Goodbye Grandpas: The Story Of The Music Video

This music video became more of an emotional effort than I ever expected.

" Goodbye Grandpas " is made up of photographs that listeners sent to me of their own beloved grandpas who have passed.

... grandpas touch on a very tender place inside.
A place that reaches all the way back to a childhood I cherish but barely remember and a life I love but hardly understand.

Each time someone sent me a picture of their Grandpa; reading the words they described him with, or looking at the old face, I cried.

Each time I booted up the edition on my mac book, I cried.
I cried in the last roll-check of the video before it was uploaded to the distributor.
I ask my wife to check my videos—she cried each time I asked her to check.

I am, by nature, leaky—an easy cry. But, I've got emails and notes from others, "You got me," they say, "I'm sitting here crying in my office, thinking of my grandfather. I miss him too." So, I'm not the only one, I guess.

My songs tend to make people cry. When I used to play house shows, before COVID broke the earth (Excuse my passive-aggressive tone ;), it would become quite a funny segment of my show when we had to take a break for women to go fix their cry face, strangely, all the crying also produced a lot of laughter.

All those feelings are closely tied together. And, for or me at least, grandpas touch on a very tender place inside.
A place that reaches all the way back to a childhood I cherish but barely remember and a life I love but hardly understand.

The Video That Directed Itself

I'm not always so excited about making videos, I'm more into the music. This became such a dear work to me because you shared your memories with me.

The Goodbye Grandpas video was planned to have a few pictures of grandpas from fans. I didn't actually think many would send them to me. The rest of the video was me playing the song in a dark room with a projector running. But, I got so many pictures from you that in the end, I cut all the other footage ideas and just tried to cram as many pictures as I could into the film.

I had so many quiet moments looking at those old (and young) men (your grandpas)—them looking back at me. These men whispered a lot of wise things to my heart while I worked on this video. I remember those things they said. The words will stay with my life and eventually make it into future songs.

Please leave a comment on the youtube video, something unique about your Grandpa (s) if you want. I think that it would be neat to have a grandpa memory collection on the video comments.

⭐️Link to Video On Youtube

My Grandpa Robert Vancil

Goodbye Grandpas Lyrics & Credits

listen to the whole album, the family songbook on your fav music app now >>

goodbye cowboys
goodbye whiskey
goodbye cigarettes
goodbye mornings with leftover gravy
and afternoons we slept
goodbye world war
goodbye union
goodbye and bombs away
goodbye steel cars
And all the ruins
we're building up every day
he said it all before
So there was nothing left to say
he got what he came for
to watch it all just slip away
I guess,
so goodbye
goodbye watches
that hang from an old chain
goodbye John Wayne
goodbye angels
And goodbye devils
you're looking more and more the same
goodbye Oreos
goodbye steel-toes
goodbye JFK
goodbye Bonnie
and goodbye Clyde
I hear you had a rough day
did he wake up one morning
to see that o’l watch had ticked-away
and he'd heard it all before
So there was nothing I could say
I guess
But, Goodbye
goodby playboys
goodbye Christmas toys
goodbye silhouette
framed by the old tv
In a chair, he called 'easy'
that's where we slept
goodbye grandpas
goodbye grandsons
goodbye every day
goodbye real tall Santa Claus
I knew it was you anyway

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credits

Thanks to all of you who shared a picture of a Grandparent.
Horns - Danny Flam: recording engineer, trumpets, trombones and french
keyboards - Ezra Vancil
Acoustic Guitar – Ezra Vancil
Violin - Doug Hamilton
Cello, String Arrangements - Michael G. Ronstadt
Music & Lyrics Ezra Vancil
Mixed By – David Castell
Bass – Jonathan Estes
Piano - Jonathan Estes
Drums – Chris Brush
_from The Family Songbook, released October 10, 2020 _
Produced by Ezra Vancil

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images by Ezra

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Thanks for reading. I'm Ezra Vancil a Texas Songwriter and Performer and sometimes writer and artist. You can check out more at www.ezravancil.com OR go to my more music-focused Steemit Blog @ezravancil for more videos and music stuffs.