This is Point Zero. In this series I will go back to songs that furthered my musical education. Each blog post will discuss the roads that led me to discover some of my favourite artists and groups. This series will also reminisce the good old days coupled with some reflections along the way.
It was July of 2013 when I first discovered Two Fingers playing on TV. Back then, I used to spend my weekday and weekend afternoons exploring the wonders of cable TV. It was a time full of endless searching through every channel- hoping for an interesting show to show up and entertain my adolescent curiosities about the world outside of our house.
Aside from the travel and lifestyle channels, the music channels captured my interests the most. I always watched music channels to see my favorite singers play their newest singles because: 1.) This was before I discovered music streaming apps; and 2.) I didn’t have a cellular phone back then. Since I can’t control the types of songs that music channels play, I had to endure watching music videos of artists I didn’t know.
Looking back, it’s one of the things I missed the most about my adolescent days. The chance to discover new artists outside my comfort zone was more possible through music channels than through music streaming devices that employ algorithms based on my music taste. I mean, sometimes it’s nice to go out of one’s comfort zone and jump into the unknown.
Two Fingers is a song that’s way too far from the type of songs that my 15- year old self used to listen to. Back then, it was Kpop and Taylor Swift songs that dominated my music playlists. It was the usual pop songs that almost all of my classmates used to listen to, and that environment made it difficult for me to appreciate songs and artists outside that bubble because of the following:
1.Two Fingers is a song by someone I didn’t know. Jake Bugg was relatively new back then, and he didn’t have a strong fanbase ala One Direction which made their works easily accessible here in the Philippines. To be honest, I haven’t met anyone who knows a Jake Bugg song since 2013.
2.Two Fingers isn’t about mushy romance and endless party with friends. It’s a dark song about going out of an abusive environment, which I found too scary at that time.
3. Lastly, which is actually the reason why I gave this song a try despite the first 2 reasons, I read an article that named Jake Bugg as the modern day Bob Dylan- an artist whose name doesn't sound like any pop singers'.
Although I didn’t know anything about Bob Dylan 7 years ago, I used that article as a sign that I should give Jake Bugg songs a listen. Was it helpful? A resounding yes! It was 4 years after I read the article that I gave Bob Dylan songs a listen, but it's weird connecting the dots and realising that Jake Bugg's Two Fingers is actually the backbone of my current musical preferences- not The Beatles nor Francoise Hardy, but Jake Bugg.
Over the years since I first heard Two Fingers, it's safe to say that the song grew in me and it's meaning became more clear. What used to scare me about the song became the very reason why I appreciate this song more than any of his other songs. Sentiment could be the reason why, but I think it's more than that. My relationship with this song survived high school and university days, and during those periods of my life, I've been through a lot of experiences which, in a way, resembled the overall theme of the song.
My experiences were not entirely similar to the narrator's, but university days taught me a lot about overcoming challenges and learning something new about myself. "I'm an old dog but I learn some new tricks, yeah." I realised that although it sounds scary, it isn't. It's actually liberating to learn that our experiences make us stronger and wiser.
Sometimes, I still wonder how a 17/18 year old guy wrote a song like this one. But I guess instead of asking that, I should ask why many people haven't heard of this song.
