The Hammock Papers: Jack Johnson, "Good People"

21 July 2020

Jack Johnson, "Good People"

Well you win, it's your show now
So what's it gonna be
'Cause people will tune in
How many train wrecks do we need to see
Before we lose touch of
We thought this was low
It's bad getting worse so

Where did all the good people go,
I've been changing channels
I don't see them
On the TV shows
Where did all the good people go,
We got heaps and heaps of what we sow

They got this and that
With a rattle of tat
Testing, one two
Man what you gonna do
Bad news, misused
Got too much to lose
Gimme some truth
Now whose side are we on
Whatever you say, turn on the boob tube
I'm in the mood to obey
So lead me astray, and by the way now

Where did all the good people go,
I've been changing channels I don't see them
On the TV shows
Where did all the good people go,
We got heaps and heaps of what we sow

Sitting around feeling far away
So far away but I can feel the debris
Can you feel it
You interrupt me from a friendly conversation
To tell me how great it's all gonna be
You might notice some hesitation
It's important to you it's not important to me
But way down by the edge or your reason
Well it's beginning to show
And all I really want to know is

Where did all the good people go,
I've been changing channels
I don't see them on the T.V. shows
Where did all the good people go,
We got heaps and heaps of what we sow

They got this and that
With a rattle of tat
Test down, one two
Man what you gonna do
Bad news, missed use
Gimme some truth
You got too much to lose
Now whose side are we on
But anyway, okay, whatever you say,
Wrong or resolute, I'm in the mood to obey
Station through station
Desensitizing the nation

Where did all the people go?
Going, going, gone

Thank you, Casey.

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WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART

"When I am, as it were, completely myself, entirely alone and of good cheer – say travelling in a carriage or walking after a good meal, or during the night when I cannot sleep – it is on such occasions that my ideas flow best and most abundantly. Whence, and how, they come I know not ; nor can I force them. Those ideas that please me I retain in memory and am accustomed, as I have been told, to hum them to myself. If I continue in this way, it soon occurs to me how I may turn this dainty morsel to account, so as to make a good dish of it. That is to say, agreeable to the rules of counterpoint, to the peculiarities of various instruments etc. All this fires my soul, and, provided I am not disturbed, my subject enlarges itself, becomes methodised, and defined, and the whole, though it be long, stands almost complete and finished in my mind, so that I can survey it like a fine picture or a beautiful statue at a glance. Nor do I hear in my imagination the parts successively, but I hear them, as it were, all at once. What a delight this is, I cannot tell."

MARCUS AURELIUS

"Is your cucumber bitter? Throw it away. Are there briars in your path? Turn aside. That is enough. Do not go on and say, 'Why were things of this sort ever brought into this world?' neither intolerable nor everlasting - if thou bearest in mind that it has its limits, and if thou addest nothing to it in imagination. Pain is either an evil to the body (then let the body say what it thinks of it!)-or to the soul. But it is in the power of the soul to maintain its own serenity and tranquility."

VINCENT van GOGH

"What am I in the eyes of most people? A nonentity or an oddity or a disagreeable person — someone who has and will have no position in society, in short a little lower than the lowest. Very well — assuming that everything is indeed like that, then through my work I’d like to show what there is in the heart of such an oddity, such a nobody. This is my ambition, which is based less on resentment than on love in spite of everything, based more on a feeling of serenity than on passion. Even though I’m often in a mess, inside me there’s still a calm, pure harmony and music. In the poorest little house, in the filthiest corner, I see paintings or drawings. And my mind turns in that direction as if with an irresistible urge. As time passes, other things are increasingly excluded, and the more they are the faster my eyes see the picturesque. Art demands persistent work, work in spite of everything, and unceasing observation."

DAN CAMPBELL