"Don't" (new vocal demo)

My New Site

Check it out:
http://readingmusic101.blogspot.com/

"Yours" performed by Andy Brown

"Yours" 
Lyrics by Andy Brown
Music by Jason Spraggins

My YouTube Channel

I've opened a new YouTube channel so that I can post my songs with some images to go along with them.
Give it a look....

http://www.youtube.com/user/SpragginsMusic

Brian.

   It's hard for me to believe, but I lost a dear friend five years ago today.   He was just shy of his 30th birthday (a bit younger than I am now).  I still think of him often.  I've never met anyone like Brian, and I suspect I never will.   I can't remember a time when I didn't look up to him.  He was the most gifted musician I've known, and he had intellect to match.  He came a long way and accomplished so much in a short amount of time.  The world needs people like him.  He gave without thought or expectation, he didn't judge, and he ALWAYS smiled.   I miss him still.

Allen Toussaint: "Southern Nights"

An American treasure singing a classic with just his piano.  Sweet and Peaceful.  Does it get any better?

"Yours" by Spraggins and Brown

     Andy Brown and I are polishing a new song.   Andy wrote the lyric in 2007, and I (late as always) just finished the melody.  The song is called "Yours", and I have arranged it to be pretty "big"- with harp, strings, oboe, and timpani.  This is one of my favorite things Andy has written; I thought it was very moving even as poetry. You can hear the sheet music by clicking the link below:

"Yours"

I would scale the gates of hell

if it brought more time with you.

I can't help that you're the waking thought

that carries all day through.

You've never masked the truth from me

about the way you do not feel.

I don't think you'll be surprised to know

when before your feet I kneel.

You'd never ask me,

and you'd never want me.

But it doesn't change the fact;

you've unlocked my heart's sleeping doors.

You'll never seek me,

You'll never need.

And  in our play's second act

you'll add me to your list of chores.

Without pride or reservation,

without a moment's hesitation,

I get wrapped up in the corners of your smile.

And we're only here together for a while.

Raise you eyebrow.

I'll ask for more.

Lower your walls.

Consider me yours.

Lyrics by Brown

Music by Spraggins

"Elizabethtown" a new musical

     Andy Brown and I have started work on a new project.  It is a musical based (partly) on a song that I wrote a while ago called "Elizabethtown."  Andy is writing the script and lyrics, and I'm doing the music.  We have finished three songs so far.  Look at my older posts to find the original "Elizabethtown" song.

     You can hear the sheet music to our new songs by clicking the links below:

"Under the Surface"

"Pay the Piper"

"In the Attic"

"The Desert of God"


"In Search of a New Life"


"Blood Money"


"The Ghost Town Hoe Down"


"Why Fear the Forbidden?"


"Marshall Law"


"Heart of an Angel"


"Theme One" (Instrumental)


"Theme Two" (Instrumental)


"Theme Three" (Instrumental)

Hear My Original Music

Visit my artist page at myspace:

http://www.myspace.com/songsbyjasonspraggins

Quincy Jones on Kanye West...

Mr. Quincy Jones, the musical genius, recently said something very wise about the self-proclaimed "voice of our generation", Kanye West.

Here is a part of the interview Jones gave toOMG!:

OMG: Kanye West is similar to you in that he's the producer everybody wants to work with in the last decade....

QJ: How man? No way. Did he write for a symphony orchestra? Does he write for a jazz orchestra? Come on, man. He's just a rapper. There's no comparison. I'm not putting him down or making a judgement or anything, but we come from two different sides of the planet. I spent 28 years learning my first skill. I don't rap. It's not the same thing. A producer has to have some sort of skills that enable him to be a producer. It's totally different to know what to do with 16 woodwinds you know from piccolos down to bass clarinet. It's a whole different mindset. No comparison. None.

Well said Mr. Jones!  You can read the rest of the interview here:
http://omg.yahoo.com/news/quincy-jones-lashes-out-at-kanye-west/51100

Riding with the Prince (draft)

Riding with the Prince

Verse:

I awoke with a vengeance from a year long sleep.

I escaped from my prison and I made the leap

from a time spent in service as a hired gun

to a life filled with endless days on the run.

Verse:

I was looking for salvation in the midst of war.

I never understood what we were fighting for.

After years as a captive I had jumped the fence.

And thats when this renegade meet the Prince.

Chorus:

And I was running.

I was looking for a place to hide.

I was searching-

crossing the border to the other side.

And I found a prince there

who taught the blind to see.

And we were brothers

He found the best in me.

And I've looked beyond

the surface ever since.

I found a new world

While I was riding with the Prince.

Verse:

Well the times still are changing, and I've since gone home.

I've let go of the demons from the life I'd known.

