Well, after finishing Swamp Monster I was turning my attention to the next clips we want to make, and one of them is for Running Jody (from Carl's Chair). Running Jody is, I guess, the second half of Roscoe's Boogie (see the videoclip to your left) and is all about the difficulties associated with returning to civillian life after serving in the military.
As I was doing my reading today I came across a great article by Matt Farwell and it struck a chord with me
http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/05/back-home-and-homeless/?src=tp
It seems like the same stuff affects just about everyone who has done what they do. The stuff about Matt having to hide his bags or wind up like Rambo echoes the line in our song 'grab my only bag, it holds everything I have'
Our mate Roscoe has been back to Iraq recently and I still write longer emails than I receive :-) Thankfully, he's out of harms way for the time being.
To organise the videoclip for Running Jody, I was lucky enough to meet up with a chap we'll call 'Rhino' , who volunteered to play the main part.
In a typically synchronistic moment, Rhino is an Australian version of Roscoe and after talking to him about his life and the difficulty he has had in transitioning to "normal" life, I felt as if we could have just as easily written the song about his experiences.
One of the great things about making our own videoclips is that it allows us to add another layer of information about the song, and most of our songs are stories of one kind or another. Some are mythical, but many are stories from the people we know.
We're fortunate to be able, in part, to help tell their stories.
I'll keep you posted on how the next videoclip production goes, in the interim, have a read of Matt's article, its an eye opener, and if you're up for it, check out the donations section for the foundation supporting his brothers family. www.garyfarwell.com
MJEB