Alright, so the question is, "Who is Jay Manley?"
Because, for me, Jay Manley was this guitar
This haunted, this haunted guitar
Um, so, Jay was in my mind, as a child, um, as was
My grandmother's boyfriend was always around, sweet old man
Um, didn't have really any other family
And always talked about jazz and playing guitar
And that's kind of when I found out that he was a jazz musician in the '30s
As part of a pickup band that would come through Kansas City
So he was really big in the, the Kansas City jazz scene
And he was, like, one of the only White musicians
That was allowed to kind of fit in in the Black part of town
In, in the, you know, Black bars and service, restaurants and stuff
Um, and then the war started and
I think he ended up hitting the beach in Normandy the day after his birthday
He just saw major action
Uh, the Band of Brothers was kind of what he did
He was just in the, in the thick of it
Ended up getting wounded and, um, ended up in the hospital
And then, you know, as fate have it, the hospital catches on fire
Just one by one, taking, you know
As the place is burning and he's getting burned
Taking one by one all these different, uh, injured soldiers out
Carrying them out, dragging them out
So he ended up saving thirty guys, um, and screwing up his hands
So in order to even play again
He had to break the cartilage in his fingers every day
Just so he could play again
So it was a big struggle for him, but, you know
I guess he was always fighting to get back to playing
So his prized possession, what is it? A Gibson L
It's a 1932 Gibson L-7? L-7, okay, yeah
You know, me and him started connecting over music
'Cause he, you know
But I was into, you know, The Cure
And you know, he was into others
But still, it was, like, a cool connection
And he passed and this guitar ended up with me
And I always played it and just kind of, like
"I wonder what it, what it sounded like
When somebody who knew how to play this guitar could play it"
So that was, had been sitting in my mind
For years and years and years
And I just remember seeing you play great
And it was just, it, it hit me, "That's the guy
That's the guy who's supposed to play the guitar"
Lyrics provided by LRCLIB
