Eastwood Allen

Posts tagged JohnMayerDocEXTRAS

In August of 2009 John Mayer hosted a series of Internet radio shows for his fans and followers.

During these broadcasts Mayer played some of his favourite tracks from other artists (both old and new) and even debuted a few unreleased bonus/demo tracks of his own.

One track titled Level was debuted live with Mayer acting as DJ and talking over the track. He sampled Kanye West’s Gold Digger and experimented with the mix as the song played. You can definitely hear D'Angelo’s influence in this recording - one artist Mayer has been a huge fan of for some time.

Excluding JM’s collaborations, Level is arguably Mayer’s first (own) foray into Hip-Hop…That he’s shared anyway.

I thought I’d take what JM aired that night and re-cut Level without any of the Kanye West sample, mixing, or talking from John.

DOWNLOAD Level HERE
LISTEN to the original live aired radio version HERE

Eastwood

John Mayer has always enjoyed sharing his work in progress at live shows.

At a couple of concerts in March of 2004, fans got a chance to hear the workings of Simmering. The track that would later become Belief on the Continuum record in 2006.

The performances of Simmering ranged from show to show with various improvised lyrics each time. Mayer pretty much had the template of the song down in terms of melody and instrumentation, but the earliest bootleg recordings suggest he hadn’t yet found the suitable theme to fit the music he was aiming for.

Perhaps the best recording of Simmering (in my opinion) see’s Mayer cut seamlessly into a cover of Eric Clapton’s ’Old Love’ before ripping into a lively solo.

LISTEN/DOWNLOAD Simmering > Old Love (Eric Clapton Cover) Live at Gosman Center, Waltham, MA, March 14, 2004

Read more and LISTEN to the full concert HERE

JohnMayerDoc EXTRAS | Simmering

(Video) Segment during the Continuum chapter from the documentary John Mayer: Someday I’ll Fly

John Mayer has always enjoyed sharing his work in progress at live shows.

At a couple of concerts in March of 2004, fans got a chance to hear the workings of Simmering. The track that would later become Belief on the Continuum record in 2006.

Perhaps the best recording of Simmering (in my opinion) see’s Mayer cut seamlessly into a cover of Eric Clapton’s ’Old Love’ then teasing Wheel before ripping into a lively solo.

LISTEN/DOWNLOAD Simmering > Old Love (Eric Clapton Cover) Live at Gosman Center, Waltham, MA, March 14, 2004

You can listen to another live rendition of Simmering below…

LISTEN/DOWNLOAD Simmering - Live at Jack Breslin Student Events Center, East Lansing, MI, March 23rd, 2004

Take a listen to the entire 2004 Waltham, MA concert featuring performances of In Your Atmosphere and a Bluesy instrumental cover of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s So Excited

LISTEN/DOWNLOAD John Mayer Live at Gosman Center, Waltham, MA, March 14 2004

Intro
Bigger Than My Body
No Such Thing
Something’s Missing
Intro > Clarity
Clarity
Not Myself
Back To You
Daughters
My Stupid Mouth
So Excited (Stevie Ray Vaughan Cover)
Come Back To Bed
Your Body Is A Wonderland
Only Heart
Why Georgia
In Your Atmosphere
Simmering > Old Love (Eric Clapton Cover)
83

In August of 2009 John Mayer hosted a series of Internet radio shows for his fans and followers.

During these broadcasts Mayer played some of his favourite tracks from other artists (both old and new) and even debuted a few unreleased bonus/demo tracks of his own.

One track titled Bonus Track was a song that was meant (at one time) for his Battle Studies record. The track never featured.

The instrumental (featuring John on piano and acoustic guitar) includes dialogue snippets from blues legend Big Bill Broonzy.

You can hear JM talk about Bonus Track HERE

Eastwood

If you were a fan of John Mayer’s during the Continuum days and you caught a live show, you’ll probably be familiar with the sound of saxophonist Bob Reynolds.

If you’re like me and enjoy a nice instrumental stretch of saxophone and electric guitar - give Bob Reynolds’ two tracks featuring John Mayer a look in.

