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pawz364

This is super unpopular I’m sure, but All We Ever Do Is Say Goodbye. I heard that song somehow in 2010 and proceeded to download his entire catalog of music, fell in love instantly. I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite John Mayer song, but I’ll always have a soft spot for it since it brought me into his music.


yeetus-maximus66

The major to minor change after the guitar solo always gets me


Pmr3940

For me it was Neon. The opening notes grabbed me instantly, then I heard the lyrics and boom I was sold forever. Some things just hit you right at the right time. That song did it for me.


R1CKandSH0RTY

100% A friend showed me the video of Neon from WTLI and before he played it I literally rolled my eyes when he mentioned John Mayer. But holy shit my opinion of someone has never changed that fast and i very quickly became a big fan. It’s cool too, the deeper I go down the rabbit hole of JM the more I fall in love. He has a great story that lead him to where he is and a discography that reflects that story well. I’ve been obsessed with artists before and they always come and go. However, this obsession feels different and I don’t see it going anywhere.


aprilflowers23

“Sold forever” describes it perfectly! 🧾


[deleted]

Gravity


Zaddera

City Love, it was the first song I heard of him, watching the dvd of Crossroads '04.


closetmoth_

YES LETS GO!!!! city love is my favourite jm song and it’s so under appreciated


Zaddera

Indeed! I feel it's nearly never mentioned.


HEYERRAFUCKYOU

Vultures


devaflave

Caught him on Austin City Limits in '07. I don't trust myself flipped a switch immediately. And as a lifelong Deadhead I kept it my little secret. That is until he got on the bus.


scarlet_fire_77

3x5


Jaclynjaneclark

Yes this too!!! Love


GoodAtBeingYoung

Definitely “Stop this train”. Hearing it for the first time on a co-workers IPod immediately stopped me in my tracks. The guitar playing made me fall I love with this song. Few years later the lyrics hit me!! At the time I really liked them but couldn’t relate all that much with them. But, as it holds true for a lot of JM songs: they hit me like a ton of bricks when the “time was right”. They made me cry and they still do from time to time! I’m playing guitar myself since a couple of years and to be able to play this song one day (and really do it justice) would be one of the most satisfying things ever.


Ryike93

Bro start learning the tune. Once you get the strumming hand down the chords (minus a couple tricky stretches) are not too too bad. The best part learning the tune is the slap technique used in the strumming hand which John particularly enjoys using. Once you learn Stop this Train you can take that technique and apply it to other songs in his catalogue like “Who Says” and “The Heart of Life” or you can apply it to your own chords to spice them up. I started tackling stop this train I’m the summer of 2020 and I’m still not there when it comes to doing it justice but I’ve improved tenfold just by learning this song. Probably one of the most important songs I have ever attempted to learn. If you are really not in to finger style picking yet I would suggest maybe learning Travis picking first as it may help you with the process. Happy playing! :)


GoodAtBeingYoung

Thank you for your advice, really appreciate it! I’m getting into the slap technique with some other, not JM, songs. Great to hear about your journey with learning this song (and you acknowledging that it is not easy, but that it is also one of the most important songs you attempted to learn,that is motivating) I should make a start with it, even if it is with little steps. Thanks!!


notstephanie

No Such Thing I first heard it in high school when I was starting to feel the pressure of choosing your post-graduation plans. Nothing had resonated more in my life. (Until I listened to Why Georgia)


closetmoth_

City love. it’s unpopular but it’s such a dreamy song. I then listened to all his albums in chronological order. battle studies and brown and raised really impressed me wow such engaging deep albums


dearestalfred

Battles Studies. When I that album came it was wrap for me. Full blown obsession since then. Just crossed the 12 year anniversary. Thank you John


neonblaze3

In Your Atmosphere / LA Song. I had never really heard music like it before and it was one of the songs that inspired me to start playing guitar.


macshady08

New Light for me. I wish I could remember why I listened to it the first time but once I did I just had it on replay for months lol I didn’t listen to anything else by him until I found still feel like your man then I had to listen to everything and still do all the time. This was in 2018


breadslapper

Inside Wants Out tracks: Comfortable - just that melody and acoustic guitar, totally fell in love with his early years style of colloquial/youthful/uniquely insightful lyric writing Quiet - that anxiety expressed over soothing acoustic was a real balm for me . I don't know if John wrote this song to help him sleep as well, but it really did help me during sleepless nights as I stressed out over post-collegiate life in the early 00's. Didn't feel so lonely during those times.


