431: I sang every day for two months, unplugged (still going)

January 20, 2021 by Joshua
in Art, Podcast

What do you do if you use less power? No social media? No listening to music? No TV?

Sound like a fate worse than death?

Inspired by guests on my podcast who find amazing activities to live by their environmental values, I committed to turning off all my electronics to sing every day. I’ve almost never sung in my life beyond Happy Birthday and The Star Spangled Banner so I’m mortified to play my remedial results live, but I love it. I know I’ll keep going so today’s recording isn’t the end.

I recorded singing a couple songs at the beginning. to record I opened the laptop, all other times I sang with the power off. At night I had to open the door to the hallway to read the words with my apartment lights out until I started singing outside during my daily walks picking up litter.

So far I’ve spent zero dollars. The first two weeks I sang fifteen minutes a day. Later I shifted to at least one song, so a few minutes a day.

Today’s episode starts with my describing the experience and a few stories, then with neither pride nor shame, I play the “before” recording, then the “after.”

The track listing:

Before

  • 14:42 The Beatles, Across the Universe
  • 19:30 The Beatles, While My Guitar Gently Weeps

After

  • 22:40 The Beatles, Across the Universe
  • 26:28 The Beatles, While My Guitar Gently Weeps
  • 28:44 John Denver, I’m Leaving on a Jet Plane
  • 31:26 Joni Mitchell, Big Yellow Taxi
  • 33:01 Spandau Ballet, True
  • 36:12 The Cure, Pictures of You
  • 38:54 Earth, Wind, and Fire, September
  • 42:19 Woody Guthrie, This Land Is Your Land

Sign up for my weekly newsletter