For my Mum, Jeannie 1936 - 2017.

Today, 6/2/2019, is my Mum’s birthday. She would have been 83. I wrote this song for her.

A quick back story for anyone who’s interested. A few years ago I had one of those song writer moments where a lyric and melody pops into your head from nowhere, “Joni was a rebel but she never grew her hair to long”. It stuck around for a bit before I shelved it in my brain and mostly forgot about it. After Mum died my Dad found some letters to my Mum from people he couldn’t remember, but asked if I wanted them. They were just ordinary day to day correspondence between two friends in the early 1960’s, but to me they were fascinating. In 1962 my mum was a young woman, just married to my Dad (or just about to be), with her life ahead of her which turned out to include my sister and I, and half a life raising us on the other side of the world in Australia. She just didn’t know it then. Anyway, one of the letters from 1962 from a lady called Margaret said, “Have you heard about Joni? Joni was going home for good at the end of March but she ran away last Tuesday. She’s spoiled her chances altogether. Did you know that I had my hair cut....” Not exactly spooky, but it did make me think of those words again. And now they had a premise. When I got home from my Dad’s I sat down with the letter and wrote what turned out to be the first and third verses. And then I got stuck for over a year and a half until a few months ago when, in one of my wonderful bouts of insomnia, I sat up, opened up the memo app in my phone and wrote the rest in about 20 minutes. I wanted to write a song in which my mum was a character in a story that wasn’t just about her. I didn’t want it to be maudlin or saccharine. And I wanted it to be something she would dance along to in the cute way she did when she thought no one was watching.

So this is for you, Patricia Jean (Jeanie). Happy birthday!
Play it loud and dance like no one’s watching!