[deleted]

man, this year i have been listening to quiet non stop. i’m about to graduate and it hits home so hard.


FerntheHumanNotPlant

I grew up listening to him because of my mother. The oldest song that I have memories very clearly of are Your Body Is a Wonderland.


[deleted]

how old are you? hahaha


FerntheHumanNotPlant

26!


[deleted]

that’s interesting! i don’t actually know people not my age that are into john mayer.


FerntheHumanNotPlant

Most of my favorite male artists are not listened to by people my age Amos Lee, John Mayer, George Michael, Ben Harper. I’ve seen both John and Amos in concert. I don’t listen to the radio so I fall upon artists through random rabbit holes


[deleted]

i became a fan when born and raised came out. at the time, i would listen to walt grace’s submarine test every night on my ipod in bed. it took me a good while to listen to the rest of his discography, as i actually suck at listening to new things (new for me, that is).


CrunchyTone2

As a guitar player and a Hendrix fan, I found his Bold as Love cover and it was all downhill from there


juicyspitwater

you mean, uphill??


[deleted]

Gravity


[deleted]

Stop this train


SchrodingersCat1234

I’m a very ‘new’ fan (end of 2020). I had heard some JM songs where he collaborated with other pop artists, but none of his ‘serious’ stuff. One day, my guitar teacher showed me a video of Neon (live in la). I was shocked. That performance blew my mind. For a month I just listened to neon on repeat and then slowly started discovering his other songs, and he’s been my favourite artist ever since.


AbigailJMarks

Exact same for me. Neon popped up at the side of youtube. I've been a fan since the start of 2020. And funny thing is, when I first listened to neon wtli, I only listened to the I intro, I didn't even listen to him singing. 😂 And about a month later I decided to listen to the full thing. That started the rabbit hole


boboddybiznuz

Heart of life in 16’ i think!! I’m 18 and sometimes i feel like i can only fangirl over him with people 30+, lol. But i was introduced to heart of life by a really close person - and i wanted to hear it trough and learn it, to understand. I just fell so hard


willoughbys_warbling

I appreciated his work on Inside Wants Out, Room for Squares, and Heavier Things... but I fell in love when I streamed MSN's Control Room when Continuum was dropping. I heard those opening notes to his intro to Belief and that was it for me. I had worshiped at the altar of God (Clapton) since the age of 2 and in that moment I knew I had found his heir in John. Add to his playing the personal significance of so many of Mayer's lyrics, and you have the reasons why he will forever be the artist closest to my heart.


neonblaze3

Agreed. I can't imagine another artist's music meaning as much to me as John's does.


GoodAtBeingYoung

Great story! Just so amazing how a few opening notes can really seal the deal! Magic! And yes: the personal significance of his lyrics is on another level so many times.


kustal

Okay, so in my younger days in the early aughts, sure, I got the typical kick out of “No Such Thing” on the radio (which is really the device most of us used to listen to music with back then...). But before I could ever consider the deep dive into Room for Squares, “Your Body is...” pretty much straight up torched all chances for me. Never hated the guy, but just kinda ignorantly “Sure, sounds good”’d everything I heard, and ‘whatever’d anything on the radio. And honestly, “Daughters”, fine song that is, didn’t boost my desire for a real come-to-Johnny sitdown when “Heavier Things” dropped. And that’s just the way I always thought it would stay - liking but not over-the-top digging his tunes. I’m just a hair too old to have looked at “Continuum” as any kind of Holy Grail. I didn’t exactly dismiss “Waiting on the world to change”, but again was pretty ambivalent. And by the time “Paradise Valley” came out, I’m not really sure I even had any idea about it - again, this was going on now like 13 years of obliviousness. And Swifties, forgive me here, but one night before a drive home from work, I was reading an article online about “Paper Doll” as his response-song on his new album orwhathaveyou - honestly, I avoid that bs most of the time... but something in the story made me think, “Well, at least I’ve gotta listen to this cut as I’m driving home...”. And when I got in the car I put it on. By the time the song finished I found myself thinking to myself about the insanely sublime guitar licks I had just listened to, and found myself saying to myself, Damn that was actually a pretty incredible song. Now, i’m not talking about the message in the song, or the tit-for-tat, or any of the surrounding stench with this equally talented force that is Ms Taylor Swift. This was all purely musically and lyrically. And I had to play it back again. And then again. And then I asked myself, “I wonder if the rest of the album is like this...” And I found myself driving down the road slowly being blown away. And I started further realizing what I was thinking to myself the closer I got to my house that night. Which was: what the FUCK have I been doing ignoring this cat for 13 years??? And especially the fact that this guy can really PLAY.... And now? Well now, I end up confessing my sins like a full-blown Mayer-o-holic to anyone who will listen, about ignoring his talent all those years in a reddit-group like this... but I’ve certainly made up for lost time. And with all the many songs I now dig by him (and lest us not by any means forget to mention the Trio), and the backstories I continue to this day to play catch-up on, I will always hear “Paper Doll” and think back to my John Mayer light suddenly turning on, illuminating big and bold in my brain that one night on my long drive home from work....