LISTEN - Feedback (Feat. John Mayer)
LISTEN - The Beginning (Feat. John Mayer)

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#JohnMayerDoc EXTRAS | Third Record

Except from the documentary John Mayer: Someday I’ll Fly

Late 2005 was an exciting time for JM fans.

Mayer was back in the studio (after a few recording sessions in prior months) working on record no.3 and sitting on something of a touchstone in his career… And he knew it.

I remember listening to interviews online back then. He talked openly about the direction he was taking and his process. He was crafting these 3-5 minute gems (most of which would become fan favourites) and he was paying the CLOSEST attention to detail, taking his time and spreading his wings in the studio.

Mayer was promising the fans something different, something special and he radiated confidence in these interviews.

“The first record, get ‘em in. Second record, make 'em think. Third record… crush 'em” - John Mayer on Continuum

Here’s an interview from back during the production of the record . JM talks about his success, the Trio, his taste for the Blues and his musical aspirations for the record that would become Continuum.

John Mayer | Rolling Stone Q&A Interview Podcast (December 16, 2005) with Alex Mar LISTEN/DOWNLOAD - Duration 38 minutes

The performance used in the video (above) of I Don’t Trust Myself (With Loving You) is one of my favourite live incarnations. It’s taken from Mayer’s Glastonbury Festival performance in 2008 . It’s teasingly amped up by Bob Reynolds’ and Brad Mason’s introduction. The horns section couldn’t be more imperative to the whole vibe and I felt that it fit perfectly for my introduction to Continuum in the documentary.

You can watch the I Don’t Trust Myself (With Loving You) - Live from Glastonbury performance HERE

#JohnMayerDoc EXTRAS | Fans

(Video) An earlier version of the “Waiting On The World To Change’ edit from the documentary John Mayer: Someday I’ll Fly

I thought I’d highlight a few of the Easter eggs that I included on the fan YouTubers page. It’s the detailing part of the edit, after everything is down and cut that I enjoy the most.

All of the bands/singers featured were actual John Mayer fan cover videos. I just altered their real usernames to a few familiar JM related titles…

YouTube Usernames -

QuietSuperstitions (Why Georgia)

LikeAMaze (Daughters)

RoomForKeys (JM and Alicia Keys)

AKOGreen (Another Kind of Green)

Down2TheWire (Vultures)

BrokenTime (JM & David LaBruyere song - Broken Time)

1MoreToDial (Man On The Side)

BackPorchPoet (New Deep)

CaptainBackfire4 (My Stupid Mouth)

SacredJune (Clarity)

SideofaSquare (Home Life)

RubyRed (Neon)

DiamondWhite (Neon)

Lenny82 (SRV Cover - Lenny)

SeaofBlankets (Saturday Morning Feel / Your Body Is A Wonderland)

98&6Degrees (Come Back To Bed)

SarahTRYing (Another Kind of Green from John Mayer Trio’s TRY!)

GoldenRule04 (New Deep)

Hummingbird17 (Hummingbird)

OutByNine (‘By Nine’ demo from 1996)

Massive thanks to the YouTubers!

Eastwood

#JohnMayerDoc EXTRAS | The Blues

Except from the documentary John Mayer: Someday I’ll Fly

The audio narration is taken from JM’s Austin City Limits Interview from 2007. To date, probably my favourite interview of Mayer’s that’s out there. JM at his most honest, speaking candidly about his aspirations, guitar playing and passion for the Blues.

Go watch it here

The song you can hear is the solo electric version of Slow Dancing In a Burning Room. There’s a chance that I’m preaching to the choir with this one, but just incase you didn’t know about it, you can find this performance as a video extra on John Mayer’s Where The Light Is

Slow Dancing on Mulholland Drive WATCH

(Video) John Mayer talks about his inspiration for his track ‘The Age of Worry’. This was a rough cut that didn’t featured in the finished version of the documentary Someday I’ll Fly

JM recalls - “Aaron Sterling who plays the drums on eleven of the twelve tracks, [On Born and Raised] He and I had this experience, He’s on one side of the studio and I’m on the other side of the studio, and we’re looking at each other having a blast. And I said going in to this record, I just wanna cook it with love. I just want everyone in it to be so loving.

