It Has Nothing to Do With What They Put In. And It’s Never About What You Take Out…

Holdin’ on to you…                                                                 It’s down to me & you…                                                         Everything I’ve loved is gone,                                           You’re the reason I live on…                                               Please give me one more song,                                           From the place where I belong…

If you’re one of my regular visitors, you have probably figured out that Thursdays have become the official sing part of Shutupnsing. What I love about the song Tip Jar is that it speaks to us in so many ways, and on so many levels. For example the “you” I’m holding onto could be my wife, my country, my faith, my dream…or my pet Chiwawa. Whatever it is we are passionate about really. I wrote the song after reading a fellow musician’s FB post whining about the soulless nature of bar gigs, and how he was contemplating “hanging it up”. It made me sad for him…But there is something else in this first verse that really seems universal and timely to me. It is the sense of separation…being divided apart…cut off from the gang, the group, the flock…the herd!

And I have to say that it has become one of my favorite songs because it really does speak to us all as real people who rise and fall, bend and break, build up and fall apart on any given day. And I’m sure there’s more than a few of us who’ve been down so low, it seemed like there was no more low to go…

We’re holdin’ on to fears,                                                                                                We’ve sung so many years my friend.                                                                              If I lose my faith in who I am,                                                                                      When the tip jar breaks I’ll be lost again…                                                          That’s not what I came for…                                                                                                   I play for so much more….

I also think Tip Jar represents the sort of false sense of validation we all tend to seek externally. It’s easy to forget what we are singing, dancing, writing or painting for in the first place!

So let it out, don’t keep it in                                                                                            Don’t let another day begin                                                                                     Without a song in you

If you are truly my friend, how could any song from my heart                                             be anything other than music to your ear?

It gets cold on that street                                                                                                When you’ve lost your beat, my friend…                                                                 Don’t let them take it from you!

This half of the chorus is the absolute essence of this song. I thought I was speaking to my musician-friend’s self-imposed exile. What I realize is that the song is speaking to every single one of us…and we are millions in the world…who are being silenced because of what we believe. We are being told to shut-up and STOP singing…

Holdin’ on with you                                                                                                                   Is all that we can do                                                                                                                  2 songs, 3 songs more my friend                                                                                   We’ll touch them where they live my friend                                                              And you know they’ll want us back again                                                                 And God knows why that’s true…                                                                                   We were born to play for you…

I’m thinking of the scene in Casablanca where the French cabaret singer rallies the forlorn audience to sing the French anthem of patriotic liberation to rise above the Nazi occupiers.

So let it out, don’t keep it in                                                                                            Don’t let another day begin                                                                                        Without a song in you

Every living, breathing soul has this song inside of them. We may be able to set it aside and let it gather dust, but we must never let it die. And we must never, ever let anyone for any reason try and take it from us…ever!

It gets cold on that street                                                                                                When you’ve lost your beat, my friend…                                                                 Don’t let them take it, you know we’re gonna make it,                                                My friend… don’t let them take it from you.

 (Listen Here)