Music Can Heal You

🎼🎵🎶🎸🎧🎤 Happy New Year to you all ❤️

A fitting song for today of all days

I had to start with this one not just because “it’s a missive” from MPX, but mainly 'cos the title could not have been more a propos. Even The New York Times — a publication I used to believe was a credible news source — liked it enough to put it in one of their Top 10 playlists. (Don’t get me wrong, I was well-chuffed when that happened and I shall tell the story, one day, about how I even came to be in a publication such as the NYT, a seemingly reputable journalistic outlet who would, since 2020 find a person like me to be bad news...)

No one had ever thought to mend their ways, no way!
(Except) on New Year's Day...
On New Year's Day, they changed their ways
It was a decent time to change ways

Then saw us fallen, no more harmony 
It was the terrible economy.
“Sure, let’s just blame it on “the economy!”

I sometimes wonder about the lyrics of MPX songs written BC (Before Covid), and whether I had unwittingly intuited, all those years ago, about the true shenanigans of the world, without fully realizing it.

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An Underground San Francisco Music Treat

Now here’s a gem of a video — the sky was so beautiful that day! — from August 2022 that I keep meaning to share, and why not today? Please enjoy the Jam for Freedom | Day One in Golden Gate Park | Rob MyJob’s To Our World Tour with Tony Remington, Micropixie, Mrs. MyJob, and Mike and Tom from the Funky Fathers (another cool Bay Area band with great medical freedom songs too).

It was Day One of the tour so there was a massive turnout of maybe 10 or 11 people who showed up to a field in Golden Gate Park that day, including all the band members and the camera crew. That’s how big the music-loving freedom movement is in SF. Only kidding; it was a school day afternoon and the event had not been amply publicized. Maybe if it had been, there would have been 17 peeps there.

By the way, whenever RMJ asks me to be his videographer, there’s a hidden clause in our unwritten contract that, for some songs, I also have to be a backing vocalist too. And, as you will hear, sometimes I take on both roles simultaneously.

Remember, you can never have too much freedom!

Awake from your sleep or lose it, my friends
'Cause we're getting close to where history ends
And those who destroy won't be making amends
That's too much freedom and freedom must end
That's too much freedom for our fascist friends

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This is precious; it will hit some of you right there, where it needs to

I’ll leave you with someone who, after listening to all 5 of her albums on a loop these last few months, has gone into my top 10 list of Most Favourite Musicians ever, no exaggeration. Folks, I have gone mad for the artist, Cleo Sol. She got me through some dark nights of the soul recently and made me fall deep in love with music again.

This song, this video, her dancing — and her voice, always — is simply beautiful. 😍

And with lyrics like this, I can’t help but wonder if she is aware of what’s going on in our inverted world too:

Do you think that you own everything, even your home On your shoes and on your back Even the comb, through your dome It's not so real (real) As you think In a blink, (and when you blink) It could be gone (it could be gone) And you’ve lost even your soul (even your soul) And you’ve lost even your soul Just know that you are on your own But it's okay cause we are one…

I'm here with you (here) I'm here with you (you) Hold my hand and let go Like an echo On and on For how we see the world today We're on our way out (our way out) All the forests are dying, the people are crying now How, how How have we, let this be We watch freely on our TVs They feed us fake food, it's so easy We all know because we are one.

Here’s more heaven-sent lushness to soothe us in these most troubling times:

And one last delicious treat from Ms Sol (click image below), though if you have musical tastes similar to mine, I know you’ll immediately run and listen to her entire catalogue.

I hope your soul feels a bit fuller and that your body is moving by now! Please take that energy into the rest of the year as there is still a bunch of work to be done.