Catchy, sincere, and hauntingly optimistic, Preston Lovinggood’s “Everything Will Be Okay” music video offers a hearty and knowing message of hope and perseverance.
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Bruce Springsteen said it best when he lamented, “It’s hard to be a saint in the city,” and those words remain true today. It takes a lot of willpower and integrity to hold your own when the surrounding world seems hellbent on getting you down, and no one is immune to that pressure – whoever you are, and whatever your message may be. Alabama songwriter Preston Lovinggood attempts to bring a message of hope and perseverance to New York City in his “Everything Will Be Okay” music video, where the main character loses faith in his own words in the process — only to have them find him again.
There was a woman I knew
never knew how to prove,
anything she felt inside
She went back home
to her bubble washed her hair in the water
Said everything will be okay
“Everything Will Be Okay” – Preston Lovinggood
Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering the Jay Gunning-directed music video for “Everything Will Be Okay,” Preston Lovinggood’s first single of 2019. A singer/songwriter from Birmingham, Alabama (and former head of the band Wild Sweet Orange), Preston Lovinggood incorporates glam, rock, folk, and pop elements into his sweet, dreamy wonderland of sound. “Everything Will Be Okay” is the lead single off his upcoming new album Consequences, described by the artist as a non-linear “break-up” record radiating sunny heat, melodic sweetness and shadowy darkness.
She took my hand in park
we sat in the dark
and it made me uncomfortable
And so I quoted a phrase,
a saxophone played
That everything will be okay
“‘Everything Will Be Okay’ comes from a place of wanting to find meaning in life rather than just moving through life,” Lovinggood tells Atwood Magazine. “It is about not wanting to use other people’s lives to get something out of them. It’s about feeling alive WITH them, rather than tearing them down for their dissimilar paths. It was created, in a way, to forgive myself, while also as a manner of seeking acceptance from others.”
On a day when the US President is expected to declare a national emergency in order to build a physical barrier on the United States’ southern border (while thousands of asylum-seeking refugees slowly wait their turn, in subhuman conditions, for the chance to simply make their case and maybe get a chance at a fresh start), the mantra everything will be okay feels particularly eerie… and it should! “Everything Will Be Okay” is a song of recognition and awareness; a reckoning between the issues of the moment, and the disparity between present and future. Lovinggood’s message is one of personal support for our individual experiences – a reminder that there is a future, and that we have, within our power, the capacity to determine shape that future.
Even if we don’t really know how things are going to play out, or how we’re going to make it out alive.
In a sense, this song manages to be both a serious assertion of faith and perseverance, and a parody of itself — all at once. This unique duality plays out perfectly in the song’s music video, where actor Patrick Adam Jones dons a sign reading EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY as he walks all around New York City’s streets and subways.
Says Lovinggood: “I’ve never been the type of person to talk loudly on a phone in a coffee shop or in public, but I’ve always admired those who could… those people who can just… ignore any thoughts or reactions people might have towards them and just be. So, walking around New York, looking out of place isn’t normal for me. But, I could always relate to the person who wanted to speak up, or say something, but was scared to use their voice. So, this version of me, walking around the street, a stranger in a strange land, using my voice to help people realize everything will be okay is something I’ve wanted to share with others.”
And everyone that I talk to says,
careful boy, think you’re gonna wind up dead
So just go back to LA and never think to say
That everything will be okay
It’s hard to tell in the video if Jones’ action is making a difference to those around him, and as we watch the majority of people pass him by without a second glance, it’s hard not to think of all the activists standing outside Union Square and Columbus Circle, trying to get busy pedestrians to break from their trance and listen for a hard-earned minute of their time. Morale can’t be high amongst that crew.
Jones’ case isn’t any different; he takes his sign everywhere but doesn’t seem to get any attention. We see him getting slowly fed up with the sign and its message, to the point where he abandons it all together in a fit of pique.
As he sits back down in Washington Square Park, still a little frazzled by the day’s events, Jones picks up a piece of paper on the bench next to him. Lo and behold, it reads, EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY.
And that’s the way
that goes never know how to show
Until it’s too late for us,
so everybody can tell, there’s no way to help
Unless you’re gonna show the way!
Maybe it’s foolhardy; maybe it’s naïve, but living in misery is no way to go through life. Preston Lovinggood’s “Everything Will Be Okay” music video is a hearty and knowing message of hope and possibility – a reminder that tomorrow is a new day, and so many of life’s problems do work themselves out. It won’t be easy, and it won’t be fun. Things may seem dour now, but try to keep your head up: Everything will be okay.
Stream Preston Lovinggood’s music video exclusively on Atwood Magazine!
“Everything Will Be Okay” – Preston Lovinggood
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? © Jay Gunning
