Letting Go – Day 17

Following is a list of songs to consider, demonstrating the variety of trials that musicians have used as catalysts for their creativity. We feel the letting go as a primal reflection of their pain and as a kind of tacit permission to express our own. This can also serve to remind us that letting go can be a healthy and normal outlet, and can bring about great beauty when channeled into creativity or passion. It can also remind us that at the heart of it all is love; letting go is made more difficult when we have loved what is being lost, but sometimes the most loving thing we can do is to let go.

‘Tears in Heaven,’ by Eric Clapton was written after his four-year old son, Conor, died after falling from the window of a tall building.

‘Jagged Little Pill’ and ‘Flavors of Entanglement’ are both albums by Alanis Morisette, written after very different breakups. The former is an angrier, more intense album expressing a young woman’s anger over being mistreated by an older man; the latter is an album that came out of her grief over a broken engagement.

‘(Fuckin’) Perfect,’ by Pink is dedicated to her husband and touches on depression, suicide, and self-hatred.

‘Brick,’ by Ben Folds Five is about Ben’s high school girlfriend who had an abortion, and the difficulty of dealing with the situation.

Led Zeppelin’s ‘All of my Love’ is dedicated to Robert Plant’s five-year old son who died in 1977.