Jim James

!!!friends- excited to share this track/video from my upcoming “tribute to 2” album! i have been a fan of the album "hot buttered soul" for years...i have taken many journeys with that record in my mind and in the world- particularly the song "by the time i get to phoenix" one night i was sitting there listening to the amazing intro and for some reason i started singing in my mind the lyrics to "i just wasn’t made for these times" by brian wilson- and i had this idea that i wanted to unite the music of these two different worlds. that is one thing that BUGS ME SO MUCH about life- the illusions of division put up around the world- even in music- which i really believe in my heart that if people really listened they would love so much music out of the genre they would normally listen to and that alone could start to unite people- if the "country" listener really listened to the "urban" music they would see we are all the same and vice versa... cuz at the end its all the same- its the human experience...and i was thinking about the psychedelic nature of "hot buttered soul" and "pet sounds" and how similar they are- but you rarely hear them mentioned in the same breath- and you surely do not find them in the same genre or section of the record store...so i wanted to tie them together to prove some kind of point about how universal music really is...co-incidentally around this same time, i had written liner notes for a re-release of "hot buttered soul" and was lucky enough to get my hands on the multi-track recordings of the album. so i ripped apart "by the time i get to phoenix" and put it back together again as "i just wasn’t made for these times".
"i just wasn’t made for these times" is a song that has spoken to me very deeply from the first time i heard it. i remember as an early adult people telling me i would love pet sounds, but the first few times i listened i did not get it- EXCEPT for "i just wasn’t made for these times" that song immediately blew my mind lyrically and sonically. i don’t think it even needs explanation- i mean so often so many of us just feel like we don’t fit in. like somehow we were dropped in to the wrong life at the wrong time!!! like right now this madness going on just seems so stupid and preventable! its like love is the answer here people now and always why cant everyone see that??? am i some kind of alien??? and this song once again has such a beautiful way of resonating with that energy and relating to the pain of life on earth, but also offering hope and comfort in the beautiful sounds of togetherness
CREDIT: W.G. Rickel- concept, optical illusion, videography, editing Stashia "Sparkles" Smyrichinsky- chromaoreography
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