I remember just gesturing wildly while singing it. Sort of almost like a ringleader. Really what it is, is a series of permissions, just a series of permissions. It just became this giant sea shanty, really large, just kind of sea spray. This picturesque thing of sea spray coming over” - John Mayer discussing The Age of Worry WATCH

I was really interested with JM’s take on the song. He had a very visual concept of sound. Painting the imagery with the instrumentation. I tried to incorporate this in the final edit.

I wanted to share some rather candid interviews I came across from 2012 where Mayer talks (for one of the first times) about the recording of his 5th album Born and Raised. The record he confessed was his most personal (up to that point). You can see all of the interviews at the links here……

An Evening With John Mayer

Discussing If I Ever Get Around To Living WATCH
Working with producer Don Was WATCH
Touring WATCH
Discussing Born and Raised WATCH

Photography by Gari Lamar Askew II

#JohnMayerDoc EXTRAS | National Tour

“I am who I am as an artist, not because I sat with a blank canvas and said "I wanna be this”. It’s because I had a giant block of all the infinite things you could do and said “I don’t wanna do that, I don’t wanna do that”. And eventually you kinda have this shape of who you wanna be, and you go…"well, that looks like me" - John Mayer reminisces on spending his youth studying “all kinds” of music.

(Video) John Mayer performing with bass player David LaBruyere on Mayer’s first national tour under label Aware Records. The pair, along with friend/tour manager/driver Scotty Crowe, would travel the country in their van playing acoustic sets in clubs and bars to 200-300 people.

-Scotty Crowe features on the audio commentary of JM’s 2002 DVD Any Given Thursday.If you can get a hold of some of Scotty’s road Journals from the early tour days they’re a really fun read too.

The track you can hear is This Will All Make Perfect Sense Someday (Live in Dallas - March 30, 2002) LISTEN

During the tour John made various stops to local radio stations, to promote his record Room For Squares, perform songs and give interviews.

Here’s a couple of rare radio interviews from back in 2001…

John Mayer | 92.7FM MVY (Martha’s Vineyard), Radio Interview (2001) LISTEN/DOWNLOAD - Duration 23 minutes

John Mayer | Bridgeport Acoustic Café, In-Studio Interview (2001) LISTEN/DOWNLOAD - Duration 22 minutes

Enjoy,

Eastwood

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#JohnMayerDoc EXTRAS | Demo Tracks

Over the course of making the documentary John Mayer: Someday I’ll Fly I came across a handful of John Mayer demos.

The video snippet (above) was an early draft for part of the Battle Studies segment of the documentary. This edit uses a demo version of Heartbreak Warfare which was originally intended to introduce the segment

I thought I’d share some of my findings. Here’s a collection of John Mayer demos that eventually ended up on Mayer’s studio albums. (some of these you can purchase)

3x5 (Demo) | John Mayer’s MySpace Music, 2000
City Love (Demo) | John Mayer’s MySpace Music, 2000
Not Myself (Demo) | John Mayer’s MySpace Music, 2000
Daughters (Home Demo) | Daughters single - Rerelease 2004
Belief (Live Demo) | Played live during Mayer’s 2004 tour as ‘Simmering’
Assassin (Live Demo) | Berklee College of Music Clinic, 2008
Heartbreak Warfare (Demo) | iTunes LP Battle Studies (Deluxe Version) 2009
Half of My Heart (Demo V1) | Battle Studies iTunes LP (Deluxe Version) 2009
Half of My Heart (Demo V2) |Battle Studies iTunes LP (Deluxe Version) 2009
Friends Lovers or Nothing | Battle Studies iTunes LP (Deluxe Version) 2009
Can’t Take That Plane (Demo) | John Mayer’s Radio Show Broadcast, 2009

Here’s a few tracks which were recorded in the studio but left off of Continuum.

