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Thursday, Feb 1 2018, 6AM
Good morning, Seattle, and welcome to Music Heals: Beyond Cancer. Today's programming is dedicated to the power of music to lift our spirits and heal our souls in the face of cancer. This one's for Steven: "One day late into chemo, I was very, very sick and very depressed. I called on my ex for her couch, and she insisted I come over immediately. Pump attached, I crashed hard. After a spell running around the house, she dimmed the lights and sat with me in silence. She played a quality vinyl recording of 'Maggot Brain' by Funkadelic. I've not had a more powerful connection to music, a person, and immediate surroundings in my life. I am cured and purged of cancer, now kicked out of the health care system. I was treated at SCCA. All shouts and thanks to Dr. Harris, Dr. Wright and Dr. McIntyre. Thank you."
For Kim and her friend Amanda: "It is easy for me to go to a dark place thinking of loss related to cancer: my body forever changed, increased vigilance, continued medical interventions, pure exhaustion, and the ever present concern of recurrence (not to mention the other losses we have all struggled with in life over the past year). But the dark place is mitigated by love I feel coming to me (your family will always hold a special place for showing up for me when I was most sick and making me smile). One expression of love, to me, is music. It has accompanied me through treatment, continued to in scans and post surgery.
And in a cruel twist, as I write this one of my life long best friends is fighting her own cancer war, after supporting me through mine. And I would like to dedicate a song to her, Amanda. Could you please play Nada Surf’s “Always Love?” I believe medical interventions have played a vital role in my healing - but also the energy generated through music continues to give me light and allow me to look in and feel hope, healing and love. And I want to pass that on. For Amanda and all those touched by cancer - may they find their own light."
"Elliott Smith was the artist I played continuously as my mother was dying and he helped me get to the end of her life and then grieve her passing in a way that matters. His great records, "Either/Or" and "XO" both were looped together on a tape, but of all the songs, two stand out as meaningful: "Waltz #2 XO" and "Between the Bars." I think Elliott Smith's emotionality in his songs was the most helpful learning I had from music healing me. And in Tommy Sand's word, "The Irish believe that, when a sad person hears a sad song, it lifts and alleviate the sadness by its expression." Both of these artists would be part of my tribute "Music Heals" for your show." - Thank you for sharing this with us, Kathryn
"Several months ago, I began to make a playlist on Spotify for a friend of mine who was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her prognosis is good. The playlist had to be inspiring and upbeat so she could listen to it while at the infusion center and while at the gym. There is a total of 379 songs on that playlist! Lots of songs are old school, funk, disco, top 40, 80's new wave, pop, a few of which I swear I have heard played on KEXP. Today was the last day of my friend's active treatment, radiation therapy. She chose two songs to play specifically play when she went to the gym after being done with treatment. The first was "I Can See Clearly Now" by Johnny Nash. The second song she chose to help celebrate was "I'm Free" by the Soup Dragons, a song I put on the playlist after hearing you play it on the radio a few months ago during one of your ode to the 90's sets. Who would have thought that song would be such an inspiration!?" - Alison, thank you for sharing this with us, and we're so glad to hear your friend is out of radiation therapy!
You're listening to Music Heals: Beyond Cancer, a day devoted to the healing power of music in the face of cancer. Send your requests and stories today to: dj@kexp.org bit.ly
Julie, this one's for you! "Matt and Kim (and fantastic techs, radiologist, nurses and others) kept me going during the grind of daily radiation treatments at the UW Medical Center in 2013. I'm three and a half years in remission from a brain tumor now; heading in today for an MRI (I'm down to two a year!)"
For Kelli: "My mom was diagnosed with stage 4 GBM (the most aggressive brain cancer in 2008 at the age of 49...I was 28, my son was 6, and my daughter was not yet born. Music was our life..concerts, collecting albums, music was all around..our two songs were "Crazy on You" by Heart (my mother loved Heart..saw them almost 70 times) and "Wish You Were Here" by Pink Floyd...when the first seconds of those songs come on my kids will say, "There's grandma's song" like she's talking to us and saying hi. I have the 'Wish You Were Here' album cover poster on my wall and a guitar signed by Ann and Nancy Wilson to my mom in our house, reminding me daily of how much cancer sucks...and a cure is in dire need. My mother passed away June 4, 2009 at the age of 51."
