at Large.”

Brian Wilson called Blair “a virtuoso.” Legendary James Brown drummer, Clyde Stubblefield, said Blair is like “a white James Brown” in concert. Goldmine Magazine described Blair’s music as “Pop music with a conscience.”

Picasso’s paintings were grouped according to periods and phases. So it is with Blair’s recordings: From baroque pop, to punk/new wave, to orchestral Americana, to funky gospel, to tango-flamenco flavored rock.

Urban humor, romantic abstraction, and bittersweet spirituality are images in Blair’s lyrical vocabulary, drawn from by The Bible, classic comedy, film noir, and novelists such as Raymond Chandler and Graham Greene. Blair’s strong voice transmits this template of tunes to fans of many genres, all around the world.

Since the mid-80s, Blair has issued acclaimed recordings—from the “new wave concept album” Door in the Water, to the soulful masterwork Fire, to the bare-knuckled acoustic “agitpop” of Treadmarks, to the “Ziggy Stardust meets Pet Sounds" expressionism of Grateful, to the metropolitan mysticism of I Like the Street.

Blair’s songs have been commended by Brit-pop icon Sir Cliff Richard, and Blair’s cover of Velvet Underground’s “Sunday Morning” (included on this compilation) was celebrated by the song’s famed co-writer, the late Lou Reed.

Davy Jones of The Monkees, making a posthumous appearance on this compilation, was another advocate, saying that Blair should be “top of the pops.” “I learned valuable lessons from David," adds Blair, who worked extensively with Jones for 20 years, on stage and in the studio (Blair also played bass for the 2011 Monkees Reunion Tour of the UK and USA).

This compilation was assembled especially for bandcamp.com. The set features representative songs that charted globally, as well as rarities and “fan favorites"--including two (!) Velvet Underground/Lou Reed covers, and, making a bandcamp debut, "Dancin' by The River (Tex-Mex Garage Mix)"–Notes by Gilbert Haywire

credits

released January 4, 2017

Johnny J Blair "Singer at Large" with members of The Badlees, Davy Jones (Monkees), Bil Bryant, the Felix String Quartet, Bill Matlack, and other lumineers.

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Johnny J Blair "Singer at Large" San Francisco, California

"Johnny is a virtuoso"--Brian Wilson
"Pop music with a conscience.”--Goldmine
“the Harry Houdini of rock and roll.”-- Spotlight. Listen to Johnny's fast-paced mix of old school soul, psychedelia, punk/new wave, & classic pop/rock. Singer-songwriter in his own right, he was also a sideman for Davy Jones and The Monkees + performed with David Cassidy, Al Stewart, Buddy & Julie Miller, & others. ... more

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