By Romy Stephens
A Sherbrooke doctor has spent most of this year lifting the spirits of himself and others, by performing a song and posting it online every day during the lockdown period.
Alan Jager is a former GP and now a forensic psychiatrist, but he has also been a talented musician for most of his life.
With all of his gigs cancelled since March due to Covid-19, Dr Jager initially began performing songs online to keep up his guitar and voice skills.
But the musician’s videos soon became a hit.
“Initially, I decided to start doing the nightly thing just to keep my hand in it really. I thought I may as well put it on my Facebook page,” Dr Jager said.
“I got a very good reception, a lot of positive feedback from that. I think there were a lot of people, particularly singles, sitting at home twiddling their thumbs, wanting something to do.
“They kind of got hooked on looking forward to my songs.”
While most of Dr Jager’s songs were Beatles or John Lennon covers, he also added his own adaptations when starved of ideas.
“I had gone through all of these Beatles songs, (Rolling) Stones songs, country songs, then I did a week of my own songs,” Dr Jager said.
“I manipulated certain songs to suit aspects of the Melbourne Football Club or whatever footy match that was going on at the time.
“They were by far the most popular songs, the local ones, and I had a bit of a political edge to some of the songs as well.
“I wanted to express in a musical way my gratitude for the way the Premier had handled himself and the crisis once it all blew up. I put that into music using the Elton John song, Your Song.
“But also having a bit of fun with Bad Bad Leroy Brown and making that about Daniel.”
Dr Jager initially planned to perform 100 songs, but when Melbourne re-entered lockdown in July, he decided to continue.
Inspired by his wife, Tee, to push on, he ended up performing a song a day for 209 days.
Despite offering plenty of joy to his viewers over the lockdown period, Dr Jager said he also reaped the benefits of his performances.
“The lockdown has, for me, provided much-needed time in my life to reconsider priorities, and music’s shot right back up into number one position,” he said.
“From being something that I’ve struggled to have the time to squeeze in I’ve rediscovered what it’s like to play every night.”
Having finished his daily lockdown videos, the Sherbrooke musician will now turn his attention to helping out with an initiative created by the City of Melbourne Council.
It looks to reintroduce buskers to the CBD again.
“They’ve started in the CBD with non-singers because of the risk of droplet transmission of Covid,” Dr Jager said.
“They can’t maintain a five metre separation from the singer to the audience.
“I’m expecting they are going to be allocating spots in Southbank and Docklands for singers where they designate these areas where there’s a five diameter spot for the singer.”
In the meantime, Dr Jager said he hoped the public and politicians learned some vital lessons from the impact of the pandemic on the arts industry.
“My hope from this is that politicians take a look at what really counts for people’s quality of life and I think they really need to reinstitute adequate funding for the arts,” he said.
“Are we alive just to create huge wealth for a tiny minority of corporate executives or are we alive to have a meaningful and pleasurable existence?
“I think this pause in our lives has certainly caused me to reevaluate that and I hope that politicians don’t forget the lessons.”
To view Alan Jager’s lockdown performances, visit his Facebook page or Youtube Channel.