Make sure to join us tonight in the Gathering Space from 6-8 PM for a special performance from local troubadour Caspar Babypants! We hope you’ll join us for this free family-friendly dance party celebrating hope and survival in the face of cancer: bit.ly
Request this morning from Kyle, for Anna. Our programming from 6AM-6PM today is focused on the healing power of music while facing cancer. Email your requests and stories today to: dj@kexp.org
"This song comes in handy a couple times a year when I’m in the hospital. One time a friend of mine came to the hospital and played a cover for me on his guitar- since then I get teary-eyed every time I even think of it. I never miss a Mountain Goats show, too good!!! Thanks- please share it- I hope someone else looking for courage to make it another year finds it as great as I do."
"Music is deeply personal and really important to me, and has been all my life. I knew I would need to hear the power of music. The sounds that could power me through when I really needed to Kick Out the Jams. For me music can scrub away hopelessness or allow me to wallow in despair, whatever I desire. I also knew I would needed to start planning my gigantic playlist of what I wanted to hear: Music that would represent my life, even though I would be the only person on earth to hear these sounds. Like the first time I ever saw the Hoover Dam...today January 25th 2018, I leave the protected environment of SCCA and my wonderful and beautiful team. I am cancer free now. What every single person, family member and friend wants when they come here. There are really brave people in this world and sometimes you have to be one yourself. Thank God for SCCA and KEXP, family, friends and people that love you." - Steve, this is amazing, thank you for sharing this with us!
Snow Patrol frontman, Gary Lightbody, on this song: "We had nothing. I was in a flat in Glasgow. No doubt it was raining. The song was me writing about an imagined world, projecting myself into better times."
"In 1994, our father left us all too soon – just 2 days after his 60th birthday. His cancer diagnosis came only 3 months prior. While he did fight, cancer swiftly took him away. He is greatly missed. Flash forward to 2012, my brother, Rich, has his suspicions confirmed. He is diagnosed with head and neck cancer. Gathering all the optimism he could muster, he begins treatment. Surgery removes the mass entangled in his neck but he still had to endure 54 days of radiation treatment, countless needles, scopes, and exams. I’ve always looked up to him...been inspired by him... amazed by him...now more than ever.He showed us all how to fight and WIN. January 2018, Rich was upgraded from “cancer-free” to CURED OF CANCER. Take that, cancer! Better than that, F--- YOU Cancer! His good buddies of the Hold Steady, said it best. Stay Positive." - We echo those sentiments, Rob! (Both of them)
You're tuned into Music Heals: Beyond Cancer, and we'll be sharing your songs and stories until 6PM today. Send them over to: dj@kexp.org
This one is from Margaret to her sister, Jane, who is now cancer free, and we're stoked to hear this! And of course, the Pixies.
Join us tonight at 6PM in the Gathering Space for a free, all-ages dance party celebrating hope and survival with special guest, Caspar Babypants: bit.ly
This one's for (Mr.) Andrea Miller. Thank you for sharing this with us. - "My wife, my best friend, my reason to get up before noon had a sense of wonder that was contagious. Andrea’s creativity and wit was like an enchantress’ spell; a tall redhead who channeled Myrna Loy. Subtly magnetic personality, with an explosive laugh and a fantastic voice — though she ironically couldn’t carry a tune. Andrea was a champion of women’s rights, of grrrl power. She loved wild birds, cats, all sorts of animals. Andrea had a penchant for what was left of old Seattle; just a few days before entering the hospital for the last time - and after a round of radiation to her head - she asked to go to Dick’s on the way home from the clinic. Hamburger, fries, chocolate shake. Andrea loved music so much, she married an eternally poor music journalist so she could someday meet Neil Finn. Peter Murphy of Bauhaus once gave her a dozen roses from his dressing room table. Lloyd Cole, sans Commotions, made her blush more than once. So many men - and women - were smitten with Andrea, yet I got to tuck her in at night. I am - and will always be - the luckiest SOB, ever.…I think if Andrea were to give any advice, today, to women beginning a cancer battle, she’d say what she would say to any woman: Listen to your body, to your instincts. Trust in yourself. Don’t let anyone or anything suggest how you should feel. Speak up. If you want to do or say something, don’t wait. F#*k cancer."
