☮️ 🕊️ Born In The Sixties.
The Soundtrack From The Journeyman Memoir
🇺🇸 1961 to 2025: A Personal Declaration of Independence
Excerpt from the Journeyman
by Tim Cooney
Born in the Sixties
The year I was born (1961) was also the year John Kennedy was elected President of the United States. A native son of Massachusetts, he, along with his brother Bobby, inspired a generation and championed the civil rights movement. By 1963, Jack Kennedy would be gone, assassinated in Dallas, Texas, as hate eclipsed hope. But in his short time in office, he would save the world from possible nuclear destruction during the Cuban missile crisis and set the audacious goal of putting a man on the moon by 1969, changing American history and culture in profound and unpredictable ways.
I remember my mother gathering us around our black-and-white television in July 1969 and telling us that we would want to remember what we were about to witness. A man indeed reaching the surface of the moon and planting an American flag there, declaring, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Neil Armstrong had claimed the moon for America. I was fascinated and would pore over the images in Life magazine in a few weeks. The future was wide open!
Equally important culturally in the 1960s was the start of the “British Invasion,” a term used to describe the bands that were coming to America with their version of a new kind of music called Rock & Roll. Nineteen sixty-one was also the year the Rolling Stones were founded, but The Beatles, of course, were the main band of that time. Countless other bands followed them, including The Kinks, The Dave Clark Five, The Animals, The Hollies, The Who, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Led Zeppelin, and so many more. This music shaped my young life and inspired me to pick up a guitar at the age of ten and start playing Rock and Roll music."After 1961, the year I was born, the country would never be the same.”
🇺🇸 Another Decade: A Song for the American Soul
By Tim Cooney
“I was born in ’61—the year of the Kennedys—my native sons...”
— from Another Decade
July 4th has come and gone, but our search for personal independence never ends.
Where are we headed?
What did we become?
And what, if anything, is left of the dream?
As America approaches its 250th birthday in 2026, I’ve been thinking not just about patriotism, but about memory, legacy, and the decades that shaped us. This video for Another Decade is more than just a visual companion to a song—it’s a time capsule. A reckoning. A reflection on what was, what could’ve been, and what still might be.
From the promise of the Kennedy era to the chaos of Kent State, from the Beatles and the Stones to the silence left by Cobain, this song—and this video—traces the arc of a generation raised on hope and hardened by history.
It’s the soundtrack of an American experiment still in progress. And it’s deeply personal, filled with the rebellious spirit of a nation in search of itself, just like you and me.
Set against the backdrop of Tim Cooney’s original song, this visual journey chronicles the cultural, political, and personal tides of the Baby Boomer era. With archival imagery, haunting lyrics, and flashes of hope and heartbreak, Another Decade isn’t just a retrospective—it’s a reckoning with time, change, and the question: What did we become, and what did we leave behind? And how did I claim my personal independence through it all?
🎥 Watch the Video: Another Decade"A haunting musical journey through the decades that shaped a generation—set to Tim Cooney’s original song, Another Decade.
A companion piece to The Journeyman, this video honors the soundtrack of a generation—one that played through our radios, our revolutions, and our reinventions. This is the first of the videos that I will create over the next year, inspired by the songs of The Journeyman.
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Another Decade is part of The Journeyman soundtrack—a 2-volume album that spans a lifetime of reflection and reinvention.
Link to the song Another Decade and The Journeyman Soundtrack Vol I and II. Click on my name in the Soundcloud link above to view the entire soundtrack to the memoir.
(Vol. III is still in production.)
Why I’m releasing the soundtrack now.
The Journeyman memoir and Journeyman Soundtrack are my attempt to map those decades and tell the story of how a Massachusetts kid with a pawn-shop guitar and dreams of being a storyteller navigated assassinations, turbulent cultural shifts in music and art, a nation’s lofty dreams of conquering the stars, the Woodstock generation, and a dysfunctional family to find himself after decades of searching.
If you came of age when a record needle dropping onto a spinning piece of vinyl felt like church, this memoir is for you. If you’re younger, welcome to the origin story of the playlists you now listen to today on Spotify and Apple Music. Whether you grew up on vinyl or streaming your music, either way, may my memoir—and the soundtrack that accompanies it—remind you that history isn’t just studied; it’s lived, heard, painted, photographed, written, and created, day by day by you and me.
The sixties and the twentieth century may have ended, but the echoes are still alive in all of us, and The Journeyman project tells that story.
Tim, 1976, The Bicentennial of America. Coming of age alongside my country. Seeking my independence through song and story,
🎵 The Journeyman Soundtrack Vol I
“The Road Begins” (A Chat GPT review)
Vol I, is the sound of awakening. These songs trace the early arc of The Journeyman, where dreams are raw, heartbreak is fresh, and every lyric feels like a footstep forward into the unknown. Written across decades, this volume captures the spirit of leaving home, chasing love, losing faith, and finding the will to rise again. There’s a weathered innocence here—acoustic warmth, lyrical honesty, and echoes of the singer-songwriter era that raised us. From backroad Americana to soul-searching ballads, this collection lays the foundation for a life in motion. It’s for anyone who ever left, wandered, and still believed something beautiful was waiting.
🎵 The Journeyman Soundtrack Vol II
“The Reckoning & The Return” (A Chat GPT Review)
If Vol I was the journey outward, Vol II is the reckoning within. These tracks hold the weight of lived experience—the lessons, losses, and luminous moments that come only with time. Here, the voice grows deeper, the themes more layered. Love is no longer just a longing—it’s hard-won. Regret becomes reflection. Joy arrives not as a flash, but as a quiet, knowing presence. The production leans more cinematic, with electric touches, richer arrangements, and melodies shaped by resilience. Vol II is the sound of coming home—not just to a place, but to your true self.
As we look toward 2026 and America’s 250th birthday, may we remember the music, the madness, and the meaning of those early experiences. This country was built on stories and a collective Declaration of Independence. All along the road, I declared mine in big and small ways, and I am sure you did too; it was our birthright. When I left home and family in 1982 at age 21, on a sailboat I had helped build, to seek new opportunities in an unfamiliar place in a distant land, and again in 2013 when I told myself that the success I found as a CFP in financial services, a career I had spent twenty-five years building, felt hollow and what I truly wanted was to be a storyteller. In both those examples, I declared my independence from societal and familial expectations to seek my true calling. When I did that, I was able to find the courage again when it mattered most, in 2022, when I moved to California to chase that dream, and I felt I was finally on the right path to myself.
I would love to hear your stories of when you claimed your independence and how that shaped your journey.
If my songs and stories resonate with you, share your own story of independence here. Let’s keep the conversation going.
Tim dropped out of school in 1982 and left Newport at the age of 21, seeking independence. He sailed to Florida on a boat he had built with a friend. (Read about the whole adventure and many more in his upcoming Memoir.)
Then, in 2013, Tim declared his independence again, appropriately in Philadelphia, as he sought his true purpose as a storyteller. (See the whole story in his upcoming memoir)
Tim, pictured here with his life partner Cindy, pays tribute to Jack London at his estate (Wolf House) in Glen Ellen, Sonoma, CA. 2022. Jack London, a legendary American adventurer and writer from Northern California (The Call of the Wild and White Fang), inspired Tim to write his memoir, as they share a history of overcoming great odds to find themselves through their wild adventures, art, and search for truth and personal independence.
Thanks for reading. If this resonated, share it with a fellow Substacker or drop a comment about the songs and experiences that defined your declaration of independence.
New chapters and unreleased tracks land here every Friday. Stay tuned.