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Photocopy Of My Mind (album)

by John Zonn

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1.
Photocopy Of My Mind 03:16
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2.
Frontier Pioneer (of a soul food sound) 05:36
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3.
Bless Those Blues 05:24
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4.
Mucky Pup 03:07
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5.
Hands Of The Brewery 05:34
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6.
Friday Evening 02:26
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7.
Enjoyment Party 04:02
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8.
Wounded Heart 04:03
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9.
You Make Me Melt 07:24
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10.
Body Takes The Years 04:27
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11.
Night Of The Moths 06:36
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12.
Bee Song 06:30
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13.
Photocopy Of My Mind (reprise) 00:56
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about

This album chronicles a short period in the life of a downturn, roughshod tune-head, whose passion for life and freedom leads him to delve into his past, in a desperate attempt to break out of the consumer-led lifestyle that has wrapped itself around him.

The songs were recorded over two or three days in July/August 2001, on a Fostex X-15 multitracker at a private house. It was done totally live, apart from two overdubs on the title track.

Zonn says: "Originally, the album was going to be called 'Picture Yourself', because I wanted to try to bridge the gap in time between my teenage 4-track recordings and these new songs. I had this line of a song in my head, which started "Picture yourself in the mind of a teenager...", using the same melody as The Beatles' Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, because that was one of my favourite songs when I
was growing up. The idea was to ask the listener to try to imagine they were in the mind of a budding teenage rock star, who then failed to achieve his aspirations and who now, at the age of thirty, was thinking hard about what went wrong and was deciding to give it another go."

"At the same time, I was working on another idea to do with 'emotions' and how much a person actually expresses about what is going on inside their head at any given time. I came up with this notion that any form of creative product (including a song) inherently shows something of what had been going on in the creator's life at the time of making. The idea of producing a 'photocopy' of this elusive 'mind-emotion' or these 'thoughts' came about because I liked the sheer challenge of doing something as impossible as that. I also felt that the black and white, grainy qualities that xeroxing produces would visually mirror the lo-fi audio production methods that I had used for the recording."

"So, taking my inspiration from the people who photocopy their tits and bums at office parties, I went on and photocopied my forehead, eyes and nose. I also did my mouth for the inside cover. As luck would have it, I was working in an office at the time, and was able to utilise their facilities in this subversive act! By the way, I would sacrifice anything for my art, but I really wouldn't advise trying to photocopy your face, as the light could possibly damage your eyes."

"Anyway, I had written the song 'Photocopy of my Mind' by this time; with the introductory lyrics about being a teenager etc. It suited my purposes to also put a backwards excerpt of the same song at the end of the album, to take you back to the start."

credits

released July 31, 2001

Alias John Riley stars as 'The Mind'. Hawk is 'The Copy'. Slightly digitally-enhanced by John Zonn in 2007, using a BOSS BR900-CD. It was done totally live, apart from Track 1, which has Tibetan Bells and Psaltery overdubs. The songs are by John Zonn and are published by JR Discs, apart from Track 1, which is JR Discs/Northern Songs, as we had some help with the music. The cover design is by John Zonn/Hawk. Enjoyment Party painting by Tracy Boness.

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John Zonn Lewes, UK

For free-thinkers everywhere, John Zonn creates songs and music inspired by the environment and people around him, including through actual life experiences.

The latest album - Songs Of Truth And Freedom - explores the music of protest.

Some quotes: "…half stand-up, half poetry, half music… ", "John Zonn is a breath of fresh air in music", "I salute you over and over again". ... more

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