"Cancer gave me the only direct experience with human spirit beyond the body. My mother in law battled cancer on her own terms. She never gave up her busy full schedule. She frequently took my daughter along to treatments. We spent a lot of time at her home when she transitioned to being home full time. At the end my daughter were with her, my son and I in the next room. He was very young and needing distraction from the hours. He stopped playing suddenly and said "Goodbye" to no one in particular. Shortly after my wife came into the room and told us grandma had passed. He last effort to instill her love of baseball on my toddler son, and say goodbye. To honor her today I'd like to request My Oh My by Macklemore for the biggest Mariners fan I've ever known, Janice."
"I used to listen to Sufjan Stevens’s album “Illinois” on my way to the airport to visit my mom, who lost her battle with lung cancer ten years ago. I had to take red-eye flights to go see her, leaving my husband and 2 young children to gain a few precious days with her here and there as she underwent treatment. I still remember the pain & beauty of those night drives to & from the airport, listening to Sufjan’s otherworldly music. Seems like yesterday even now."
What no one's talking about (or think to ask) when it comes to cancer: bit.ly
For Mary and her family: "Our son fought cancer for three years as a kiddo & won. Woot! Grateful. He's a huge music fan. He loved the Smashing Pumpkins as a toddler. And stood behind me at the English Beat show in Bellingham. He's an amazing man these days. Working & finishing up his degree in Community Health. Play some Death Cab? Ramones. That awful theme music from Friends? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. F*ck Cancer."
"The daughter of a music snob and a former piano bar songstress, music was always playing in the house growing up. My Dad would claim he was the first guy in Northern Indiana in the early 60s to get a record by some band from the UK no one had heard of at the time called The Rolling Stones...When he was diagnosed with adenocarcinoma, many things changed. But, his love of music and wanting to learn about NEW MUSIC were unchanged. He was fascinated by newer bands like Mumford and Sons. He still loved old bands too. He hammered me with questions about the setlist after seeing the Stones at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the summer of 2015. He lived with cancer and Parkinson's disease for five years until the cancer began to move and grow. By January of 2016, my Dad was a shell of himself and in hospice. The last week I saw him, I had KEXP on my laptop. I was working from home in the literal sense. He passed away on Wednesday, March 23, 2016. Sadly, this coincides with my Mom's birthday. One of his all-time favorite songs is Modern English's "I Melt with You." He took my Mom to see "Valley Girl" and fell in love as the song rolled over the credits. I would very much love to hear "I Melt with You" as a tribute to Ron Kaser, 1944-2016. I miss him every day of my life." - thank you for sharing this, Devon.
Lou (cancer survivor), this one's for you! - "The morning of my surgery, we got in the car @ 5:15 am and I realized I hadn't chosen any music for the ride to the hospital. I grabbed Crowded House's Recurring Dreams off the desk, and "Something So Strong" proved to be an apt and hopeful anthem. Thanks so much for today's show [and every day, for that matter]"
"About a week after my dad was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, I went to the old Sonic Boom records on Capitol Hill to buy him some CDs...I walked over to my dad's place, gave him the CDs, and he got so excited to find a certain song, Girl from the North Country. We found it, on the Freewheeling album. I put it on for him as quickly as I could but after a few bars he said no, no, that's not the one I want, it's a duet with Johnny Cash. He grabbed his jacket and his keys and said, come on let's go I've got to have that song. I hurried down the two blocks to the store with him surprised and confused that a guy who had, as far as I knew, never in his life owned a record, an 8-track, a tape, or a CD, was suddenly blazing a trail to the music store. Thankfully, the good folks at Sonic Boom had Nashville Skyline in stock, well of course they did. The clerk saw me and beamed--you came back for MORE Bob Dylan?! I pointed to my old man and explained he just had to have this one song and I was totally clueless as to why I just wanted him to be happy. So we marched back to his house, put it on, and listened together on repeat for three or twelve plays. He danced around his little kitchen humming along and even singing the Johnny Cash verses. I had never seen my dad so stoked about music before, it was pretty adorable. Of all the albums I bought that day, I think that's the only one he played over the next eleven months. The morning after he died, I awoke before the June sunrise to that song in my head, the Girl from the North Country. I crept out of bed trying not to wake my boyfriend, went out to my living room and played that song and cried. I knew it was my dad saying hello. A year later, my dad's girlfriend and I were having lunch at the Red Onion, where the three of us would go for lunch after his radiation treatments. The Girl from the North Country, the duet with Johnny Cash, came on in the restaurant and I knew he was saying hello again."
