Hard Rock, Guitar JFRocks Music Publishing
Honeysuckle original

This is my 2020 year opener for JFRocks fans. This rather simple straight forward song, which is built around a solid rather jumpy guitar-hook and is titled"Honeysuckle" took me, (and I shit you not), several weeks to complete.   5 and a half weeks in total to be exact.  Listening to it, you would wonder why.  Frankly 2 years after the fact I wonder why myself sometimes..  While life wasn't too roses and rainbows at the time for me, it's pretty god damn good these days.  So it all gives me a bit of a grateful chuckle as I look back on this song.  Because this song took my career and twisted it into a whirlwind of expansion.  In ways that I never saw coming I might add.  In fact, in ways that I myself still to this day do not even believe could have happened in the short time-frame they all happened in.  But they sure as hell did...

As most of you know "Honeysuckle"was a re-work of a past song from 2016 called "Twice Bitten" which was itself later reworked in 2021 into a song called "Honeysuckle's mother" which in and of itself was a lesson for you guys in song adaptation or embellishment as the case may be.  That being said with "Honeysuckle" I didn't do too much "composing" while recording which is usually the time consuming part of the process.  No the song was pretty simple and it should have taken a total of 4 hours at the most to bang out.  But it took about 5 weeks due to a mix of technical problems and personal stuff.  At the time it all seemed like an endless chain of one thing after another.  It all seemed to me to be a great big pain in the ass in fact.  But now in retrospect looking back on it all I realize it was all for purpose.  Because this little fucking shit song, (which is exactly what it is at its core) which I thought would flop in a few days time ended up being everyone's favorite guitar riff and my most downloaded song of of the entire 8 years of releasing music online at that time, AND it ended up defining the next 2 years of my life in more ways that one.  Not the song directly mind-you, but what the song and its success led to.  The song was a catalyst of sorts.  Its popularity spawned pretty much the entire 2020 liner note series, which in-turn led to one hell of a ride for yours truly.  With that ride taking me to where I am with 2 new companies, both of which did a lot of good in 2021 for a lot of great people, and will be continuing to do the very same good on into 2022 and well beyond I'm sure.  So for that, I and about 10 million people to date have Honeysuckle "the song" to thank, as the initial catalyst for it all anyway.

Which all leads me to the nonsense that was around this song from its very beginnings.  I'm a firm believer in laughing at one's self.  I laugh at myself all the time, and I always take responsibility for my mistakes and own-up to them.  And this song began with me not doing my proper due diligence which led to an accidental initial song title, and more-over everything that came after that.  So to be crystal clear the blame for any fan-based nonsense around this song falls firmly on MY HEAD!!  Even though I've made this clear publicly on numerous occasion I want to make it clear here again because as I've found on YouTube in dealing with massive numbers of the public, we live in a world full of blame-shifters and carpet-sweepers.  And speaking for myself, nothing loses my respect more than someone who doesn't take responsibility for their actions or screw-ups.

Having said the above, there's always been much speculation about this song's title in particular.  Which really was just a rare case of me not doing my proper due diligence prior to its release.  A diligence that by the way I never failed to do on about 518 songs prior to this one.  But you know the public, and if you don't you best learn especially if you're in the public eye in any way at all.  We need only look around at all the COVID-based conspiracy theories and paranoid stupidity to see a prime example of the public's assumptions & imagination in action.  The truth is my initial naming accident aside, this song's title has and never has had anything to do with the person I initially accidentally named it after.  But the guitar-freaks were convinced that since I had never renamed a song prior to "Honeysuckle" that the person herself wrote in and forced me to rename it.  And as always with the public and their rigidity around their assumptions despite me telling fans over and over that never happened, to this day most believe "Honeysuckle" the person MADE me change the title, claiming that I wouldn't admit it anyway so as to not as they say "cause a problem or a stir".

Well for the record that's all nonsense.  Not only did that never happen (and I know convincing the public of truth is a waste of time) the song's title doesn't even have much to do with even the flower itself let alone the actress in question.  But the song does have a whole lot to do with me, and my sense of humor, and my love of irony.  I'm always a firm believer in laughing at one's self.  It keeps us humble, sane, and it keeps us from becoming overly self-focused, which leads to an inflated state of self-importance.

So why is it titled "Honeysuckle" then??  The title beyond coming from the almost mind-bending smell of Honeysuckle in the air during recording is actually an ironic title.  Honeysuckle is a rather sweet smelling vine flower that blooms in the spring or summer most places, but here in Los Angeles and where I live in Santa Monica in particular where the streets are literally lined with the stuff, we get three blooms per year, December, March, and May.  In December of 2019 when I was naming this song we were in the middle of what was called a record bloom.  Most of us were annoyed by it.  It was too much Honeysuckle that year...  It smelled like we all went crazy and emptied fogging cans of flower spray in our homes and yards.  lol...  All the neighbors were talking about it.  It was everyone's opening topic in fact.  It was like, "Hi Jeff, how about that Honeysuckle this year, geeze eh..."  lol...

That year's obscene December bloom was due to a warmer and slightly wetter fall/ early winter.   In fact it was such a powerful bloom in December of 2019 that it blew out the plants, and the March 2020 bloom was shit, and the May 2020 bloom didn't happen for the first time since the early 1980's I'm told.  By contrast most years March is the biggest bloom, not December.  So with all that it seemed an obvious flower choice.  I wanted to give the song a flower name other than Iris for obvious reasons.  lol  And mother nature rather obviously provided me the solution.

