‘The Ghost Song has all the energy and (bitter) sweetness of a great pop song, and the punch of a crunching guitar riff. It’s a love-letter to music, creativity, being true to yourself, following your dreams . . . and knowing when to let them go free.’ (Darragh McManus, Irish Independent Journalist)

“As I watched the video for ‘Little Star’ I thought about wiping away a tear. I listened more. Had a tear and wiped it away smiling.” (Amazon)

“Not just an intriguing story, beautifully told, but a thoughtful commentary on the manipulative & often soulless digital age we live in.’ (Amazon)

"‘This was a great one. This is truly an immensely underrated book with new, thought-provoking quotes jumping out of the pages to me, after every 2 or 3 pages or so.’ (Goodreads)

‘I love all the music references throughout and the bittersweet pain of change and ageing.’ (Amazon)

‘Enthralling . . . the author is a great storyteller. (Amazon)

a musical novel
for generations,
old & new

The story

Jake Green was a hardworking songwriter from an age when people listened to their music on vinyl, on cassette tapes, on the radio and on each other’s guitars. Jake almost made it, back in those days. That was before the tragedy. The one that involved his beloved daughter and broke him like a ballad. So he did something drastic and quit. And it was down to Jake’s best buddy, Smithy, to bring him back years later to write and play and sing again . . . But it’s a different world now. Everything has changed. Except music. And people. They don’t change that much. But for Jake to make his music reach the right people he had to go and do something drastic all over again. Really drastic. But brilliant. Really, really brilliant.

This is a story about Jake the singer and songwriter. But it is the story of thousands of Jakes and thousands of Janes, the ones you never get to hear about or the ones you get to hear about only briefly because ‘they never made it’. The music business is two worlds. There is the world of music and there is the world of business. And as Jake proves, you don’t always have to make it in both worlds to make it. .     

Paul Smith

Jake’s childhood friend 

Losing my best mate was the only ending to this story that really matters to me, you know. Nothing could have readied me for what happened to Jake. It tore me to bits, so it did. We were like brothers, the pair of us. We go right back. Back to when we were just kids on the streets with very little to offer each other except our love of music and that boyhood bond. It’s unbreakable. It should be unbreakable. But this whole thing went and broke it.

Now, here’s the thing. A lot of different people are going to give their versions about what happened. And I’m not saying they’re all liars. But what I will say is they’ve all got their own versions of the truth. So, it’s going to be up to you, when the ending comes, to decide who is really telling it. There’s going to be a lot of twists and turns. Me, I think I do know why Jake went and did what he did — not that I was entirely expecting it. You were always expecting something out of the ordinary from Jake, but, you know, not that. Not that. Not after all he’d put into his music and not after what people had done for him. And especially not after what I had done for him. So when you’re trying to make your mind up, just don’t lose sight of what it all means to me. I lost the best mate I ever had. That’s what it means.

Andy Kirwan

Music journalist and blogger

Apparently, all stories can be reduced to one line. Somebody wants something and they have trouble getting it. It’s the story of all our lives when you think about it. So where the hell do you begin with this one? A story about this someone — Jake Green — who wants something — to be a musician and songwriter — and, now here’s the conceit, gets within reach of it and throws it all away. I mean, we’re not talking about someone who gets that little taste of glory, that little glimmer of stardom, that flutter of hope in the belly, then slowly withers under the intensity and glare of the spotlight because they can’t cope with the pressure, the fear of failure — or even the fear of success. Or somebody who just wants out and decides to fall apart but on their terms, I mean, self-destruct through drugs or alcohol or just sheer manic anxiety. People who do things like that, they do them because it’s the only thing left they have any control over, if you think about it. They’ve surrendered everything else in their pursuit of this thing, this, how can you put it, this chimera we call fame, without ever stopping to try and understand what it really is. And what is it anyway? It’s just another way of life, that’s all it is. Another way of life that is not going to work out for everybody. And people aren’t always ready for it and they don’t know how to get a handle on it.

But Jake, I mean, he wasn’t even in that deep. He hadn’t even reached the edge but he’d already made this decision he was going to jump anyway. And if you ask me, the really tragic thing is it was probably all there for him, all there for the taking if he’d just adapted, accepted what had happened and went along with it. It was one of the weirdest – no, the weirdest – exits from the arena of rock ‘n’ roll I’d ever seen. My take is he believed he was doing something really revolutionary.  But if you ask me, he just bottled it and needed a way out. So he found an exit door that nobody else had ever gone through before and out he went. Brilliant ending in one way but very, very tragic in another.

