This week, for song lyrics Sunday, Jim Adams has challenged us to find a song that carries a message of empowerment. The song I have chosen is one by the Wood Brothers, called “Happiness Jones” from their album “One Drop of Truth.” The lyrics of the song talk about the fact that pain and suffering and obstacles are all a part of life, but that they make us stronger.
The Wood Brothers’s members are brothers Chris Wood (bass), Oliver Wood (acoustic and electric guitar) and Jano Rix (multiple instruments). Chris and Oliver grew up in Boulder, Colorado and from childhood were steeped in American roots music. Their father, Bill Wood, was a scientist of some fame who had recorded on the 1960 album “Folksingers ‘Round Harvard Square” with Joan Baez. Their mother was a poet.
Oliver moved to Atlanta, Georgia where he eventually joined Tinsley Ellis’s band. Ellis urged Oliver sing. This led to Oliver forming the band, King Johnson, a touring group that released six albums of blues-inflected R&B, funk and country over the next 12 years. In the meantime, Chris studied jazz at the New England Conservatory of Music and moved to New York. In 1992, Chris co-founded the innovative jazz fusion group Medeski, Martin & Wood (MMW), which released two dozen albums over the next two decades. After playing music apart for so many years, the brothers finally realized they should play together.
The album “One Drop of Truth” was released in 2018. The Wood Brothers self-produced and recorded the album, which Oliver later said led to a feeling of freedom and reduced the stress usually involved in making an album. “One Drop of Truth” was nominated for Best Americana Album at the 61st Grammy Awards.
Diane Rene Williams writes in The Augusta Chronicle on June 21, 2018:
‘One of the songs off the new album is “Happiness Jones,” a song based on a news article Wood read about how society is addicted to happiness, antidepressants and the “fake happiness”’social media often depicts. Wood feels as a result of these outside influences, most people feel like it is unnatural to be sad. However, Wood feels sadness can be a gift along the way to achieving happiness.
As the opening lyrics to “Happiness Jones” explain, “All of my wisdom came from all the toughest days, I never learned a thing being happy. All of my suffering came. I didn’t appreciate it. I never learned a thing being happy.”
To accompany the rollicking, upbeat Americana track, the band filmed a music video for “Happiness Jones” that involves bassist Chris Wood performing an improv interpretive dance skit, along the lines of the little dance skit he does for live shows.’
I love the music video! I think it adds so much, but my daughter is a dancer so I enjoy movement with music. It certainly brings a special energy. I hope you enjoy.
all of my wisdom came
from all the toughest days
i never learned a thing bein’ happy
all of my sufferin’ came
i didn’t appreciate it
I never learned a thing bein’ happy
but to know how it feels now and then
I got a happiness jones my friend… Happiness Jones
all of my answers came
driving myself insane
I had a dragon to tame to be happy
all of my peace and quiet
came from putting out fire
I keep a spark alive to be happy
that old dragon’s gonna come back mad
I got a happiness jones so bad…Happiness Jones
Happy Happy Happy Happiness Jones
I’m not sick
I’m not alone
we all got it…Happiness Jones
all of those words I wrote
in the storm that rocked my boat
all of that was stuck in my throat when I was happy
all of those songs I was singin’
while my boat was sinkin’
next thing i’m thinkin’ i’m happy
i might as well change my name
to Happiness jones my friend….Happiness Jones
written by The Wood Brothers
A Little Bit of Everything, With Love 