Good Love Is On The Way (Studio Version) | Waiting On The World To change - Limited edition single EP

Who Did You Think I Was (Studio Version) | Originally set to feature on Continuum after the TRY! single release You can hear Mayer talk about these recordings in an interview from 2005 HERE

I think demo tracks are a great insight into the evolution of a song. As a fan, I’m fascinated by the process of demoing and the progression during an artist’s recording sessions, inevitably resulting in the album version we all get to hear.

If you’re a fan of this stuff I’d highly recommend buying the interactive iTunes LP for Battle Studies. It comes with a neat set of video extras along with a collection of demos. A brilliant example of a digitally presented record.

Thanks to the YouTubers for sharing the tracks.

“He [McFly] was always such a dork and then there’s this explosion of cool. I think after that I was definitely into playing guitar”- John Mayer

Listen to John Mayer cover the song which inspired him as a boy to first pick up the guitar.

Chuck Berry’s Johnny B. Goode from the iconic 1985 movie Back To The Future

More on JM and Back To The Future HERE

Watch John Mayer: Someday I’ll Fly on YouTube HERE

The documentary chronicling the career and music of Grammy Award winning artist John Mayer.

#JohnMayerDoc EXTRAS | Back To The Future

“He [McFly] was always such a dork and then there’s this explosion of cool. I think after that I was definitely into playing guitar”- JM

Most fans know that it was the iconic Marty McFly ‘Johnny Be Goode’ Scene from the 1985 classic movie Back To The Future that inspired John Mayer to first pick up the guitar (Listen to Mayer talk about it HERE)

But it seems that not that many people have heard Mayer’s cover of the Chuck Berry tune. John Mayer Trio played the track at a couple of shows back in 2009.

LISTEN

John Mayer Trio LIVE - Johnny B. Goode (The Joint, Las Vegas, December 31st, 2009)

Photograph by Breanne Leach

A John Mayer concert tee from 2002

Watch John Mayer: Someday I’ll Fly on YouTube HERE

The documentary chronicling the career and music of Grammy Award winning artist John Mayer.

#JohnMayerDoc EXTRAS | Songs at Berklee

During John Mayer’s two terms at Berklee College of Music (beginning at age 19) he wrote/co-wrote a collection of songs…

Victoria, Love Soon, Man on the Side, Sucker and Comfortable.

These tracks would feature regularly in John’s early shows in Atlanta after his move there in 1998.

737, 150 MASS AVE was JM’s College dorm room. You can hear John talk about his time at Berklee HERE

The Berklee group photograph features (from left to right) Clay Cook, John Mayer and Matt Mangano. Clay Cook was in fact the one who told Mayer to move to Atlanta (Hear John talk about it HERE) John and Clay formed the duo Lo-Fi Masters before going their separate ways right before Mayer’s recording (at Orphan Studio) of the EP Inside Wants Out. Clay co-wrote a bunch of songs with John Mayer including the hit No Such Thing and fan favourite Neon.

Matt Mangano later became John’s roommate in Atlanta and a touring musician during Mayer’s early tour of the US in early 2000/2001 and parts of 2002. See Matt Mangano (the band’s additional guitar player) on tour with JM HERE

Both Matt Mangano and Clay Cook now play in the Zac Brown Band.

WATCH Zac Brown Band perform Neon with John Mayer.

See MORE info on the ‘Dave Matthews Band ticket stub’ reference

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#JohnMayerDoc photo wall

The concert ticket stub is a reference to the first concert John Mayer ever attended, the Summer before he moved to Berklee. June 9th, 1996 at Jones Beach, NY - Dave Matthews Band. Mayer Talks about it HERE

John would go on to perform with Dave Matthews on several occasions.

Listen (Above) Dave Matthews Band - #41 feat. John Mayer (Live 10/2/07 - Hollywood Bowl, CA) - Mayer’s 5 minute guitar solo is a personal favourite of mine.

Eastwood

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