58. The Joyous- "The Joy"

58. The Joyous 

Joy is the natural response within all of us to the benevolent and bountiful cosmos. That response gets impeded by life events, conditions, disappointments, and challenges- but it’s always there waiting to express itself, sometimes in our darkest hours. After my dear friend George died, I was in the depths of despair when my friend Jack Chipman suggested I focus on the richness George’s friendship brought into my life. He said, “You know Robert, most people go an entire lifetime without a friendship that great, and you had it for 25 years”. When I think of George nowadays the recollections are underscored with joy and informed by gratitude. 

I’m a very sentimental and emotional person, in case the last twenty plus years of songs weren’t evidence enough for you. I’m sometimes overwhelmed by the love I feel for the people around me, enough so that the only way I can fully express it is through music. In other words “I feel so much that I have to lose touch for the rest of tonight” ....the opening lines to this song. 

Hexagram 58 “The Joyous” explores conditions of joy, ranging from the first changing line (an optimal condition of joy rising out of a peaceful immovable center) to the the sixth changing line ( a hollow “induced” condition of joy achieved through artificial means.) This little waltz originates from the first variety. 

I had and still have high hopes for this track. Whit and I made a great start on it before I trashed my knee last week pretending that I was still nineteen! And so I’m going ahead with this scratch vocal committed to waveform on a handheld SM57 under the “induced joy” of painkillers. Consider it a work in progress. As will be the case with many to come I’m sure, you are privy to our audio sketch pad.

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