The funny thing is, his career first took at a time when everybody, in the music biz at least, wanted to know who the hell John Eddie was. It was the mid-eighties and the Virginia native, who'd recently relocated to New Jersey, was playing a showcase club in Manhattan called Trax. A busload of supporters had come to cheer him on. A few A&R guys caught the show, in which John wowed everyone in the house. By the next morning he found himself on the brink of an intense major-label bidding war that soon attracted the interest of the press as well as the industry. It didn't hurt that Bruce Springsteen, was, and still is, a fan and would sometimes surprise John by hopping onstage during his weekly gig at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, NJ.
Though lots of comparisons to the Boss were made, especially after John signed a two-album deal with CBS/Sony, John's approach was always more Memphis than Asbury Park. He had a lot of country in him, plus elements of soul music, folk, and rockabilly. There was boyish swagger in his voice, but it was the vulnerability lurking behind it that could really get to you. John had an easy-going rapport with his very loyal audience, and a self-deprecating sense of humor that has only sharpened over the years.
It's fitting then that he would wind up in Memphis, at the fabled Ardent Studios, to make the most-self assured record of his career, an album that's smart, funny, tender, and that rocks as hard as his sweat-drenched live shows. Who the Hell Is John Eddie? features Kenny Vaughan and PK Lavengood on guitar, Kenny Aaronson on bass, and Kenny Aronoff on drums. The album was produced by Jim Dickinson, a guy as legendary as the studio he helped make famous, and who knows his way around authentic. Dickinson's credits include producing Big Star's Third/Sister Lovers and the Replacements Pleased To Meet Me at Ardent, as well as playing with the Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin and Bob Dylan, just to name a few. Jim's a producer who likes to cut to the chase: to capture, not merely reproduce, an artist's most incandescent moments. He found a lot of those with John.
"Jim taught me a lot about letting the whole thing just happen," John explains. "Don't over-think it and if it doesn't feel real, lose it. We didn't do any pre-production. We just set the band up, I would play the band a song, we would run through it a few times, record something, then look to Jim to see if we were doing anything worthwhile. Jim brought some Memphis voodoo to the sessions. On 'Jesus Is Coming,' I had one verse and half a chorus when we started running through the song. I hadn't even played it for Jim before. He told me I'd been holding out on him. And as I looked at him through the glass, the words finished themselves. I believe God works in mysterious ways. So does Jim Dickinson."
John's always been a great songwriter; now he's an even better one. During his tenure at Sony, and later Elektra, his perennial Next Big Thing status got in the way of the truth of the matter he had already arrived. All you had to do was tune out the din of hype and listen. His material was unfailingly clever, often funny, alternately foot-stomping and heartbreaking. After John went on his own and launched Thrill Show Recordings, the more stripped-down sound of his subsequent albums made his gifts that much more apparent. Who the Hell Is John Eddie? starts off in a gentle, bittersweet vein with "If You're Here When I Get Back, which John calls "wishful thinking put to music," and "Let Me Down Hard," in which "wishful thinking gets mercilessly crushed." Both feature label-mate Tift Merrit on background vocals. But the album definitely grows more raucous as it goes along - John describes "Low Life," for example, as "me trying to be Randy Newman fronting the Rolling Stones"-and culminates in what John calls "my bar-band mini-rock opera."
It's starts with "Nobody's Happy," a sly nod to a Replacements song of almost the same name, and climaxes with "Play Some Skynyrd." Regarding that very autobiographical song, John says, "I've been playing in bars my whole life. Jim Dickinson made this sound like we were playing in an arena to a sea of upraised cigarette lighters. He made it sound like I heard it in my head. He made it sound like an anthem. And he told me it brought tears to his eyes, which is probably the best compliment I've ever gotten."
Although there are two hidden tracks at the end of the disc, it officially concludes with "It Doesn't Get Better Than This," a simple, folk-like ballad that takes you right back to where everything started, with images of a place to come home to and someone waiting there. Maybe it's more wishful thinking put to music, a happy ending John's envisioned somewhere down the road. For us, however, it doesn't get better than this: an album as rollicking and as real as Who the Hell Is John Eddie? from an artist will make damn sure everyone knows who the hell he is.
- Michael Hill
Forty
John Eddie Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Houses sit in white picket frames like Rockwells in a row
I've always been a rebel son but daddy didn't mind
He wanted me to chase my dreams the way he did one time
Now he's on the front porch as I get out of my car
And as my father's eyes meet mine there's one wish in my heart
I'm wishin' my daddy was forty again
We would go fishin' throw an old ball around
Wash his truck go into town
We can never go back to the way it was then
Just for today I wish he was forty again
Now we'll sit and talk for hour of life out on the road
What I've seen and where I've been and journeys left to go
Mama looks at both of us "you're like two kids I swear"
Then the stories turn to laughter before the leaving turns to tears
I'm wishing my daddy was forty again
He would be young and I would be ten
We would go fishin' throw an old ball around
Wash his old truck go into town
We could never go back to the way it was then
Just for today I wish he was forty again
Oh, and just for today I wish he was forty again
The song "Forty" by John Eddie speaks to the nostalgic longing for a time when things were simpler, specifically when the singer's father was forty years old and the singer was just ten. The opening verse describes the singer's hometown as seemingly frozen in time, with the same white picket fence houses and a recognizable sense of familiarity. The singer reflects on his past as a self-proclaimed "rebel son" who was encouraged by his father to chase his dreams. The singer is met by his father on the front porch, and the two sit and talk for hours about life on the road and experiences they've had along the way. The song is characterized by a sense of wistful yearning for a time that can never be fully recaptured.
The chorus serves as the heart of the song, expressing the singer's desire to travel back in time to a moment when his father was at the height of his youth and the singer was still a carefree child. The activities they would do together, such as fishing and playing catch, are simple and ordinary, but loaded with sentimental meaning.
"Forty" is a poignant and heartfelt ballad about the passage of time and the elusive nature of memory. It speaks to the universal human experience of wanting to reclaim the past and preserve the people and moments that were most important to us.
Line by Line Meaning
Still the same old neighborhood like many years ago
The neighborhood still looks the same after so many years
Houses sit in white picket frames like Rockwells in a row
The houses look like the ones seen in Rockwell's paintings
I've always been a rebel son but daddy didn't mind
The singer has always been a rebellious son but his father accepted it
He wanted me to chase my dreams the way he did one time
The father wanted his son to chase his dreams just like he did in his youth
Now he's on the front porch as I get out of my car
The father is waiting on the front porch as the artist arrives
And as my father's eyes meet mine there's one wish in my heart
The singer's heart is filled with a wish as he meets his father's gaze
I'm wishin' my daddy was forty again
The singer wishes his father was young again
He would be young and I would be ten
The father would be young and the artist would be 10 years old
We would go fishin' throw an old ball around
The father and son would go fishing and play catch
Wash his truck go into town
The father and son would wash the truck together and go to town
We can never go back to the way it was then
The past can't be relived and things have changed
Just for today I wish he was forty again
The artist wishes his father was young for just one day
Now we'll sit and talk for hour of life out on the road
The father and son will sit and talk for an hour about their lives on the road
What I've seen and where I've been and journeys left to go
They will talk about the places the singer has been and the journeys he has yet to take
Mama looks at both of us 'you're like two kids I swear'
The mother comments on how the father and son are acting like kids
Then the stories turn to laughter before the leaving turns to tears
Their stories turn into laughter but soon the time to leave will turn into tears
Oh, and just for today I wish he was forty again
The artist reiterates his wish for his father to be young for just one day
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: JOHN EDDIE
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind