October 5th, 2022 and today is the 21st post to the newsletter. Today is a big day, I changed the newsletter name from Fables Reconstruction Letters to With A Shout. Fables Reconstruction started as both a play on the REM album from the 80s and a clever way to describe reconstructing stories. As I continued to write the newsletter, I didn’t like the way it “rolled off the tongue”. I’m going to leave the original newsletter up and I may continue to post new ideas on it as a draft posting newsletter. With A Shout another title is taken from another song, this time from U2. With A Shout describes the writing, the news, and the music a little better.

We are also working on a podcast that will go with the newsletter and With A Shout the podcast also sounds better.

I read a story today about the most trusted brands in the first part of 2022. The story is from Morning Consult, here is a link to Most Trusted Brands 2022. It was a quick read and I did not download the larger report. I find it interesting that five of the top ten brands are healthcare-related companies. I guess brand trust continues to benefit from the “Long Covid” mentality.

When I think of BAND-AID, I also think of Kleenex, they are two brands that people use in place of the name of the actual product. How many times have you asked for a “Kleenex” or a “BAND-AID”, the actual thing you are asking for is tissue or an adhesive bandage. That’s brand recognition!

There are a couple of other categories in this teaser story, in the automotive category, only three actual car companies made the top ten; Chevy, Toyota, and Subaru. In the finance category, PayPal is #2, Google Pay is #5, but no Apple Pay or Venmo is in the top ten.

Food for thought, oh in Food & Bev it’s a carb lovers dream; Cheerios is #1, M&M’s #2 and Ritz Crackers is #3!

Today’s rewrite is an easy one. It’s the namesake.

Oh, where do we go?
Where do we go from here?
Where to go?
To the side of a hill
Blood was spilt
We were still looking at each other
But we’re going back there?

Jerusalem
Jerusalem
Shout, shout, with a shout
Shout it out, shout
Shout it out

I want to go, to the foot of Mount Zion
To the foot of He who made me see
To the side of a hill where we were still
We were filled with a love
And we’re gonna be there again

Jerusalem
Jerusalem

Jerusalem
Jerusalem
Jerusalem
Jerusalem
Jerusalem
Jerusalem

Shout, shout, with a shout
shout, with a shout

Songwriters: Clayton Adam / Evans David / Mullen Laurence / Hewson Paul David

With A Shout comes from October, my favorite U2 album. This album has a lot of spiritual overtones, I’ve read several stories and seen interviews where Bono (Paul Hewson) and The Edge (Dave Evans) were both trying to decide if they were going to stay in a rock band or go pursue more ministry work. I guess they did both!

If you are a superfan of U2, like myself you will also know that October is the album that The Edge had a briefcase with music and song ideas for the album in and it was stolen shortly before they started to record the album. This briefcase I think I read was recently returned. Let’s go U2, take that briefcase, and re-release October with new songs based on the suitcase!

21 days in and I feel good about the writing progress, the discipline to stick with it, and progress on adding a new substack under the publishing company.

Where do you go to find your loud quiet? I go to music if I need to step back and away from the chaos.

Here is another new section. Music Notes will include news from the music world.

Lorretta Lynn passed away this week at the age of 90. Country music is not on the top of my song genre lists, but in reading info on Lorretta Lynn, it turns out she had some punk rock in her too. She released songs like The Pill in 1975 and Don’t Come Home A Drinkin’ (with loving on your mind). When asked she said she wasn’t trying to be risky or controversial, only honest. There you go Lorretta, your honesty in the 60s and 70s makes you a bit punk rock in my book.

Humm, I thought about going with Johnny Cash and his rendition of Hurt by Nine Inch Nails. That’s about as country as I can get. But the newsletter namesake wins today.

Click on the Apple Music image to listen to the song on Apple Music or on the Spotify Image to listen on Spotify.

“I would never set out to write something just for it to shock someone; I am not that clever. It’s always been about truth and if that means radio wants to ban it, well that’s their problem. Most of my records they banned became No. 1 anyway."
- Lorretta Lynn (Gen X at heart!)

Be Good,

Johnny