I was watching one of my favorite YouTube channel rotations tonight, Norman’s Rare Guitars with Mark Agnesi, (who now works for Gibson Guitars).
But Mark is an incredible guitarist and their “Guitar of the Day” always highlights some great instruments of the past. In the video I was watching tonight, he was playing a 1964 Martin 00-18, a beautiful spruce top, mahogany back & sides guitar. My favorite wood combo.
The song he was finger picking was, “Solsbury Hill” by Peter Gabriel. At first I couldn’t put my finger on what song it was. I thought it was a Fleetwood Mac song, but then it came to me. Since I was already in search mode I decided to look further into the song origin.
It turns out it was released in 1977, and the quote Peter Gabriel gave about the song is that, "It's about being prepared to lose what you have for what you might get ... It's about letting go.", and that reminded me of my friend Sabrina Pandora.
I haven’t seen Sabrina in probably ten years since she moved from my town, but I think about her often. She used to describe herself as a, non-passing trans woman. I loved her dearly and miss her just as much. Her personality would fill a concert hall.
She is an amazing person. In one interview on TGForum from years ago she tells about her life as an emcee and an author, and in closing she is asked if she had any advice for people considering transition and I thought her advice was great, to quote,
____________________
‘“Do you have any advice for trans women who are coming out these days? Or for trans women who don’t “pass” (like me)?
I give a lot of advice on this front, because I counsel a lot of trans women who are referred to me. I give them all the same advice, because it is always true.
Be prepared to lose everything. Your family, your friends, your job, your reputation, your savings, your home — everything. Because in the quest to gain ownership of your own body and make it somewhere that your soul can live in relative peace, you are risking all of that and more. I don’t say that you will lose it all, though statistically it is probable. But you have to be prepared to lose it all.
Once you accept that you can do just about anything, because what you gain far exceeds what you risk losing.
Anything else you’d like people to know?
That’s my advice to modern trans women. That, find your own style, keep what worked of your old life — you can be a girl who loves sports or comic books or swimsuit models and still be your own kind of woman. Because shucking one set of societal expectations for another is just insane. Go be the woman you can be, the one you want to be. Grow to become a woman who the “you” of 20 years ago would look up to and admire. Because we form our own expectations and limitations in this life, and once you are free to define them embrace that freedom and go be amazing”’.
____________________
While the prospect of something similar happening is absolutely terrifying, this part really resonated with me, .... “ Once you accept that you can do just about anything, because what you gain far exceeds what you risk losing”.
What great advice!
So from a guitar demonstration, to research into a song’s origin, to a Trans woman advocates advice, that’s how my brain works at 5am and I wanted to share with you.
As Paul Harvey used to say, “And now you know .... the rest of the story!”
In order of the events of above, here are the links.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz-I_tnoT0U
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solsbury_Hill_(song)
https://www.musixmatch.com/lyrics/Peter-...ury-Hill-2
https://tgforum.com/author-interview-sabrina-pandora/