As I said, Honeysuckle is a sweet smelling flower.  The irony in the title comes from the fact that this song is NOT sweet like Honeysuckle, in fact I was quite pissed off and irritated with personal matters during much of its creation. Which is why originally as some remember the title was spelled "HoneySUCKle" with the word "suck" in capital letters. Obviously since the original title ended up being someone's name I immediately fixed that for fear the wrong impression would be put forward as it's human nature to "assume" things...

Clearly this song's riffing is anything but sweet.  It's a raunchy sour-patch kid that throws rocks at you in the summer as you drive, bike, jog, or walk by.  But it's catchy, and easy for most guitarists to play.  So I think that's why it caught fire in part.

There was always magic around this song.  Even the most pessimistic could feel it.  It seemed to die and then return. The song was called "alive" by a writer fan of mine from the Great White North.  And it was alive, he was right, and it still is to this day in a way.  That magic isn't really magic though, that's just a word for it.  It's just energy.  Everything is energy.  Whatever energy fueled that year's massive December Honeysuckle bloom likely attached itself to the song.  And for whatever reason it also attached itself to me as well.  My god did doors open for me left and right.

The real beauty of everything around this song is the fact that it was all so real and organic.  It was called by many mind-blowing happenstance.  In fact this song and all the buzz around it was inspiring to me in many ways although I admittedly had my hands full in my personal life at the time and really didn't enjoy it much at the time.  But "Honeysuckle" was the initial catalyst for the 2020 liner note series which in-turn would later in 2021 lead to a YouTube channel that to date has nearly 10 million views over just a few months of its existence.  We had 12K subscribers by the end of our 1st month out there in fact.

But also what was cool was all of the guitar-freaks, JFRocks fans, and much of the public in general all came along for the ride as though they were part of it all.  They took ownership of it in a way.  There was a sense of inclusion.  And that my friends is the very definition of magic, and not something that will likely repeat in any of our lifetimes.  At least not on that level anyway.

But this all begs the question, why did that initial energy around this song attach itself to me..?   Well I suppose the answer is in the results.  There is such a thing as fate after all.  Though as I often point out on YouTube most of us mess our true destinies up with our poor free-will decisions throughout life, letting fears and biases, either our own or other people's get in the way of any real progress, growth, and opportunity.  Which is why I try not to do that.  Life is always a series of leaps of faith.  And a big part of that faith is in one's own self of course.

In the end, the old saying that some might think applies here in reference to me is of someone coming out "smelling like a rose".  But I would argue that in my case that doesn't apply.  Not because I'm not sitting on a rainbow right now, but because of the journey this song began for me.  In the end I suppose I actually came out "smelling more like a Honeysuckle" than a rose.    :)

As for the song with all its folklore based twists and turns, crazy happenstance, and fan-based gorilla math assumptions.  And even a rather childish false report for copyright violation from across the pond back in Feb of 2021.  Upon giving it a listen with new energy and ears as they say, I've grown kind of fond of it as both a memory of a moment in time, some of which quite sad, and some of which quite head scratching, but none of which I wouldn't kill to do all over again if given the chance.

In the end maybe the real magic is in the music itself, and not all the bullshit and obvious misunderstanding surround the song.  The realization I had was that this song has and always has had everything JFRocks fans and guitar freaks love.  Its rawness of emotion, its catchy bouncing groove, and its intricate semi-melodic guitar solo down the middle all blend together to make it something very special.  Far more special than the silly folklore that got put around the outside of it I might add.  For which many JFRocks fans have apologized to me for, and admitted that I was right.  It was indeed a whole lotta COVID lock-down boredom.  But then we all know guitar fans are always looking for a fight.  I've found they like drama more than the biggest drama queen out there.  Which in part is why we always kept an eye on the song and made sure we did the right thing based on my initial naming screw-up and the rather foolish in some cases assumptions made my the guitar-freaks and JFRocks fan following.

This song is well worth a head-bang for sure, and I hope you all enjoy it, and continue to enjoy it on into the future...  Hopefully drama-free going forward okay...  lol But this song I believe is timeless. I think its energy will carry a decades into the future for sure...

I suggest you CRANK IT UP as always.  This particular track is best served LOUD!!!  And it doesn't hurt if you're a little pissed off when you listen to it too!

-- Cheers

"Honeysuckle"
Composed, arranged, & performed by Jeff Fiorentino (ASCAP)

Released:  December 19, 2019

Performance notes:

Jeff Fiorentino - All Guitars
Jeff Fiorentino - Bass
Jeff Fiorentino - Drums

Copyright © 2019-2020 JFRocks Music Publishing, Hollywood CA - Unauthorized use is prohibited!

**All Jeff Fiorentino and JFRocks song materials are produced for film and television licensing and are registered with ASCAP. We reserve ALL rights over this or any Jeff Fiorentino song title. Unauthorized use without our written consent is prohibited.

Track info:

Key: E minor
Tempo: 120 b.p.m.
Guitar Tuning: 1/2 step flat; (Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, Bb, Eb)

Guitar Effects Used: MXR Stereo Chorus, Ibanez Tube Screamer (TS808 model)
Guitar Used: Gibson Les Paul
Guitar Amplifier Used: Marshall JCM 800