“This is Just a (Love) Song”
from the album “Clothe Yourself in Righteousness”
by Jon Watts
Produced by Jake Thro
Violin by Marina Vishnyakova

Download the song
Lyrics

Playing “This is Just a (Love) Song” with Marina at Richmond Friends Meeting for the CD release party of Clothe Yourself in Righteousness.

To: the most beautiful being in the room
Human being, I love living with you
in the Truth.
And if the power of Truth takes me away from you,
I’ll have to love living that life too.

And if it takes you away from me, well
we already know how painful that would be.

It would be really, really, really, really
bad
but for all the good and all the hard times we’ve had
I love you and I miss you and I’m glad.

And this is just a love song
it’s dedicated to my pain
dedicated to the times
that I’ve cried in the rain
it’s dedicated to my own dedication.

And this is that sensation
when you’re feeling really sad
and you realize that sadness is beautiful.
Sadness is suitable
and it’s totally appropriate
for everything you’ve been through

This is that place where sadness and love can co-exist
you feel neither anger nor listlessness.

And maybe you feel love.
Maybe love songs can speak to your sorrow,
fall in love with tomorrow
and yesterday
re-learn how to play

And this is just a love song.
It’s dedicated to you.
Dedicated to everything you’ve been through.
This is for you.

And if I showed up at your door, would you talk to me
Or would you call the police
and get me off the streets
because to love you right now would be crazy

I just came looking for the truth
because I love the truth
and I thought that I loved you too
but you were just a lie
and that’s fine
it’s your life
just don’t bring your lies into mine.

And maybe you really do believe that I’m crazy
OK
praise be to God.
I didn’t need you.
I just came looking for the truth.
It’s sad that I had to drag it out of you
and your paranoid parents too

And this is just a love song
it’s dedicated to this huge misunderstanding
dedicated to the year you left me stranded
dedicated to this place where we’ve landed
to the strange and subtle ways that we planned it
to the space and the grace in the misalignment
of all these planets.

No, this isn’t for you.
This is dedicated to the Truth.

The Genre Question

Ok, so I’d like to take a moment to address a pet peeve: genre.

Of course labels can be helpful, and we naturally gravitate towards them because that’s just how we talk about music. But who has ever heard of “quaker rap”?

I do feel blessed that folks are talking about my music, generally. I spent years releasing projects, starting in 2001, and not seeing much conversation about it. Now I sit back and watch on Twitter, Facebook and Youtube as the music starts conversations between people and gets recommended and passed around. It is a beautiful thing.

But… let’s work together here. Please don’t put this music into a “genre” that is one artist deep (me) and excludes most potential listeners.

So… What Genre is Jon Watts?

When you’re listening to my music, especially Clothe Yourself in Righteousness, you’re listening to a blend of spoken word and hip hop, in which I’ve taken out all of the drums and added stringed orchestration.

Too much to explain? Then Hip Hop.

But please… yes, I am a Quaker. Yes, I’ve made a few songs in which I specifically mention Quakerism. But the vast majority of my music is not focused on Quakerism in particular but the human condition in general, which is influenced by my Quakerism.

If you’re going to box me in, make it a big box: Hip Hop/Spoken Word.

But thanks for starting conversations about my music, regardless of what you call it!

Yesterday I sent out this newsletter in which I listed all of the challenges I faced and overcame in order to successfully record my most recent song, “Together We Compose This Bloody, Bleeding, Beating Drum“. And although I haven’t heard this particular feedback (or any, yet), it just occurred to me that listing those challenges might easily seem like bragging.

Oh, look at how great I am, I made this thing after it was so hard but I pulled it off anyway. Yahoo, me!

I am aware that the appearance of this kind of self-congratulatory attitude can be damning, especially in our humble Liberal Quaker culture. Maybe this would be a little more culturally appropriate:

Here’s something I made. It’s OK I guess.

But what kind of celebration is that for something that you’ve just witnessed, against all odds, overcome the inertia of inexistence?

Here’s the real message behind my bragging:

I had so many opportunities to screw this up, to get in the way. I almost took all of them.