Joe Dynan
A Music Collaboration ProjectMarch 30 Blog - Simon, Garfunkle & Pizza - click here
March 26 Blog - "Sunshine" by Niki - read below
A Unique music collaboration between
two Joes.
Life leads us down some strange highways and presents us with many forks in our roads we can choose to travel. This road is about music from the 60’s & 70’s – which at the time seemed radical, symbolic, and philosophical - now it seems tame in the wake of today’s brand of musical artistry. Whatever else history may say about the Viet Nam era, Hippie era, or the Flower child era (take your pick, they are all the same era), the words and feelings were crooned, harmonized, or belted out with conviction. It really was a psychedelic time in history to live in. So much happened; the technology boomed, incomes boomed, politics boomed, war boomed – and the bards of the day sang about it all.
I remember years ago driving west on California Highway 80 to San Francisco where there was a Coast Guard boot camp graduation I was going to attend. Along the way, I passed an Air Force Base with its wide blacktopped runways filled with raw pine coffins and a number of C30s being loaded up with them. I pulled off the freeway and watched these military men go about their prophetic task of loading the coffins onto the planes while Country Joe and the Fish sang the I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag. The scene is forever burned into my memory. I then drove on to the Bay where the waters of the Pacific sparkled blue and white like floating diamonds. San Francisco – it was a beautiful sight, to be sure. By the time I got there, the Beatles were swimming their way through the Octopus’s Garden. Around the same time in Chicago, a young man by the name of Joe Lee Dynan was writing and singing his own take on that same era I was busy observing. A musician well on his way in the recording industry, this 20 yr. old man was driving from Chicago, Illinois to sign a contract with a major recording label, Columbia Records. He had stopped that evening to rest up in Baltimore for an hour or so, eat, and then call his folks to tell them his good news. After hanging up the pay phone (yes, well before the cell phone age) and as he was walking across the street, this extraordinarily talented young man’s life was snuffed out by a drunk driver.
People handle grief in a variety of ways. Joe Lee’s mother cried, his father was angry, his little sister didn’t understand, and his older brother felt a deep sorrow for such a wonderful gift to the world being ended so suddenly.
Unlike so many other stories similar to this one, Joe Lee Dynan’s story is not over! No-no, it is not over by a long shot. You see, Joe Lee left behind a legacy. He left his older brother, his music, and his journals. Phil Dynan is Joe Lee’s older brother. When Phil and his wife gave birth to their first son, they thought it only fitting to name him after the much beloved younger brother. Joseph, like his uncle, is also a musical prodigy in his own right. Therefore, Joseph and Phil are resurrecting Joe Lee through the music he left behind.
Joe Lee was a musical mix who reflected something of Paul Simon, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, and a score of others who wrote and sung ballads of love, life, injustice, and reflections of the world, as it was unfolding during the prime of their lives.
It might seem that Joe Lee Dynan left only sorrow in the hearts of his loved ones, wherein fact he left the world a gift - his own brand of Sunshine to bask in. Join us in finishing what Joe Lee began - the production of his fresh and enigmatic music. Joseph Dynan, Joe Lee’s nephew, is now reshaping his uncle’s music using his own considerable talent for a merging of two eras – all for our listening delight.
Like a Phoenix, Joe Lee’s music is rising from the ashes!
The lyrics to Sunshine are so uplifting, so meaningful, and still reflect the beauty of love. I am hoping you will feel inspired to buy this MP3 song. If you can and if you will, buy and donate – even $1.00 will help, more will go further. Let us bring back the Sunshine from one of the most interesting eras in hundreds of years of humankind on this beautiful earth!
Download a copy of the Sunshine MP3 - $1
About the author
Niki is a highly motivated writer with a great many writing successes under her belt. Published in a number of genres, many of her accomplishments are technical and non-fiction in nature. Niki also ghostwrites, blogs, writes novels and e-books. She uses her years of subject matter research and fact-finding experience to blend her writing projects into a harmonious and informative read that does not insult a reading audience.
Like the artist she is, when Niki is not writing she enjoys photography, watercolor painting, the companionship of her little dog, her grandchildren, her family, nature walks. No one can ever accuse her of having too much idle time - and that's how she prefers it!
Another Blog about this project: Simon, Garfunkle & Pizza - click here