The Bowery Brothers Head Injury
Rock and Roll has some strange stories. This may be the strangest.
The music business is full of strange and intriguing stories. From the insane, but true story that Tupac’s ashes were smoked by his friends to Ozzy Osborne snorting ants, there is no shortage of weird but true rock and roll stories.
The head injury that released 40 years of lyrics and leade to a #1 hit single rank up there!
John Graham, a member of the Bowery Brothers has a tale to tell that will blow your mind.
In the late 70’s and into the early 80’s John was a prolific songwriter and lyricist. He wrote lyrics for many of the days most eclectic rock andpop bands. There were several American an European bands including the English Lyrics for Nena’s 99 Luft Baloons.
One day in 1986 while working at the Feldman Agency in Vancouver, John was helping to install the offices first Fax machine, replacing the old behemoth teletype machine. At the time John was an agent at the Feldman agency and was simply helping the installing and learning how to fax.
Then came the accident.
As they were lifting the 300 pound teletype machine out of place and readying the fax machine the teletype machine tipped over, striking a blow on John’s head.
Other than a large bruise and a ringing headache it seemed that there was no long term damage done to John. However, as a professional lyricist and songwriter after recovering from the headaches and bruises, when John returned to trying to write it was nearly impossible for him. The only lyrics he was consistently able to write were in Spanish and tended to be children’s song. Not what John was known for.
Doctor’s examined John and concluded there had been a Frontal Cortex injury and that his ability to write lyrics was impaired and perhaps forever lost.
The artist goes into deep depression
“My creative world came to a grinding halt and I was tossed into a 10 year depression. Being able to write lyrics was not only my liveliehood but it was how I expressed myself” states John Graham.
This condition, a long-term writers block of enourmous proportions went on for almost 40 years to the day.
The shoe drops!
In a bizarre twist of fate in 2015 John was working the Victoria Pride Parade as a marshal. He was walking along the float as it wound it’s way down Douglas St. when one of the floats participants took off his spiked high heeled shoe and tossed it to the crowd.
The shoe bounced off the lamp standard, ricocheting back towards the float and struck John on the head with the steel tipped spike heal.
The story then gets weird. Really weird
Aside from a nasty cut and an enduring scar there was a totally unintended consequence and out come. Suddenly, John was once again, after nearly 40 years, able to write lyrics and music again.
“It’s like I have been saving these songs and stories for nearly 40 years and now with this accident I am writing freely and without hesitation. In fact since 2015 I have written well over 200 songs and lyrics. It’s a miracle” states John Graham
So what’s next?
“It has been a bit of a miracle” says Graham. Our clients and our own work are getting high quality lyrics and I am finding it incredibly easy to write complex cadence and rhymes.” Graham goes on to say, ” The hit on the head was one of the keys to the creation of the Bowery Brothers. Here’s to the other shoe dropping!”
Read the complete story of the Bowery Brothers Here