The Prince from the kingdom I'd been taught to fear

made the walls of difference disappear.

(REPEAT CHORUS)

J.A.S. -10/17/10

-for my friend, Prince Buchanan


*click the box below to hear a partial version
of the sheet music:

The Marble Man

(Click box above to hear a midi version of a rough draft for this one)

The Marble Man

Verse:

How did it feel to be home in Virginia,

to leave the haunted battlefields behind?

Did you still hear the cannons and the rifles?

Did sounds of dying men still fill your mind?

Verse:

Remember when you rode from Appomattox.

Did Union soldiers stand up and salute?

You'd worn your uniform and sword in scabbard

to end the bloody war of gray and blue.

Chorus 1:

And did you really live up to your legend-

a southern knight of gentil chivalry?

You bore the burden of the lost rebellion.

You held the old south's battered hopes and dreams.

Verse:

How did it feel to see the south-land burning?

And did you question God at Gettysburg?
How did you keep your courage, faith, and honor
when lines of friend and foe were ever blurred?

Bridge:

How did you hold the strength of your convictions?

Was loyalty a blessing or a curse?

You sought the better angels of our being.

But in the midst of war you saw our worst.

Chorus 2:
You'll live forever as a man of marble-
A distant, mythic figure cast in stone-
A Washington who did not win the glory.
But were you ever truly flesh and bone?

Verse:

How does it feel to be home in Virginia-

immortalized, forever set in stone.

Do you still hear the cannons and the rifles

In secret thoughts that will remain unknown?


-J.S. , (2001/2010)

New Demo Recording- "Rio"

Here is a new demo recording of a song I wrote some time ago called "Rio".   It's about the late actor River Phoenix.

"Zebulon" by Rufus Wainwright

Kanye West may call himself the voice of our generation.  For me, it's Rufus.  I love him and what he does.
Who couldn't?  Here he sings one of his new songs.  He does it with no re-verb, no studio tricks, and no band.  It's just Rufus, his songwriting, and his piano.  Beautiful.

The Garden

The Garden

*click to hear sheet music:

 http://tindeck.com/listen/tlhi

Verse 1:

It's midnight in a garden

that's filled with fireflies.

A new day's at the threshold;

an old one slowly dies.

Humidity is hanging.

There's floating candlelight.

I watch these flying lanterns

do battle with my night.

Verse 2:

The lazy trees are dancing

so calmly with the wind.

I'm home in soft seclusion.

My mind is stretched and thin.

And here among these spirits-

the remnants of my past-

I hear a night bird singing

a song that cannot last.

Chorus:

I've found this gentle garden

and hid within its dream.

I've farmed its fertile landscape

and bathed in moonlit streams.

I never meant to linger;

I've stayed here far too long.

This garden's now my fortress

Its walls have grown too strong.

Verse 3:

I gave up hope of flying.

I gladly clipped my wings

to live amidst the beauty-

to worship unseen things.

Alone, I found this garden

of simple solitude

far from the tree of knowledge,

the serpent, and the fruit.

Bridge:

The clock has stopped its chiming,

and time is standing still.

The beast that lives on mem'ries

is ready for the kill.

The garden's slowly dying.

It's starved of sunlit days.

It's now a cemetery-

a place of slow decay

(REPEAT CHORUS)

Verse 4:

Still, midnight's in the garden;

it seems to never leave.

I'm rooted and unchanging-

forever in between.

I need your time and patience

to help me leave this place-

to move on to tomorrow,

feel sunshine on my face.

-J.S. 05/10

VOCAL DEMO:

"Nicholas" - New Recording

"Nicholas", a song that I wrote a while back, has been given a demo recording. You can hear it by clicking the box below. 

Two Life Changing Books and Some Rambling...

A couple of years ago, I read two books that changed my perspective on life. They were Beautiful Boy by David Sheff and Tweak by David's son, Nic. I picked up Beautiful Boy on a whim one day at a local bookstore without even reading the jacket (figuring a title borrowed from a great song by John Lennon has to be a good sign). Within 48 hours, I'd finished it and was back at the bookstore looking for Tweak, as I now felt strangely connected to the family in the story and the tortured addict, Nic. I credit this to David's heartfelt and unbelievably honest writing.

In essence, the books tell the same story from two differing points of view. David's told of how he has nearly lost his son to drug addiction many, many times (and nearly lost his own life, family, and sanity in the process). Nic's deals with the first hand account of a young man growing up and entering adulthood addicted to methamphetamine, providing insight into what led him, a brilliant and caring young student, to fall into a life of drug use and recklessness.