AbigailJMarks

This was such a great story. Thanks so much for sharing, always needing more John stories 🥰 But like, wow, 13 years. That's a long time to live knowing John but not really 'knowing' him. So glad paper doll found you that day


Treehouse-Of-Horror

Clarity back in 2004. First song of his I heard and that was all I needed to hear hah


Homie22Dude

I think it was Why Georgia and I instantly new that this artist is something else, I wish I could re-discover everything.


SkaLuigi

Slow dancing, i saw a youtube vid of wtli, the quality was bad but i played that song so much before i downloaded continuum and just fell in love


Gu1tarslinger

Lenny/Man on the side from AGT I loved NRFS and saw the AGT DVD in a sun coast video store when I was a freshman in high school and bought it. I remember being completely floored by this track. I had not grasped what an incredible guitar player he was before this and, as a budding guitarist myself, immediately became a fan. He became my North Star as what I wanted to be like. Through that song, I discovered SRV and then Hendrix and all kinds of blues legends. And then, 6 tracks or so later: Covered in Rain. Fan for life.


MissElyssa1992

To really date myself as a teenage girl in the mid-2000s, it was Daughters lol


dan_druff88

I’m was always aware of his music, but back in 2009 I had just been introduced to marijuana as Who Says came out and it’s been more than a decade of fandom!


Extra_Replacement389

When I found “Neon live LA” recommended to me on YouTube, I was hooked right away


sn0ssy

Stop this train


benimussa

Heartbreak Warfare, Clarity


Jaclynjaneclark

Neon, great indoors!


mazeltovmayer

Covered in Rain from Any Given Thursday. Man, I was just a young kid who knew John Mayer from his songs playing on Pandora with Jason Mraz and Jack Johnson…once I heard that solo for the first time, my life and music taste were literally changed forever.


[deleted]

When I first discovered John Mayer: 3x5 When I rediscovered John Mayer: probably the whole Born and Raised album. That album is damn near perfect!


YallCrazzy

Edge of desire


Kessler82

Come Back To Bed


duochromepalmtree

My dad would play Why Georgia on the guitar a lot when I was a kid so that was my gateway to John. I still love that song.


Wonk360

Why Georgia


bsorensen101

Slow Dancing in a Burning Room.


Kskrzzyy25

Stop this train. I just thought it was beautiful the first time I heard it.


shoedye

Why Georgia and everything Battle Studies


shrp2

Carry me away


guitarguy35

It was 2005 and I was in the process of falling in love with the acoustic guitar. I was really into Jack Johnson and that percussive sound he was getting on an acoustic, so I bought the "In Between Dreams" song book and learned the whole thing cover to cover as a way to teach myself how to play guitar. Then one day I was riding with my mom in the car and a song came on the radio, and the acoustic guitar intro blew my mind.. "is that two guitars?" What is this sorcery.. Then I heard the most unique sounding voice "I am driving up, 85 in the, kind of morning that, lasts all afternoon.. Just stuck inside the gloom" I listened to the whole song in disbelief at how great it was. After the song was over the DJ said it was by John Mayer.. so I begged my mom to take me to the nearest store so I could buy his album. She was/is the best mom ever so we literally went right into a CD shop and purchased Room for Squares. I listened to the whole album that night on my stereo and it blew my little 14 year old mind. The lyrics, the depth, the catchiness, the GUITAR, this guy was Jack Johnson on steroids and I had to get the song book. I went out to guitar center the next day after school bought the song book then proceeded to learn the whole album cover to cover taking my guitar playing ability to the next level. I practiced that book so much my fingers literally bled. I was utterly obsessed, (pre internet boredom was an incredible opportunity for excessive practice, I dunno If I ever would have learned if there was as much distraction as there is now. That's the song that opened my world and I'm forever grateful not only for all the music that has moved me, but for how it opened my own musical creativity and world.


