INTRO: J. R. Carver (HOW AMERICA CAN DRIVE A MAN MAD) Track

Every so often an artist will compose a track both deeply personal, yet, distant. It is that space, between the raw personal and the distance, where the track breathes and becomes accessible to the listener. It is that space, in Good Guy’s ‘Intro’ track (the track that begins his sophomore effort, Mr. Hyde) where the artist, for better or worse, finally opens to a world that–one could easily suspect Good Guy (the artist) and Ramsey Dunlap (the person) has felt detached.





This introductory track, (its complete name) INTRO: J. R. Carver (How America Can Drive a Man Mad), pays homage to Good Guy’s best friend who was found dead in his apartment. One might shy away from putting such horror to music; moreover, one, in fact, does run the risk of being accused by anyone who then listens to that music and attaches its backstory to it, of profiting at the expense of the dead. When asked about the latter Good Guy says:





“I had to make this track. It is the only track that I ever ‘really’ had to make. It was the only way I could make sense of the senseless. It was the only way I could begin grieving. I won’t make any money on this track. Hell, I don’t expect to make any money from any track I ever compose. But I make them anyway. The difference with the J. R. Carver track is my connection to the love I had for my friend. And how troubled I know he felt . . . with wanting a certain kind of life, a good life. Like everybody wants. But it’s never quite working out the way everyone says it will, or should. And you’re stuck. And that’s not supposed to happen in America. But we all know it does. And then, like that, it’s just over . . . Making this track was my way of keeping my friend alive, with me. Music was his life. Music gave him life.”

And there it is. The space.