Healing and Music

Dear Nurse Dave,
I have heard that music can have healing powers. What are some songs that you would recommend for curing the following diseases:

Chronic fatigue
Diarrhea/Bowel disorders
Migraine headaches
Common cold
Spencer, Chicago, IL

Music can be very powerful. I think we've all felt times in our lives when a song lifted us to be able to do something that normally would not have been possible. I don't think music actually grants some power but rather enables us to harness power within us that usually lies dormant. So of course music can heal. It taps into our own natural abilities and produces powerful results.

Chronic Fatigue - I think there's two ways to go here. A high energy song to grant the energy that the sufferer desperately needs or a really mellow song that finally allows the sufferer to achieve the relaxation they so desperately want. Ideally you relax first and then energize second. To build up perhaps the most powerful energy you could ever experience I'd go with Thunder Road (a tip: when Bruce suggests that you roll down the window and the let wind blow back your hair you should really do it). For ultimate relaxation I'd go with nightswimming. Or just go with this one

Diarrhea/Bowel disorders - You don't want to be to excited here. You want a song that builds slowly but has a satisfying conclusion. If the song only builds and never finishes then you may end up with constipation. Its the satisfying conclusion that is so important. I'm going with Built to Spill on this one.

Migraine Headaches - Jeff Tweedy enables you to actually enter a migraine headache with Less Than you Think. Unfortunately You-tube cuts off the final ten minutes of migraine simulating white noise. Naturally the cure for a migraine would have to be the next song on the album. The Late Greats. If anyone understands how to heal a migraine it has to be Tweedy.

Common Cold - Sorry spencer there isn't actually a musical cure for the common cold. So much of music and life is about suffering. To even understand why we have music you must have some degree of discomfort in your life. Some of us have headaches, social awkwardness, eczema to teach us this. But all of us have to have the common cold. At the very least we all can connect with each other here. So the thing to do is just listen to some good music, keep moving forward and buy some soft kleenex. Or if you don't buy that you could try listening to the Cure, but believe me when I say that results of doing that are quite mixed.