SLEEP THROUGH THE STATIC
biography
Before Jack Johnson perfected his rock star ways, he was a champion surfer on the professional route, with a sponsorship with Quiksilver. It was a life that was second nature for the Hawaiian native, for he began chasing waves as a toddler, and by the time he was 17, he was an outstanding athlete on the pipeline. However, Johnson was also testing his other creative outlets — one being film and the other being music.
It was during his college years as a film student at University of California at Santa Barbara when Johnson began writing songs. He and old mates Chris Malloy and Emmett Malloy produced a surf cinema documentary entitled Thicker Than Water, in turn spotlighting Johnson as a talented cinematographer as well as a burgeoning singer/songwriter. His peers in and around the surf circuit praised his work, and Thicker Than Water received props in Surfer magazine for Video of the Year during 2000. The follow-up surf flick The September Sessions also earned the Adobe Highlight Award at the ESPN Film Festival that same year.
Still, Johnson steered away from a blossoming pro sports career and stuck with music — something that would soon earn him additional honors. G. Love & Special Sauce quickly took notice to Johnson’s lazy blues stylings, which also molded folk and hip-hop for a modern rock twist, and included Johnson on “Rodeo Clowns” from G. Love’s 1999 release Philadelphonic. Johnson’s four-track demo also caught the ears of Ben Harper’s right-hand man, J.P. Plunier. This was surely mind-blowing for Johnson, for Harper’s college rock mainstay Fight for Your Mind was one of his favorites and remained an inspiration. Aside from Plunier’s production work, Harper also added his lap steel guitar work on Johnson’s sultry debut, Brushfire Fairytales (Enjoy Records), in winter 2001.
Two co-headlining tours followed throughout spring and summer 2002; Johnson’s sophomore effort, On and On, appeared in May 2003. Stateside dates with Harper followed in June and July. A third album, In Between Dreams arrived in March 2005, narrowly missing the top of the Billboard album chart in the process. Johnson earned two Brit Awards for In Between Dreams: International Male Solo Artist and International Breakthrough Act. In February, Johnson issued the soundtrack Curious George. Nielsen SoundScan sales topped at 163,000 copies in its first week of release, earning Johnson his first-ever number one album on Billboard’s Top 200 and Rock Albums charts. His sixth album, Sleep Through the Static, was released in February 2008. ~ MacKenzie Wilson, All Music Guide
JACK JOHNSON LYRICS
“Sleep Through The Static”!
Trouble travels fast.
When you’re specially designed for crash testing.
Or wearing wool sunglasses in the afternoon.
Come on and tell us what you’re trying to prove.
Because it’s a battle when you dabble in war.
You store it up, unleash it, then you piece it together.
Whether the storm drain running rampant just stamp it
And send it to somebody who’s pretending to care.
Just cash in your blanks for little toy tanks.
Learn how to use them, then abuse them and choose them.
Over conversations relationships are overrated.
“I hated everyone” said the sun.
And so I will cook all your books.
You’re too good looking and mistooken.
You could watch it instead.
From the comfort of your burning beds.
…Or you can sleep through the static.
Who needs sleep when we’ve got love?
Who needs keys when we’ve got clubs?
Who needs please when we’ve got guns?
Who needs peace when we’ve gone above
But beyond where we should have gone?
We went beyond where we should have gone.
Stuck between channels my thoughts all quit..
I thought about them too much, allowed them to touch.
The feelings that rained down on the plains all dried and cracked.
Waiting for things that never came
Shock and awful thing to make somebody think.
That they have to choose pushing for peace supporting the troops.
And either you’re weak or you’ll use brut force-feed the truth.
The truth is we say not as we do.
We say anytime, anywhere, just show your teeth and strike the fear.
Of god wears camouflage, cries at night and drives a dodge.
Pick up the beat and stop hogging the feast.
That’s no way to treat an enemy.
Well mighty mighty appetite.
We just eat ‘em up and keep on driving.
Freedom can be freezing take a picture from the pretty side.
Mind your manners wave your banners.
What a wonderful world that this angle can see.
But who needs to see what we’ve done?
Who needs please when we’ve got guns?
Who needs keys when we’ve got clubs?
Who needs peace when we’ve gone above.
But beyond where we should have gone?
Beyond where we should have gone.
We went beyond where we should have gone.
Beyond where we should have gone.
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SLEEP THROUGH THE STATIC
