IN SUCH UGLY TIMES, THE ONLY TRUE PROTEST IS BEAUTY

—Phil Ochs

Sergeant Pepé’s LONELY HEARTS CLUB BUND

Romance & Relationship

Today’s protest song is For No One (and everyone)—McCartney’s quiet gut-punch of a tune. But don’t pull up the Beatles version. Listen to the girl in the video—young, steady, clear. A voice that hasn’t learned to fake it yet.

Clear voice. Clear skin.

That’s not just a description. That’s the protest.

She sings it clean. No drama, no tremble. Just the shape of the loss. McCartney took something painful and sublimated it—turned hurt into melody, turned absence into form. That’s craft. That’s alchemy. And she carries it with more grace than most grown men can manage.

She doesn’t add anything. She just doesn’t get in the way. And in doing that, she lets the song do what it was meant to: haunt.

In times like these, beauty’s not decoration—it’s defiance.

You want to fight back? Sing something honest. Make something hurt and leave it whole.

Let that be a lesson.

—Sgt. Pepé

Council-of-Concerned-Conservationists

Filed under: Soft Songs / Hard Truths