You're Gonna Live Forever in Me | John Mayer

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I love the sentiment of this song. It’s beautiful. It made me cry the first time I heard it. John has grown into such a wonderful songwriter. He’s always been special, but he only grows to new boundaries with every album he releases. May this trend continue as we grow old, together, in the same lifetime.

He starts with the Macro, and as the song progresses, into the Micro of Human Relationships.

It’s a stunning piece of work. If you are unfamiliar with the song, I highly recommend listening to it. He performed it on piano, but I have a deep fascination with adapting piano songs to guitar, so I did that with it.

Most importantly: we are animal, living symbiotically on a planet in orbit around a sun, which is one of a billion solar systems, orbiting around a super massive black hole, which is one of a trillion of other galaxies, in a rapidly expanding Universe. We are all part of that—and perhaps that is what so many religions describe in their sacred texts—simply asking or maybe urging: treat others the way you would want to be treated yourself, because we are all a small piece of the same thing, and we live eternally inside that. Forever and ever. Amen.

YOU’RE GONNA LIVE FOREVER IN ME

words and music by John Mayer

A great big bang and dinosaurs
Fiery raining meteors
It all ends unfortunately
But you're gonna live forever in me
I guarantee, just wait and see

Parts of me were made by you
And planets keep their distance too
The moon's got a grip on the sea
And you're gonna live forever in me
I guarantee, it's your destiny

Life is full of sweet mistakes
And love's an honest one to make
Time leaves no fruit on the tree
But you're gonna live forever in me
I guarantee, it's just meant to be

And when the pastor asks the pews
For reasons he can't marry you
I'll keep my word and my seat
But you're gonna live forever in me
I guarantee, just wait and see

SOCIAL MEDIA

UPCOMING SHOWS

Just the Way You Are | Billy Joel

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I’ve been hearing that Billy Joel just released a new song.

Hallelujah.

The first song of his that I remember connecting with was “We Didn’t Start the Fire”. That was 1989. I was 10 years old, jumping on a gigantic trampoline, at my friend Deiter’s house. Deiter was Belgian. He still is Belgian. Not quite sure why I am talking of him in the past tense—perhaps because we haven’t seen one another in 35 plus years. I digress though. He had this giant trampoline, and we were bouncing on it, doing back flips and forward flips, listening to Billy Joel be incredible.

That’s how Billy Joel makes me feel: like I’m jumping on a trampoline when I’m 10 years old. He always will. Thank you for making more music and putting it into the world. I imagine it means the world to a lot of us. It does to me.

This is me playing the first few sections of “Just the Way You Are” feeling like I’m 10 again, jumping on a trampoline.

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UPCOMING SHOWS

"Friend of the Devil", The Grateful Dead, and GIVING SONGS

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When I was a young man—I figure I was probably around 15 years old, I had these two friends: Josh and Jeff. This was in Visalia, CA, where I grew up. I was learning how to play guitar at the time—and I liked singing a lot too. I was very much interested in a lot of the music that was permeating the airwaves in the 1960’s, as well as, music that was part of the counter-culture in that era. This came fast on the heals of a lot of the grunge music that was big at the time of my teenage years, for my generation. It’s been humorous watching all the teenagers around now, 2023, wearing the clothing of “grunge” era musicians—much as we did at their age, wearing the tie die clothing, bell bottoms, and making the same aesthetic choices as those of our parents when they were are age. It’s a 30 year cycle of sorts that perpetually rears its head once more, as a way of making us laugh thirty years later, and perhaps to remember where we came from.

The Grateful Dead seemed to me to be the pinnacle of that counter culture. At the moment, at the age of 15, I had never listened to their music aside from an MTV music video for a song of theirs called “Touch of Grey.” Yet, I constantly saw Josh and Jeff wearing these beautiful tie-die t-shirt designs that screamed for a person’s attention: namely mine. So, eventually I asked: “Who are The Grateful Dead?” We were swimming in a pool at Jeff’s house at the time of my query.

