Created By: Jonathan Dysart (DJJD)
Original Creation Year: 2017
Side B
Side D
2017! What a year - both good and bad. A lot of anniversaries that affected me musically were occurring in this year: 50th anniversary of the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper" (celebrated by releasing a new remix of the album and the start of the Beatles Channel on Sirius XM); 40th anniversary of the Electric Light Orchestra's "Out of the Blue" (celebrated by re-releasing the album and having ELO and Jeff Lynne placed in the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame); 20th anniversary of Radiohead's "OK Computer" (celebrated by re-releasing the album with awesome new material). This was also the 40th anniversary of the release of the original Star Wars film.
In world events, there were many anniversaries: 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution and the U.S. entering into World War I; 500th anniversary of the start of the Protestant Reformation; and (in End Times prophesy) 50th anniversary of the Israelis Six Day War. But one of the biggest events in 2017 was the first year of Donald Trump as President of the United States and the soap opera events between him and his enemies.
But personally, this was the 30th anniversary of the creation of my first album DJJD 1987 on cassette (created in March of 1987) and my father's death six months later. The parallel is striking. I created this album DJJD Volume 36 in March of 2017 and a month later a major family member passed away. And this passing affected a person that I really cared for and have not spoken to directly for more than a decade.
I was an emotional wreck that year. It felt like history was repeating itself. So much so, that I made a total of 3 new albums that year, and a revival of this DJJD project. Instead of making albums for the fun of it, like I was doing for DJJD Volume 33 through 35, I was reverting back to this project by the motivation of more therapy and not just creativity - the drive that started DJJD Volume 1 back in 2001.
Concept and Theme of the Album
I honestly was not thinking much about anniversaries initially when making this album. Most of it was motivated by the increased stress of work and the American political events with Trump. Like DJJD 1987, it was the events of family funerals that happened later that put this album on my mental map forever. I wanted to go to a new direction musically, having less traditional classic rock/pop on the album, just like I did with DJJD Volume 34. Radiohead was heavily influenced by this album in terms of style and tone. There is not a centralized theme as done before, but sections of it had their own separate themes: Side A - 21st-century electric rock medley; Side B - the stress of work and how to handle it; Side C - a pro-Trump / anti-establishment message; Side D - personal retrospective.
Concept and the Album Cover
I wanted to find a surreal picture of being "plugged into" the computer since my computer career was starting to become more stressful even though the company is great. I found the picture of a skull connected to computer wire applicable. The back album cover is simple with the use of green font, symbolizing computer text and a nod to "The Matrix".