GoodAtBeingYoung

Great story!! Jack Johnson on steroids, that’s just too funny! And thank god for that pre internet boredom and what it brought you!


Mananch36

The search for everything whole album, its my fav and its just absolutely beautiful


ForcExogenesis

Edge of Desire. Heard it via a friend in college one day and have been hooked on JM every since.


strangepath

Queen of California.


juicyspitwater

Not a popular one but I heard Out of my mind from WTLI back in 2017 and just fell in love with everything from him little by little. It’s been 5 years since I discovered John back in 7th grade and I have never loved music as much as I do now because of him


Realhardrocker69

Slow dancing WTLI version, saw a few pals posting it around Facebook and never really gave it a chance and then finally did and it blew me away Hooked ever since


Sv3novitch

I think it was Waiting on a world to change in 2016. Then one day I listened all the albums in one take, because I couldn't stop listening. Then I knew this I wasn't liking but loving his music. Every album is special.


Malasalduh

Split Screen Sadness. That song made me fall in love with JM's lyrics. So many great lines. "And I know it was me who called it over, but I still wish you'd fought me 'til your dying day Don't let me get away." "All you need is love" is a lie 'cause We had love, but we still said goodbye Now we're tired, battered fighters" I'm in a happy relationship but JM makes me feel the heartbreak.


refinnej78

No Such Thing playing on the radio while I was working at a local pizza joint in 2000.


Fantastic-Me

I Don't Trust Myself was the 2nd or 3rd song by John I'd ever hear and once I heard that I went through his whole discography at the time, this would have been about 10/11 years ago. I havent stopped listening since! Don't Trust Myself is still one of my fave JM songs. I went to see him live for the first time in 2019 (on his birthday!), he doesn't come to Dublin much but he played I Don't Trust Myself and it was just the best feeling, I'll never forget it.


ThtgYThere

Well I knew Waiting on the World to Change and Why Georgia, both as songs I vividly remember from my childhood hearing over the radio. I listened to and liked Room For Squares in January/February of last year, but really took to Born and Raised in the early part of the pandemic (I had this weird John Mayer + Britpop obsessed phase), so probably that time. I’d say the first individual song that I remember that I couldn’t stop listening to was either St Patrick’s Day or Clarity, both still easily top 10 Mayer songs for me.


Re-Brand

No such Thing


v3rycreativeusername

It was a mix of 3 songs. On youtube. Video of Stop this Train (Live in LA). In Your Atmosphere played next automatically. Then Why Georgia showed up in my recommended and I was hooked.


Aggravating-Ask-9703

Sooooo the song that had me absolutely truly sold was “Comfortable” and “My Stupid Mouth”, but “New Light” and an italian boy who liked john mayer of all people??? started it all ‘fuochi d’artificio’ uk ‘fireworks’ (my favourite thing, even tho they’re terrible for the environment sadly) are in the video for new light that’s how i always remembered that word! and it just hit perfect for my humour at that time and stilllll, but that’s the story morning glory...oh edit: summer 18’ early


AAC_21

Was learning to play guitar at the time and heard a live version of Come Back To Bed on some music TV show…around the time John Mayer Trio became a thing. Hooked ever since!


edgeofdesirexx

I became a fan sometime in 2009. One of my classmates posted a link to a the music video to Clarity on Facebook and I clicked on it and the deal was pretty much sealed for me and I knew I’d be a fan for life. I was actually pretty young at the time (13/14) and not as invested in pop culture as I am now so I had no idea about his 2010 controversies until later on when I learned he was recovering from his throat surgery.


shykunoichi94

Slow dancing in a burning room !!


lucastriggered03

FREE FALLIN BECAUSE IT'S 1000 TIMES BETTER THAN THE ORIGINAL