If you are like me, you need all the help you can get when it comes time to tidy up El Rancho Malario. I often turn to headbanging music–Motorhead, AC/DC, Iron Maiden–but it begins to pale relatively quickly.
Plus it scares the little doggies, who are too dumb to, like, go in the other room but instead cower on the couch with their ears down, all shaking and staring piteously at me as if to say “But you are my kind and beloved master!” Lord they’re dumb.
But two albums never let me down. They are just bubbly/stupid yet infectious and propulsive enough to get me goin’, every time. They are:
Dirty Mind by Prince
Wow there is almost no Prince on Youtube! This was the only thing from Dirty Mind I could find, but it is a perfect example of what I am talking about. Try pushing the vacuum to this one.
And, the B-52s. Particularly Dance This Mess Around, 52 Girls, and Rock Lobster.
Don’t listen to it very often, but every once in a while nothing else will do.
Here’s the Offspring doing 52 Girls. Not so bad.
Theeeeesseeee are the gggiiiirrrlllls of the UUUUUUUU ESS A!
For some reason, I have a tradition of putting on The Stooges’ Funhouse when I clean, stemming back from when I was in college. There are probably better, more inspiring albums to use as one’s cleaning soundtrack, but that never lets me down.
I always listen to Phil Collins when I need to do serious cleaning. It’s a greatest hits collection, so Invisible Touch and Sussudio are part of the lineup.
I liked to bake bread to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons … I would put it on, and by the time I was through with it the first time, it had risen and was ready to bake, so I would preheat the stove and bake it to some Greig =)
For some reason, taking down the Christmas Tree has to be done to Green Day’s American Idiot. I think that might be what came on my CD player as I took the tree down the first year I had the tree, and now the two are linked in my mind.
Lately, dishes have been cleaned to the soothing sounds of System of a Down, oddly enough often followed by Thrice or Strung Out.
My husband cleans dishes to Pearl Jam (either Ten or Vs usually), and is largely indifferent to the music selection during other tasks.
