The Haunted Guitar (Interlude)

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"