“Stop This Train” (Live in Los Angeles) by John Mayer, Wednesday, October 13, 2021

Before releasing his critically acclaimed third album, Continuum, John Mayer released a live album called Try! The album prepared his listeners for a shift into the blues. Mayer had succeeded in becoming a pop star, but with Continuum he hoped to be taken seriously as a musician. The singer-songwriter wasn't happy with just MTV calling him a modern-day Eric Clapton or Tom Petty; he wanted to share the stage with his heroes. In 2008, Mayer released a concert film, Where the Light Is, which features Mayer playing acoustic songs and full blues-band arrangements of songs from his discography as well as a cover of Tom Petty's "Free Fallin'." As listeners and critics were taking note of Mayer's musical credentials, the singer became more controversial for his public relationships and breakups with stars and some unfortunate interviews. These antics, along with a health scare, led him to withdraw from public life from 2010 to 2013.

I TRY TO KEEP AN OPEN MIND, BUT I CAN'T SLEEP ON THIS TONIGHT. "Stop This Train" is a song about getting older. Mayer was 29 when the song was released. In a typical John Mayer fashion, "Stop This Train" features the singer's laidback voice with a meandering acoustic guitar. On the Continuum record, the guitarist was James Valentine from Maroon 5, but in the live version, it's just a 31-year-old John Mayer, still with that wistful look in his eye, still lazy-voiced, sitting on a stool, fingerpicking his Martin. As I listened to this song today, I pictured my sister shaking her head at that lazy voice. "It's as if he grew up with absolutely no ambition in life." That's what Mayer's voice says to her. On a dreary day like today, as I supervise students studying for exams, my mind wanders back to what might have been John Mayer's high school days. He's fallen asleep in Geometry class where his short, kind-hearted math teacher stands with her hands on her hips, clearing her throat. A young Mayer wakes up, a small pool of drool next to the Pythagorean theorem on the worksheet, hair matted from a deep sleep. She sees a verse of "Waiting for the World to Change" scribbled in the space where the future pop star should have shown his work. "It's all well and good to dream of a better world, John, but what are you going to do to change it?" "I don't know Ms. Wilson."

I WANT TO GET OFF AND GO HOME AGAIN. Perhaps my sister and I are being a little harsh on Mayer. After all, he's certainly achieved his music goals: touring with Herbie Hancock, playing with the legends, being a pop superstar, winning Grammys, and dating beautiful women. And yes, we might scream "overrated," and we may wonder why the spirit of celebrity descended upon John Mayer and not Pete Yorn or Sufjan Stevens. Mayer was able to maintain a high level of publicity in the early '00s in a way that many other indie musicians never achieved. Still, there's something about Mayer's music that sounds, well, effortless. But the singer has actually put a lot of effort into this sound. When the singer was young, he became obsessed with playing music after watching Michael J. Fox play guitar in Back to the Future. His parents were both teachers. His father is a high school principal and his mother is a middle school English teacher. Their marriage was contentious, and Mayer said that he played music for hours to "disappear and create a world [he] could believe in." His parents even sent him to therapy because of his musical obsession. In his late teen years and early 20s, he had panic attacks which he managed through medication. In songs like "Stop This Train," with that same lazy voice and puppy-dog eyes, Mayer gives his listener insight into his existential dread. Meanwhile, he took this anxiety into relationships with Jessica Simpson, Jennifer Aniston, Katy Perry, and even a young Taylor Swift. In recent years, he's improved his image in the press. Hopefully, Mayer has learned from his youthful mistakes and is better at growing old than being a young playboy.

Read the lyric on Genius.