He was happy hop out of the pool, and to show me their music, and I was so surprised by what it sounded like. It was country and rock and bluegrass and jam… all mixed into a lovely little package of beautiful.

The lyric writing on many of these songs were sublime. They told stories.

I’m 44 years old now. I love the Grateful Dead. I remember when Jerry Garcia passed away and how many people felt his loss. I remember attending a tribute show to Jerry in the Angeles National Forest with my brother Clark.

I remember a lot of things. Music often is the border collie that herds our memories out of the darker pastures of our subconscious, bringing memories and experiences, once again to the forefront.

At any rate: I was in Michigan on tour again this Summer, and every time I come to Michigan, I perform a cover song for a charity called GIVING SONGS.

You can learn more about what they do HERE, however, in short, the music they release every month helps fundraise and provide wheelchair accessible vehicle grants for families in need.

This year, I decided to get stoned and perform “Friend of the Devil” with another local talent from Michigan named Rob Nelson, who sang background vocals and also played lead guitar on this track, while I played rhythm and sang. Rob sounds sublime and inspired.

Written by Jerry Garcia, John Dawson, and Robert Hunter, FRIEND OF THE DEVIL was released by the Grateful Dead in 1970 on an album called AMERICAN BEAUTY. To this day, it make me smile playing it. It was one of the first songs I ever learned to play. It has been covered by countless others—and I hope that we did a great job in its rendition.

You can download a free copy of the song here, or you can make donation to GIVING SONGS while also downloading the song. It can be as big or as little of a contribution as you would like.

https://payhip.com/b/E7HAs

If you are interested in giving it a listen first, you can do so here:

However, all proceeds from your donation will go directly to GIVING SONGS.

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TOUR DATES



SOLD OUT show at PORCH SESSIONS in Pasadena and WINE AND SONG this Wednesday

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Wow, last night was so incredible. Thank you to Brenda and Will with Wonder and Awe Productions for making last night so special, along with all the music talent who performed: Jaywoozy, Guyville, Daisy Abrams, and Tom and myself.

Everyone had a blast and were so kind and the evening was immensely special to me.

A huge thank you to everyone who found me on Instagram as well.

Speaking of which, here are the links to all of my socials if you are having a hard time finding me online:

I have one more show in Pasadena that I am playing this Wednesday August 30th at the Lost Parrot for an event called Wine and Song. I will be playing a short set between Shane Alexander and Susan Ritchie.

https://wineandsong.com/event/5199110/647052014/wine-song-susan-ritchie-shane-alexander

Tickets are $22 for the event. This is a listening room environment.

You can purchase your seat for the event here:

TICKETS

UPCOMING SHOWS

Grand Island, NE House Concert Review

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The Spencer Family were my Hosts in Grand Island, NE

Steven Spencer and the family were so kind as to host me in Grand Island, Nebraska for this tour I just arrived home from a few days ago.

Steven wrote me an email with a review of the show. I was so stoked to finally have the opportunity to read it today.

While I may not make this painfully honest: my world and my dreams of playing music and telling my stories definitely hinges on the kindness of those who are willing to listen to them. My hope is that those who do listen, find humanity in my stories. The humanity is the story. It is the story of all of us.

I have no doubt where my place is in the world. It is doing what I am currently doing. Thank you Steven, for painting my endeavors in such a colorful and favorable light, as you have done here. I am immensely grateful to you and your family.

Here is Steven’s review of the concert:

I maintain that I am a somebody, who is a nobody, trying to be a somebody. I am immensely grateful for all the folks I meet along the way and who show me love and kindness and what it is to be a good person. I learn more on that with each of you that I meet. I hope to follow your course myself, in that trajectory, towards the heavens of good grace.

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UPCOMING SHOWS

Mark Twain | A New Single August 18th 2023

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Samuel Langhorne Clemens

My next single is being released on August 18th on this year of our Lord, 2023. It is probably the most convoluted story I have ever told—perhaps beside The Incredible Shrinking Brain—but we will save the later for a different day.