While I am fortunate to have never suffered from an extreme addiction, I can very much relate to what led Nic Sheff into such a dangerous lifestyle. I cried many times while reading these books. I cried for the helpless father who loved and feared for his son and saw all of his child's potential being wasted. I cried for the boy who was so loving but never could love himself- who was so eager to please everyone that he became deathly afraid of rejection.

Nic had/has many demons in his mind that he constantly wrestles. He tells in his book that he found drugs as a way to push his worries, insecurities, and uncomfortable feelings towards himself to the side so that he could survive life. I have dear friends like Nic. In a lot of ways, I'm like Nic too.

Sometimes while reading his thoughts in his book, I felt like I was reading my own thoughts. Thankfully, I never fell into the trap of drug use to deal with my own troubles. Instead, I tend to just shut down, close off, hide, and/or run away. I feel like the speaker in the Cohen song "Bird on a Wire" who sings, "Like a baby still born/Like a beast with his horn/ I've torn everyone who reached out to me". My methods of dealing with internal struggles are less dangerous, but no more helpful than Nic's. I know they often hurt those who are closest to me.

These books made me think about myself, my family, my friends, and life in general. But as usual, I brushed that introspective train of thought aside and kept on living. I'm a master at faking a smile and moving on, as I would imagine many of us are.

This year I turn 30, and I feel like I'm in a bit of a pressure cooker. Recently, things have forced me to turn the spotlight onto my own thoughts- which always scares me. I know that I'm blessed (with all of my baggage and insecurities) not to have followed the same path as Nic Sheff. However, like he did, I need to work at facing myself a bit more and learning to find happiness and validation within myself and not from the approval of others. I've gotta long way to go, but I'm learning- and like Sam Cooke said, "a change is gonna come!"

The older I get, the more I realize that there is no instruction manual on living- we just make it up as we go along and- hopefully- learn from our mistakes. Beautiful Boy and Tweak were eye opening and emotionally moving books for me. They illustrate how we all are imperfect in so many ways, but that our imperfections can shape us and make us better if we recognize them and face them. It also reminded me that the only way to deal with imperfections in others and in ourselves is to use a lot of love a patience. Every soul is-at it's essence- beautiful- we just forget to look that deep sometimes (into others and into ourselves).

And so my rambling ends..."Like a bird on a wire/ Like a drunk in a midnight choir/ I have tried in my way to be free" (Cohen).

Go and read these two books- you'll be glad you did. Until next time, blog people...

*****

Some of my favorite passage from Beautiful Boy and Tweak:

"I always get so overwhelmed trying to do everything perfectly. I can't do a job and not put everything I have into it. I need to be the best employee, the best co-worker, the best whatever. I need everyone to like me and I just burn out bending over backward to make that happen. Having people be mad at me is my worst fear. I can't stand it. There is this crazy fear I have of being rejected by anyone - even people I don't really care about. It's always better to leave them first, cut all ties, and disappear. They can't hurt me that way - no one can. "

"As long as you look for someone else to validate who you are by seeking their approval, you are setting yourself up for disaster. You have to be whole and complete in yourself. No one can give you that. You have to know who you are - what others say is irrelevant."

"It's like if the music is loud enough I won't be able to listen to my own thoughts. "

"I feel so completely crazy sometimes. I don't know which way I'm facing. All I can do is just shove all this shit to the side and try to move forward. "

"I don't want you to worry about protecting my feelings or your father's or anybody's. When you were little you always tried to make everyone happy. Then it was like one day you just exploded."

"None of them seem as crazy obsessive about everything as I am. It's strange 'cause I had the same feeling in high school that I have here. It's like, well, it just seems so easy for everyone else and so difficult for me. I turn from these extremes of feeling on top of the fucking world - to feeling so despondent. They don't have to struggle like I do - or maybe that's just me comparing my goddamn insides to everyone else's outsides. But I swear to God, I just seem to wrestle with everything more than anyone else."

"There's something about outward appearances that has always been important to me. I always thought I was so ugly. I mean, I really did. I remember being in L.A. at my mom's house as a little kid and just staring into the mirror for hours. It was like, if I looked long enough, maybe I'd finally be handsome. It never worked. I just got uglier and uglier. Nothing about me ever seemed good enough. And there was this sadness inside me - this hopelessness. Focusing on my physical appearance was at least easier than trying to address the internal shit."

*****

P.S: After reading Beautiful Boy I wrote a song called "Nicholas". You can read it here: http://themadmusingsofahopelessdaydreamer.blogspot.com/2008/11/nicholas.html
A group that just demoed a song for me heard "Nicholas" on my blog, liked it, and expressed interest in it. I sent them the sheet music. We'll see what comes of it. It is one of my favorite songs that I've written- so I hope it finds some use. I'll keep you posted...

(follow this link for an update on Nic Sheff: http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/04/16/shef.inside.addiction.tweak/index.html)