Janey Todd

Somebody asked me to write a bio so I thought I'd stick it here."I had a dream that I was playing and singing the song Youngblood, rocking it out and having a fabulous time. I played piano when I was a kid and an old, wooden recorder for a long time but never guitar, as I was playing in the dream. I had a habit then of going to a thrift store every Saturday and as the next day after the dream was Saturday, so I went and there was this nice, vintage guitar. It had F holes and a skinny body and looked like something some old rockabilly star would swing . So I bought it for ten dollars. I think I cracked it, carrying it in the doorway. I was on my bicycle and I had strapped it to my back. Anyway when I got it home, I saw that the neck was cracked. “Figures”, I thought, that Fate would send me this gift and I would fuck it up. I had a friend then who was a singer/songwriter and he showed me a few chords. I was already writing poetry so it was a short step from there to writing songs. I was 33 at that time; I remember because I played at an open mike in North Hollywood with this guy and he remarked to me, on stage, right before we were to start, that I was thirty three and a third years old. He was a little weird that way. I hacked away at the guitar when I could find the time and shortly after that moved back to N.J. Here I have to say, “other things took precedence” but it’s very hard because people will always say “Oh, if you really wanted to, you would FIND the time!” What does that mean? That God will allow you special dispensation and grant you 27 hours a day while everyone else has 24? I don’t know. So either I was busy with life or I was un-ambitious or lazy, whatever anyone wants to say but whichever way, I didn’t start playing with any regularity until age 42 and then I was pretty much determined to go to the open mikes and sound like shit for what seemed a very long time, until I could sort of sound not too bad and people could focus on the songs instead of feeling bad for me for making an asshole of myself with my shitty guitar playing. Which is not to complain, people in general have been insanely nice to me about my level of expertise (or lack thereof). As far as my influences, I don’t really know. How can you say that? Loony Tunes cartoons? I guess, not to be flippant, I would have to say that my Dad was probably my biggest musical influence. Like many people, he was bogged down by work and responsibilities and a not particularly happy marriage and the times I remember him being the most at peace with himself were when he would play his saxophone in the basement. Then there were those wonderful musicals. When I die, however much success I have with anything else, I’ll still be disappointed that I didn’t get to sing and dance like Danny Kaye and Vera Ellen on top of the canoe in White Christmas. But of course, life is what you make it and you can’t do everything. The Beatles were a big deal, I remember when I was very young, hearing them on the radio while riding in the back of the car and thinking that what they were doing would be one way to make a positive impact on the world. I'm sure I didn't think of it in quite those terms then. It was more like wanting a cool toy that could possibly save a little bit of the world too. And, I think, appreciation for a beautiful, loving sound. I'm probably dating myself here but it seems like there were more of them back then. Or maybe because there was less music, fewer stations and artists, we were affected by each individual more. The next moment I remember is hearing Bob Dylan sing Lay Lady Lay on the radio and being amazed at what a lovely song it was and how nice it was for a man to say something like that to a woman, the power of that. Lastly, I submit that there were some great bands around when I was a teenager and into my early twenties, in Staten Island where I grew up. It was a riot and a thrill to go out to hear them and dance and so forth. They were not only fine musicians but great characters, great people and so I learned from this that it was possible to be a pretty good artist of some kind and not be a scum bag about it and that was an important lesson.