Jamie
I’ve been playing the saxophone since the age of 12, even though I’m asthmatic somehow the air gets through. I’ve never liked to read music I always played what I felt as if the music came through me. So playing in the school band was quite boring, I always played something different and the band leader always tried to figure out who was jamming.
As a kid I would spend hours playing along with records and later interacted with Lester Young, John Coltraine, Stan Getz , Charlie Parker by answering their licks. My first solo that I copied was the break to ,”Come Go With Me” by the DelVikings sax player. After that, my own style evolved. Check out the song I play with Joey called Lets Get It On you’ll hear some crazy sax with notes not on the scale.
I met Joey several years ago while he was running an open mike in Danbury Ct. we clicked right away. Since that encounter our music has grown and evolved. Joey sings from his soul and I play from my heart, together and with the other members of the band we have created timeless music.
If Elvis, Jim Morrison, Roy Orbison, and Johnny Cash were alive they would definitely come to hear us as we would remind them of their early sounds. We want to keep their music alive by creating new music that builds on what their legacies left us.
I am also a song writer, presently we are focusing on the songs Joey has written, however down the road we will be incorporating other members songs to add to the repertoire.
I would like to share several songs I wrote.
The first one I wrote in 1977 after Elvis died.
Rest From All The Travelin
No one cared about him, No one felt his pain, They all wanted his money.
They all wanted to share his fame. Each knew he was dying, not one would take the blame.
He found peace from all the noise, A rest from all the travelin
Peace from all the noise, a rest from all the travelin
In the beginning he was just a man, an ordinary person without a plan. Instead he make product of bright flashings lights
He found peace from all the noise, A rest from all the travelin.
Sometimes he sang a song, to give him a purpose for livin. Sometime he’d seek the lord to find out who he was.
He found peace from all the noise, a rest from all the travelin
Peace from all the noise a rest from all the travelin
The next song was written four years ago at the start of the Iraqi War.
It’s called the Iraqi Blues.
However, I got the idea from a poem my Dad wrote in 1937 when Hitler was taking over Europe. You’ll recogonize the older verses, I built the song around them
Iraqi Blues by Jamie Ratzken written 2004
I got the Iraqi Blues, heard the latest news. Lost ten more today! What are we fighting for anyway?
What twist of fate put us on the spot. To take the youth of America off the sand lot. From baseball uniforms they will change to khaki. From bat to gun is so whaki. They’ll go to bat with guns in their hands and death will sit and watch in the grand stand. (this paragraph was written by my Dad in 1937 after Hitler invaded which I incorporated into this song)
You know what we can do to stop the Iraqi Blues, I’ll tell you real soon, real real soon.
OM Mani padi om, repeat 4x
Remember Vietnam and the napham bomb.
Harmonica break
We said Let’s stop that war, we don’t want to fight anymore.
Now we’re friends with Vietnam, Make love not war that’s what John Lennon stood for, four dead in Ohio, (note ones of my classmates from Plainview High School in N. Y. was killed his name was Jeff Miller, the average college student has no idea that four college students were killed by the National Guard during an anti-war protest over thirty years ago)
Four dead in Ohio, four dead in Ohio, four dead in Ohio. Don’t forget they gave their lives to make America come alive.
Stop killing the Iraqis and the Iraqis will stop killing us. Take away their anger and there will be no need to fight.
Instrumental break
Why must we die in our teens. There are so many events we have not seen. Tons of things we would love to do. Must death call out and tell us were through?
Give them their space so they can be part of the human race. Food and shelter is what they want not guns aiming at their hearts.
We’ll change their mind set, so they’ll live in peace and harmony. God help them, so we all can be free.
I don’t have the Iraqi Blues cause I heard the latest news. All the soldiers are coming home today, the men and the ladies won’t have to stay.
The soldiers are coming home today.
Let’s all pray. Let’s all pray.
Om manni pada om 6x and fade
Oh Jehovah, Oh Jehovah
Oh Jesus, Oh Jesus
Allah, Allah Hoo2x
Oh Ghandi, Oh Ghandi
Oh Budda, Oh Budda
Amen, Amen
Om shanti om, Om shanty om
Om hold and fade