Mark Twain. It’s a brilliant pen name for Samuel Langhorne Clemens. It’s riverboat slang. It was also the pen name of another riverboat pilot who wrote for a Riverboat Almanac. Samuel Clemens stole the idea from him. He admits to this notion in his book entitled “Life on the Mississippi.”

Regardless, it is a brilliant pen name if you examine it for what it is and what it represents. Mark Twain is a measurement of depth. Sounding boats and sounding poles were used by those navigating the murky waters of a muddy river that we are all familiar with as American Citizens: the Mississippi River. It has no rocky foundation to its deepest depths. It is a muddy river. It constantly changes in depths and sizes naturally due to this proclivity endowed to rivers of such quality. However, because of this—it is dangerous. A riverboat can easily run ashore, or find the unwelcome sand of a shoal, if not constantly checking the depth of the river using sounding boats and sounding poles. This is where the notion of marks and numbers come from. These depths would be shouted by those using the sounding poles, to measure depth, to those listening for their instruction as they piloted the vessel.

The Mississippi River in Hannibal, Missouri

Mark Twain means two fathoms deep. It is the cut-off between dangerous and safe passage. Mark Twain is the shallowest depth in which a riverboat may pass without peril or hazard. Mark Twain is the convergence of safe and dangerous; it is the point in which these two opposing outcomes meet.

Moving forward with this as a title—I found a curious story regarding Samuel Langhorne Clemens and Halley’s Comet:

Halley's Comet appeared in the sky when Mark Twain was born in 1835. The comet moves in a seventy-five or seventy-six-year orbit, and, as it neared Earth once again in the year 1909, Twain said,

I came in with Halley's Comet... It is coming again ... and I expect to go out with it... The Almighty has said, no doubt: 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.'

Hannibal, Missouri. Samuel Langhorne Clemen’s Childhood Home

Sure enough, he died on April 21, 1910, just as the comet made its next pass within sight of Earth.

I was born on April 21st 1979. That has no relevance to this story, and I’m sure it is quite coincidental.

This song, that I am releasing August 18th, tells the story of Halley’s Comet and our Sun. It also, can stand for something completely different. It can be representative. Metaphor. Hyperbolic. Whatever the case may be: I am proud of its words and music and to be releasing it as I hear it in my head. It is a tip of my hat to someone I admire and a love letter of sorts to a romantic idea. I can’t help but be carried away by the trade winds of whimsy. I prefer it, as I can’t imagine life without my creativity to put wind in my sails in the first place.

For you.

May we all be friends and find the beauty in one another, no matter how difficult or easy that proves to be, ultimately. Perhaps—perhaps there are intrinsic links that bind us all to one another, if not just within the matter which makes everything, the gravitational forces caused by mass and its manipulation of spacetime, and the loosely understood physics of such.

You can pre-save the song at this link:

PRE-SAVE LINK

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS

UPCOMING TOUR DATES

Chattanooga, Tennessee Show August 6th at JMac's

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Chattanooga, Tennessee Friends, I am back at JMac's this Sunday August 6th playing music I wrote at 7pm. It's a private show and tickets just went on sale today at this link for $10:

https://ticketstripe.com/Mike_Vitale_Aug_6

In case you don't remember me...

Short Bio:

Imaginary astronaut and singer/songwriter Mike Vitale has decided to punch holes in his own analogy to create stars as a backdrop for his latest inner-space journey DESERT DOGS—an album he is fullishly releasing, one single at a time, throughout 2023 and early 2024, in order to continually inundate both suspecting and unsuspecting bystanders with troubadourian exploits of waxing and waning pandemic meanderings, mental flatulence, stories—what have yous—carefully laid over predetermined blocks of music. What am I trying to say in third-person? Witness this monkey, playing music he wrote, with his imagination. Can I get a witness?

UPCOMING TOUR DATES