The year was 2006. I had just moved to Montgomery, Alabama to live with my old college roommate JT (Jophis). The goal was to start a band, make a CD, get some gigs, tour, and get rich. Seemed like with our talent and experience, we would get there by 2007 at the latest. Around May or so of 2006, we had already recorded our first song (Liberate the Penguins), and were working on getting some of my original stuff in the works of being recorded. A guy that JT knew named Nick, who played guitar, had come along and also been fortunate enough to be able to stay with JT at his parents place. Soon, along with one of JT's friends Walker, a violin player, and Nick, JT and I formed the foursome known as The Younger Griffin.
Band Logo
I was given the moniker Captain Scratch, Walker was Ranofer, and Nick was Professor Dynamite.
Captain Scratch- Piano/Keyboard, Rap & Secondary Vocals
Jophis- Main Vocals
Ranofer- Violin/Strings
Professor Dynamite- Guitars
We worked on a few songs together, even recording some piano, vocals, and violin to a song JT and I co-wrote. Unfortunately, we didn't use a click track, so the rythm got all messed up, and that was a lesson learned and a song that will probably never be heard by anyone. Another song, an instrumental called 'Tunnel' did get recorded, with piano by me, and some guitar by Nick. Untortunately for that song, we never burned it to a CD, and even if we had, it would've been lost over the years probably. Whatever computer that track has been saved to is probably in a landfill somewhere. I do plan on making my own version of that song without Professor, as I remember most of the chord progression, and the main keyboard riff to it.
As far as a 4-piece band, that is as far as the Younger Griffin has ever got. While we could probably call on Ranofer to record some violin for us, a month or so after Professor moved it, he flew the coop. He had a steady girlfriend at the time, whom both Jophis and myself had met. She seemed like a nice girl. I had a feeling that Professor would get on his feet, and we would see a lot of this girl as time went on. Unfortunately, apparently Professor had been cheating on her with some girl he met while working at Subway, and had gotten the other girl pregnant. I can't remember if she was out of state or what, but the end of the story goes: Professor moved to Kentucky or Tennessee or somewhere, had a kid, broke up with his girlfriend, moved in with his baby mama, and was working at Wendy's. Jophis and I saw Professor like a year later with his new kid (the baby mama didn't make the trip), and while Jophis is friends with him on FB, I haven't really kept up. Last I heard he married someone (maybe the baby mama), tried out for the Voice and was going to be on the show but something happened and he had to go home and now he's not married anymore. Things happen in life, I get that, but Jophis and I always thought he was kind of a flake after he cheated on his girlfriend and skipped town.
Jophis would always joke that Professor was going to leave Wendy's and go for higher money at McDonalds, and we should make a song about him called 'All my bro's work at McDonalds and all my ho's go to McDonalds'. I took the phrase and ran with it, and actually made a few different versions of the same song. Song #1 was a little raw, but it is what it is. Version #2 came about when I played version 1 for one of my co-workers at the time and his brother. They suggested I change the word burgers to patties and have a little break part where I go 'flip flip flippin those patties'. Version 2 does have some lines about patties but no break part. I decided to make a version 3 because I wanted to take some words that might be deemed 'offensive' out and also so I could add the break part. That is the version of the song that is on this video.
So the premise of the song is basically about a day where the main character is working at McDonalds in his first week and Professor is one of his co-workers. All about how easy it is to work at McDonalds, the shady types of people you work with and have to deal with, all of the food that gets tossed from the floor to the fryer, and basically making fun of Professor and the fast food chain. Same deal as last time. Video is below. Comments and suggestions are welcome. http://theyoungergriffin.blogspot.com . I have to say that I'm learning how to use the editing program a little better. I have figured out how to get some of the effects to do what I want them to do. I think if I wanted to, with a little patience, I could make each line appear and disappear and do that in the order I want. For now, I just had each line start as the line in the song starts and hopefully got to where it doesn't start too late. I have also got the chords to stay right where I want them to on top of the lines, and even tried to put some lyrics over a photo (of a friend kicking a McDonalds tray off of my head). Unfortunately, that didn't work the way I wanted it to, but at least I am starting to make sense of some of the features, and might be able to make a video where the words are right where I want them to be and the viewer can make sense of everything.
I really hope this years Hall of Fame election gives us more guys than Big Papi getting elected. I've been seeing a little bit about it on TV and online. Even without steroid guys, I think Papi, Rolen, Helton, Schilling, Kent, and Vizquel all deserve to be elected with Andruw Jones being on the edge and possibly getting elected without falling off of the ballot. I feel Jones will get elected even if he does fall off of the ballot, and guys like Hudson and Wagner might fall off the ballot, but will get a good look with all of these sabrmetric stats becoming popular. A-Rod, Pettite, Sosa, Manny Ramirez, Sheffield, Clemens, Palmeiro, and Bonds are steriod guys I feel deserve to be elected. McGriff, Mattingly, Kenny Lofton, Keith Hernandez and Dave Parker are just a few guys who've fallen off the ballot who deserve to be in, with guys like Dwight Evans, Darrell Evans, Ken Boyer, Jim Edmonds, Bill Buckner, and Vada Pinson are not neccessarily Hall of Famers in my book, but worth another look. Heck, if Raines, Baines, Gil Hodges, Andre Dawson, Barry Larkin, Roberto Alomar, Mussina are in and all of the guys clamoring for Dick Allen (and who have whined about Raines, Hodges, and Santo not being in) get to have their way, I think Shawn Abner will get elected on the next veterans committee ballot. It's not that I am a 'big Hall' kind of guy. I just think a number of 'very good' players have gotten elected who fell 3-4 seasons of 'counting stats' short, while a number of dominating guys like Lofton, McGriff, and Parker fell like a seasons worth of HRs or SBs short of getting 500 or whatever is deemed worthy. Why elect Hodges, Baines, Raines, and Mussina without putting McGriff, Lofton, Parker, and all of the other guys I mentioned who are far superior than some guys already in the Hall? I followed baseball like crazy in the late '90's and the whole decade from 2000-2010, and I feel my ballot would reflect the best players from those eras. Just because the sabrmetrics became popular and someone didn't have enough WAR for a computer geek to think they are a Hall of Famer doesn't mean they weren't a good player. I could find any bozo off the street with a computer degree to make up a computer program and tell them to input player stats and they could read off whatever list the computer spits out and make a case of who deserves to be in the Hall without having watched a game in their life. I've attended more games in my 38 years than some longtime baseball fans have even watched on TV and attended combined, so I think I should get a little consideration, and maybe actually have a real HOF ballot in 2023. If anyone reading can make that happen, I will make it worth your while (as long as it doesn't involve putting Dick Allen or Mark Buehrle or Bobby Abreu in. I guess we will see the final results on Tuesday.
I got the 2021 Update set in the mail yesterday, and Kyler helped me sort the cards into teams on today, my last day of freedom before going back to work. I'll still have a little time to work on some more lyric videos after work tomorrow. Perhaps I'll work on my song about Surge soda and all of it's greatness. Hope I can remember how to turn the ovens on at work and not burn anything after being out for almost 2 weeks.
Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy
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