I'm just glad to be here, happy to be alive, end of the line | www.kexp.org
"I was diagnosed with cervical cancer in November of 2011 at the age of 36, and am now 6 years out of treatment and cancer free. I returned to work after treatment right around when John in the Morning was playing a lot of the then new Of Monsters and Men tracks. I always streamed KEXP at work, and got hooked on their music during my slow return to real life. "My Head is an Animal" was released in the US the week before my mum, sister and I took a celebratory trip to Italy. My sister and I had a conversation on our first night in Rome about how music can become such a part of a memory and we reminisced about how, when we went to England as kids, she only had one tape with her in her Walkman: U2's "Joshua Tree". And now, whenever she hears anything from that record, she's transported back to England in the 80s. So, I decided to scrap everything else I brought with me, and the entire 2 weeks we were in Italy, I listened to "My Head is an Animal". The trip was incredible. I was still sick and exhausted from the chemo and radiation, but that music was everything to me during the train rides and bus tours and just walking the ancient streets. And now, to this day, whenever I hear any of those songs, I AM transported back to Italy as well as back to a time when I felt newly alive again. Before all of the fears of recurrence and the late side effects set in. I was alive and whenever I need to remember that, I know what to listen to. Would love to hear it today." - Phoebe, here's your trip back to Italy, thank you for listening and sharing your story with us.
"I was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia when I was four. What followed was years of chemotherapy, a tube in the chest, learning how to walk again. And later monthly 8 hour drives from Durango to Denver for follow up appointments. I was declared cured when I was 12. Thru out it all my sister, mom and dad did everything to make my child hood as normal as possible. Could you play Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A." it was on the mix tape my parents played practically every time they drove us up to Denver for my monthly appointments. Every time I hear it I think of those drives thru the mountains sitting the back seat reading comics with my sister while my parents drove. Both she and I have been KEXP listeners for over a decade and I know she will be listening today. - Brys"
"I was diagnosed with breast cancer in late June 2017. The month of July was packed full of doctor appointments and additional scans as we tried to gather enough information for a detailed diagnosis. Being bombarded with new information at each appointment, and trying to make insanely fast decisions while still waiting on the whole picture, I consciously decided my anthem was going to be Santigold's "Can't get enough of myself!" I listened to this song while sitting (for hours!) in waiting rooms, and before each new scan. At one point, I had (my first) MRI and they asked for my music request. Of course, it was "Can't get enough of myself." Hanging out in the MRI machine in an incredibly awkward position, trying not to hyperventilate, the song came blasting through the headphones. "It's too loud" I yelled. hahahaha, the jokes on me. That machine is terrible, and quite possibly the loudest thing on earth, but motionlessly rocking out to Santigold got me through. Every time I heard the song, it was a visceral reminder that this was my body and I knew best. While the doctors were overwhelming me with options (most good, some downright bad), I needed the reminder that I could count on myself during this time of total upheaval." - Hollis, here's your dance tunes, thank you for listening!
If you're just tuning, today's programming is devoted to the songs and stories of folks (and their loved ones) that have helped while facing cancer: bit.ly
Join KEXP and the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance Proton Therapy Center in our Public Gathering Space from 6-8pm tonight for a special family friendly performance from Caspar Babypants, celebrating hope and survival!