The House with Fifty Stories — A Memoir by John J. Cannon

The story behind the book

Many years in the making

This book has been a heartfelt work in progress for many years. The title doesn't mean a skyscraper. It means a life, and a real house: Sunset Lane in Tenafly, New Jersey, and all the stories it holds.

1967John J. Cannon is born.

September 1972A five-year-old circles the hedges at Mackay School, crying, before walking into kindergarten.

About 1973A family trip to the White House Easter Egg Roll.

1980The attic at Sunset Lane becomes his room at 13, and his first Strat arrives.

1986He records “Let It Fly” on a four-track in that attic bedroom.

NJ SoundHe builds his own recording studio and releases music as John, Cannon, and Jai Beam.

Be TrueHis first book, a children's book.

2026He sits down to write the memoir, to make peace with his life.

New Year’s Day 2027The House with Fifty Stories arrives in hardcover.

From the Prologue

Upstairs on Sunset Lane

It's 1986, and I'm sitting upstairs in my mother's house at Sunset Lane in Tenafly, the same house I grew up in. My mother had the attic turned into a bedroom, and it's been my room since I was thirteen. On that day it's also my studio.

It's about the blue sky. Nothing more complicated than that. It's that deep, clear New Jersey blue that shows up some days, the kind of sky you just want to sing about.

…Every life is a house with a lot of rooms in it, and every room has a story. Some of mine are funny, and some are sad.

…He didn't know how it would turn out. I do now, at least most of it.

This is the story of that house, and of all the stories it holds.

Let it fly.

What's inside

Room by room, story by story

🏠

Home

A small two-bedroom house on Sunset Lane that his mother kept “nice and warm and cozy,” and the attic room where the music began.

❤️

Family

A mother, a grandmother who visited every week, a doctor grandfather, uncles, a brother, and the names passed down: John Joseph, Joseph John, John Joseph.

🎸

Music

A Strat at 13, a four-track in 1986, and songs that waited forty years to find their way into the world.

☀️

Poor but loved

“We were poor. I mean really poor.” But there was a lot of love in that little house, even in the years when there wasn't much else.

About the author

John J. Cannon

John J. Cannon is 59 and lives in River Edge, New Jersey. He grew up poor but loved at Sunset Lane in Tenafly. He is a musician who releases songs as Cannon, Jai Beam, and John, and the owner of the NJ Sound recording studio. In 1986 he recorded “Let It Fly” on a four-track in his attic bedroom, and in 2026 he put it out on Spotify as “Let it Fly 2026.”

His first book was the children's book Be True. The House with Fifty Stories is his memoir, written, in his words, “to make my peace with my life.”

The countdown

Coming New Year’s Day 2027

January 1, 2027

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