JIM GREER’S “GINGER VISION”: A CREATIVE OUTLET FOR SON’S PEDIATRIC CANCER.
Everyone deals with pain in different ways. Some ways are more constructive than others.
California Producer/Songwriter/Musician Jim Greer is using his creativity to get through a real life painful circumstance that he and his family are currently facing.
In 2010, his 20 month old son Teddy was diagnosed with a rare pediatric cancer called Neuroblastoma.
Greer’s CD titled “Ginger Vision” (Rondo Brothers, War Chant Records) was released March 14th. The ten songs on the CD will take you through the experience Jim and his family has been enduring. It is a beautiful representation of the hardships Greer is currently going through, all dedicated to his son, Teddy.
Live ‘N Loud Magazine asked Mr. Greer how he came up with the title “Ginger Vision”. He replied, “There’s a line in the movie “The Kids Are Alright” where Pete Townsend is describing meeting Keith Moon, and he says he was dressed in brown pants, suede jacket, holding a glass of brown ale, and that he was a “sort of ginger vision”. I always liked the phrase, and I found it far deeper in potential meaning as well.”
Greer further went on to say that this CD was a creative outlet and has helped him deal with the circumstances. “Yes, the CD has helped me a lot. It was a big burden on me for some reason. I don’t know why. Being done with it and putting it out and letting people hear it has been very therapeutic. Kind of like scream therapy, except I didn’t scream. The record was started before the cancer diagnosis, but it felt purposeless and directionless. When the cancer thing happened I felt like I realized what I had been writing about.”
The sound is more along the lines of ambient rock and roll. As a songwriter Greer crafts “impressionistic, melodic songs” that have a classic, yet trippy to feel to some of the songs. I get hints of Pink Floyd and the Beatles. Greer is joined on the album primarily by drummer/musician Tim Carter who has been performing with Greer since 1994. “Tim Carter played drums on several songs. I played all the guitars and keyboards and bass, and some drum programming, and sang,” Greer adds.
Several of the CD’s songs were written prior to the cancer diagnosis. And as Greer says, “Some songs very surreptitiously seemed to predict the situation, and others just still felt like they needed to be there.”
“Look What A Mess” is kind of a moment of self-awareness, or that moment where you maybe look at yourself and go “what the hell am I doing”. And because my life has been the result of this kind of overdrive of ambition and work, in some ways I wonder if I haven’t caused most of my own problems, including the cancer.”
Greer goes on to say, “It’s not really possible, but you have to wonder. Now I wonder if there’s something I can do to cure it – something inside me. Or maybe it just is what it is. They say karma is so basic it’s like gravity; you don’t even know it’s there. So maybe you can affect people’s health around you even if your head isn’t on straight. I don’t know. Also, “Look What A Mess” is a little bit of black humor, for me anyways. I always imagine it being in a TV show with David Duchovny or someone who is always a bit hapless and can’t get anything right.”
The songs have cool names like “Eagles Whisper”, “Save Me For A Rainy Day”, “Sunshine….ON!”, “Yer Breaking UP” and “Hollow”. And there is a song for everyone. “Pixie Dust” channels Pink Floyd, a harder track is “The National Echo” and “Memory & Logic” is unique with a different beginning’ it’s almost hip hop/rap and trippy!
But “Let Live With The Chemicals” is closest to Greer’s heart. “That song happened in a kind of magical way one day, and writing and recording it was really fun, and when I listen to it, it really feels like an experience. It totally overtook me when it happened, and I detuned my guitar all crazy, and I’ll never be able to figure out how the heck I played those parts. And when the song happened it felt really weird to me. It was a weird and good day. It felt like a dream, and thinking back on the day, it feels like I am remembering a dream.”
Greer works as part of the producer/artist team at Rondo Brothers and has performed or written on approximately 70 records to date. Notable projects as a performer, writer, re-mixer or producer include working with Yoko Ono, New York Dolls, and many more.
Mr. Greer and his family will be treating and fighting Teddy’s illness well throughout 2011 and all profits of this album will go towards his treatments.
LNL had to ask one more question in two parts… How is Teddy? And how is the family?
Greer says, “Teddy is doing well. He just finished 20 early morning radiation treatments and is a pretty happy kid. From now until August we will be dealing with 6 more week or two week long hospital stays. Apparently some of this will be a little hard on him, but his high spirits are always keeping up. The family is fine. We are tired from all this, but basically ok. It could be worse.”
For more information, please visit Rondo Brothers site to download Ginger Vision from Itunes.
