I suppose to give a little context of where this is going I will start this post off with the following comment. You could ask anyone I know to tell you three things they know about me and every time one of the three things would be that I am a gigantic fan of Matthew Good.
Why you ask? How long do you mind this post being?
Let’s get the obvious out of the way, I love his music. Lyrically and musically I find it very complete. It goes through me and satisfies my mind and heart. It appeals to my sensibilities and intellect. It challenges me to think and feel, unlike so much of the other crap out there now a days. Today I made a brief stop at Much Music and happened to see a video by some dude named Pitbull singing about all the girls he hooks up with at the hotels. Thanks for the contribution to society Mr.Bull. I’m sure the 13 year old boys are untucking their shirts and talking about the girls and their “assets” in your video. That’s the allure of tits and ass for you.
Music aside Matt is about a whole lot more. He maintains and writes a blog about many different societal and human rights issues. He sheds a lot of light on political dealings that get glossed over by the mainstream media. He makes every effort to flip the attention he receives into an opportunity to wake people up to the reality we live in. Honestly he is one of my inspirations as to why I am writing this blog. Last week he added a great post of Rumsfled getting absolutley faced infront of a crowd. Check out the video in the post. One of the things that stands out to me in the video is when things are going prooly for old Rummy there is a point where he says to “them” to allow the questioner to stay. Obviosly security was moving in on him to get him out of the room. Land of the free huh? So long as you say the things that don’t make the power structure look bad.
As I write this I am listening to his new album entitled Vancouver (available to stream on his homepage) that is due to be released on October 6th this year. The last three albums he has made I have bought without listening to first. I trust his work that much. But at the same time I am such a fan of his work I would only be disappointed if the album was him farting into a tuba. Even then I might look to find some artistic merit in it. Like Matt calling out societies obsession with fart jokes.
So if this is the first you have heard of Matt, check out his music and his other works. If you have heard of him and gotten the skewed media version, discover him for yourself. He is completely misunderstood. He is free from caring about what the world thinks of him and that is an unpopular and very unique stance to take given the line of work he is in. But that’s the best part of him. He is about so much more than just heaping onto himself all the things that he can get. The world teaches us to go with the flow and think of number one only. It’s possibly the biggest disease the world suffers from, cancer included. Matt makes the most of his life, the good and the bad. He works incredibly hard and makes the most of whats been given to him. Truely he is a human being and a human doing. The world could greatly benefit from his example. If Matt is a salmon, I for one want to swim against the current with him. Thanks Matt.
To conclude here is one of my favourite songs by him, although I could say that about nearly all his songs. For your consideration, Blue Skies Over Badlands.
What if you woke up in the middle of the night
And in your bare feet you walked outside
And realizing that you were awake that you could fly
Out over the world
To places that you’ve only heard of
See faces that you were sold as murderers
But just like you they’re only lonely boys and girls
Like all over the world
What if you could lift them up?
What if you could make it so that times weren’t tough?
So every morning when the world woke up
There’d only be weather on the news
And what if you were back in bed
With one of them floating over your head
What do you say to your enemies
When you don’t know what it is that could have been between you?
There ain’t no blue skies over bad lands
Even if it ain’t raining in the mornings
But you don’t need to fly to understand it
Just understand understanding
This song is immensely powerful. Do you get it? I’ll pull this song apart in my next post, let it sink in for a day or two.