Ties that Bind: Music and Cannabis

We have to face the fact that today we largely experience music as “content” and we spend less time thinking about what artists and songs we like than we do trying to remember our co-worker’s Spotify password or freaking out because the damn browser update somehow screwed up our iTunes settings. – Mark Nichols

Music is like cannabis in the sense that both foster connection between human beings, whereas stuff like money and the internet seem to have the opposite effect. But in the digital age, the way we experience music has changed enormously. No one buys a record at the store and goes home excited to listen to both sides, twice, like we did pre-internet.
But even if the way we listen to experience music has changed, music and musicians haven’t changed all that much. There are still artists that inspire other artists and they cover each other’s songs and brilliantly interpret one another’s work in new and interesting ways like when Jimi Hendrix reinvented the national anthem at Woodstock.

We were looking back at the year 2017 which was not a good one for fans of kick-ass American music. We lost Bowie, Chris Cornell, Tom Petty, Prince and even Fats Domino. Some of you might not recognize the name Chris Cornell but he was one hell of a singer. He led the band Soundgarden – they did a lot of the heavy lifting that made bands like Nirvana possible and popular.

Cornell suffered from depression and committed suicide in 2017. It was a massive loss for his friends and family as well as music lovers across the globe. But the thing about good art is the fact that it endures – long after the creator, the artist, is gone.

Considering that the world seems to be on fire and we are dealing with a terrifyingly but wildly entertaining political reality, it like a good time to take a moment (maybe pack a bowl) and appreciate something beautiful.

Here are three videos to check out. The first is the Chris Cornell music video for the Soundgarden song “Black Hole Sun”. It’s beautiful and terrifying – very much like life on Earth.