Jack Johnson Month Day 5

Song: Mudfootball (For Moe Lerner)

Artist: Jack Johnson, Brushfire Fairytales

What a fun song! It takes me back to childhood and simpler times, when our only worry was waking up early enough so we could go play with our friends. The summertime always makes me nostalgic for my childhood. 🌞 Those were good days for me. The warmer weather, blue skies, green grass and sunshine makes me wish I could be a kid again riding my bike everywhere, having lemonade stands to make a little money, running through the sprinklers to keep cool and running barefoot through the grass with my friends for hours on end. Simple pleasures, taken for granted. "One day these could be the days but who could have known...We used to laugh a lot but only because we thought, that everything good always would remain. Nothing's gonna change there's no need to complain..."

Side Note: the song title includes a tribute to a Moe Lerner. Of course I wanted to know who that was so I googled it and discovered he was a good family friend of Jack's who passed away. It goes hand in hand with his song If I Could. It's about the same person. This was Jack's beautiful description of the song and his friend: "It's related to the first record. The song 'Mud Football' on that album was dedicated to Moe Lerner. He was a friend of our family that passed away while I was making Brushfire Fairytales. I started writing 'If I Could' way back then because he'd meant a lot to a whole lot of people out on the North Shore. And before he passed away, he called around to everybody to let everyone know that he was going. He told everybody that he felt really at peace because he had had a chance to meet his grandkids. That was just really a beautiful thing to me. And I wanted to write about it because he was making jokes and everything when he had only two weeks to live. It was really nice that he was able to be so positive about it. I think it had a lot to do with transferring that love from yourself to your kids and, even more, to your grandkids - passing the love and spirit on. We're sort of whole ourselves. But then there's that grander thing of us all being connected."

Saturday morning and it's time to go

One day these could be the days but who could have known

Loading in the back of a pickup truck

Riding with the boys and pushing the luck

Singing songs loud on the way to the game

Wishing all the things could still be the same

Chinese homeruns over the backstop

Kakua on the ball and soda pop well...

We used to laugh a lot

But only because we thought

That everything good always would remain

Nothing's gonna change there's no need to complain

Sunday morning and it's time to go

Been raining all night so everybody knows

Over to the field for tackle football

Big hits, big hats, yeah give me the ball

Rain is pouring, touchdown scoring

Keep on rolling, never boring

Karma, karma, karma chameleon

We're talking kinda funny from helium

We used to laugh a lot

But only because we thought

That everything good always would remain

Nothing's gonna change there's no need to complain

Monday morning and it's time to go

Wet trunks and schoolbooks and sand on my toes

Do anything you can to dodge the bus-stop blues

Like driving a padiddle with a burnt-out fuse

My best friend Kimi wants to go with you

So meet her by the sugar mill after school

My best friend Kimi wants to go with you

Meet her by the sugar mill after school

We used to laugh a lot

But only because we thought

That everything good always would remain

We used to laugh a lot

But only because we thought

That everything good always would

Everything good always would remain