Brian Blake

Promoter, manager  

I used to love the sound a needle made when it reached the end of the record and just sat there. Like it had nowhere else to go. This very delicate, almost inaudible sound. WHOOSH. WHOOSH. WHOOSH. Do you know what that is? It’s the sound of silence. It’s over. There is nothing more to give. And when I think about Jake now, that’s what I hear. WHOOSH.  Just silence. He had nothing more to give. You can talk about talent. Hard work. Commitment. Perseverance. Dedication. Application. Will power. Motivation. Lucky breaks. Don’t be fooled by that last one, by the way. Anyone in the business I know who had a lucky break deserved it. And maybe Jake had all those things and maybe he even deserved it. But has anyone ever asked if he really wanted it. Because if he did, why didn’t he stick around long enough to prove it?

Here’s the thing about Jake. Jake was chasing something elusive. He thought success would liberate him, give him this sense that he was in control. And you might ask, who out there doesn’t want success? Who doesn’t want fame? But the problem is, one follows the other in this business and not everyone wants them both. They’re the terrible twins. Success is great. Fame is a bitch. But they’re two sides of the same coin, baby. Get used to it. And Jake? BANG. He just decided to blow a big hole in his whole world. You want my side of the story? No problem. I’ve got nothing to hide.

Katie Ryan

Girlfriend

I had put a lot of thought into helping Jake map out his career after we began seeing each other, like, seriously. So, the fact he’d been keeping this . . . plan, if that’s what it was, from me all along is probably what hurts the most. It hurts deep. Because I don’t think it was an impulse. I don’t think it was this rash decision. And I don’t think he bottled it, like some people say. Jake, chicken out? Are you kidding? Jake could handle anything. He was fearless.

What bothers me is that I actually thought I was the closest to him in those last few months when things seemed to be falling apart and he seemed to be losing his shit. You may have noticed I said seemed. Twice. In the end . . . Jake just played me like one of his precious guitars. I’d almost go as far as saying he actually loved his guitars more than me. But guess what? When he disappeared, he left them behind too. So what does that tell you?  

Donnie Miller

Record store owner, old time buddy 

That’s all folks! Looney tunes, boy oh boy. I think it’s going too far to call Jake a tragic figure, because this story for me is really a tragicomedy. I know others don’t see it that way. But I’m just this old hippy whose passion for music and records is all I’ve ever really lived for. Music is all I’ve ever cared about. And that’s what Jake and I had in common. I guess, all he ever wanted to do was play his songs. Right? It was never about riches, stardom, fame or any of that shit. Then, late in his life, he gets this deal. He was tempted and he fell then he found, I suppose you could say, redemption. I’d like to say it could have happened to anybody, but, nobody could have pulled off what Jake did. Nobody would have had the nerve. And that’s the comic side of it, right there. How he ended it all. Man, it cracked me up. So now, here we are, all of us, coming together like this to spill the beans, hoping it might shed light on the whole damn thing. Listen, if you want light, go get a torch. Cos this whole story is as murky as hell and if there’s light at the end of it, it’ll be Jake blazing a trail out there somewhere. And wherever he is right now, I just gotta wish him well. DO ME PROUD JAKE! There you go.

Miles and Jenny Adams

Father and daughter

Most of all I felt for my little girl, Jenny. It was silly of me to ever let her get involved like that. But look, she’s over it now. She has moved on. And this is why we agreed that I would be telling our story. She wanted nothing more to do with it and besides, I didn’t want her involved anymore. She’s a bright young thing and she has a bright future ahead of her and this experience will, in fact, stand to her. As for Jake, well, look, it’s been a bit of a rollercoaster for all of us and he certainly left his mark, didn’t he? And if that’s what his aim was, to make some sort of statement, then he achieved it. But you have to wonder what it was all for? I hope in time, I’m going to be able to look back and make some sense of it. You know when you’ve just stepped off the rollercoaster, a little wobbly, a little shook, a little queasy and you glance over your shoulder and wonder what possessed you to step on it at all? But later you think, wow, that was one pretty phenomenal ride. So, if you’re really intent on reading this story, that’s probably the best advice I have for you. Enjoy the ride.