Slim Harpo, miracle worker

I've been listening to the music of Slim Harpo, and begin every morning now by going to the YouTube presentation of his song,"Baby, Scratch My Back"; then, and only then do I begin reading The New York Times. I highly recommend watching Slim Harpo on YouTube in the morning, as doing so places many things in perspective– personal relationships, business issues, politics, the general anxieties that arise from being human.

Slim Harpo somehow reached a point in his art–the making of music known as the blues–where he's able to communicate this message to those who survive him, ordinary and extraordinary people like you and me: that so long as you aren't hurting yourself or others it really doesn't matter what you do, whether you change or don't change, so long as you're having fun.

Is it important to know that Slim Harpo was born in 1924 and died in 1970? Or that his real name was James Moore and that his wife, who co-wrote many of the songs he sang, gave him the name Slim Harpo to distinguish him from Harmonica Slim, another blues musician at the time? Maybe it's important a little, but not all that important.

I promise that the two minutes and fifty-four seconds you'll spend listening to "Baby, Scratch My Back" will be time well spent–you'll be happier, wiser, kinder, far less judgmental and far more tolerant. Everything depressing you in your life will vanish, and the good feelings of a great big blue sky made of old black-and-white film footage will smile upon you wherever you go.