Jon (The Dog) – My Old Days

artist: Jon (The Dog)
title: My Old Days
keywords: experimental, alternative, pop, childrens, rock,  sing & songwriter, Japan, video
artist website: http://jonthedog.com/

According to ‘discogs . org’ Jon (the dog) is a Japanese woman that dresses up in a wolf or dog costume and plays the pump organ, and occasionally other instruments, such as the musical saw. There are quite a lot of albums (and a VHS tape) out and about with her songs and music, yet she seems to be fairly great at playing bellow the mainstream radar.

Graham, (a man who claims to live on the internet) send us a link through with one of her music videos. Step out of it and you will find a lot of videos with performances by Jon (the dog) dressed in dog (or wolf?) costume. But the video that Graham had send in was different… Here she performs ‘old age’ while being dressed in a cow costume, as if getting older turns dogs in cows… Which actually isn’t such a weird idea, as being a big dog like Jon (the dog) might be quite heavy at times. A cow, however, is much lighter… But let’s take a peek at the video, shall we?

The video starts and we witness a psychedelic happening in which a normal city street scene shows signs of surrealism, we might feel slightly disorientated. Luckily this happening isn’t happening in real life as you walk outside, but is the openings scene that you are able to witness by watching the very special music video by (indeed) Jon (The Dog) .

This glitch in the matrix might be the doorway to the secret place in which Jon (The Dog) awaits our arrival. When we manage to slip our eyes through, we can see her sitting behind a harmonium dressed in her beautiful cow costume.

In this room she feels at ease as she sings, plays and does her thing. It’s sounding absolutely intriguing and pretty. There is no doubt in my head that Jon (the dog) is doing this song in her purest form. Her voice is sweet sounding, a bit like milk and honey for the ears, and feels absolutely perfect in combination of the melody that she gets out of the organ. The camera zooms in for a bit as if it needs you to double check Jon (the dog)’s expression for its sincerity. Are we sure it’s really Jon (the dog)?

When all the boxes of the song and music being ‘pure at heart’, sincerely brought’ and performed, are checked; we can firmly settle down and agree that what our ears and eyes are experiencing, is one of these pretty little wonders on the internet. Jon (the dog) might be a cute cow now, but that didn’t do anything to begin moaning about the lovely music.

Even if you can, or can’t understand the lyrics sung in Japanese, we probably all agree that the sounds of music are universal. And her voice goes so well and lovely together with the tones coming out of the pump organ that it’s easy to switch off your thinking capabilities, and just listen and enjoy the purity of it all. This song might (or might not be) Jon (the dog) singing about old age, the transformation that people and dogs go through, but in all fairness it sounds as youthful as a lovely child that just hopped into the world to see what it’s all about. Isn’t it lovely, oh yes, yes it is… Woof!

For more Jon (The Dog) check out her website:
http://jonthedog.com/