( Mods- I know this is a poll of sorts, but it’s all music-related so I put it in here. If it needs to skip to IMHO, I get it.)
What songs absolutely make you feel great? Got enough for a CD? ( That’s about 72 minutes ). I’m talking songs that are upbeat, not songs about dismembering someone’s pets and then having sacrifices with the charred bones at midnight over a granite altar. That may make some of us happy. Not I. So, I seek a sorta mainstream set of really first-rate Happy Songs.
Wow, I’m just compiling such an exact list, as a Christmas present for some friends. My mixes are always “programmed”; they tell a story, or follow a theme. In the best of them there’s a thematic arc that melds lyrics and music perfectly. This time, I was just gonna do a bunch of songs that make me smile whenever they happen in my iMix. The title of the mix is I Wanna Show You Something Beautiful (I always pull a title from a lyric in the mix), and the cover art is a field of sunflowers under a starry sky (an image suggested by another song, photoshopped from several different pics). Here’s the list so far. I’m obviously gonna have to winnow it severely if I don’t want it to be a triple disc. Which, whiskey tango foxtrot, why not?
LCD Soundsystem: Daft Punk Is Playing At My House
Romeo Void: Never Say Never
Sweet: Ballroom Blitz
Victoria Williams: Frying Pan
Tom Jone: Delilah
Super Furry Animals: Psyclone!
Scott Walker: Jackie
PJ Harvey: Good Fortune
Pigeonhed: Battle Flag
Adam and the Ants: Goody Two Shoes
The Coral: Don’t Think You’re the First
Del tha Funkee Homosapien: Mistadobalina
Fischerspooner: Emerge (Junkie XL Remix)
Charlie Louvin and Melba Montgomery: Something to Brag About
Spearhead: Every Single Soul
Talib Kweli: Joy (feat. Mos Def)
Royksopp: Eple
RL Burnside: It’s Bad You Know
Mose Allison: Your Molecular Structure
Miss Kittin and the Hacker: Frank Sinatra
Marvin Gaye: Funky Space Reincarnation
Magnetic Fields: A Chicken with Its Head Cut Off
Lee Morse: T’ain’t No Sin (To Take Off Your Skin and Dance Around in Your Bones)
The Soulstirrers: Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb
Low: Sunflower
Johnny Dowd: Jingle Bells
Ruth Wallis: Boobs
Doris Day: Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps
Can: You Doo Right
John Prine and Iris Dement: In Spite of Ourselves
Light My Fire - The Doors
Don’t Worry Baby - The Beach Boys
Livin’ Thing - ELO
My Woman From Tokyo - Deep Purple
Bubba O’Riley - The Who
Too Late - Carol King
Hello, It’s Me - Todd Rundgren
Free Falling - Tom Petty
Hey Jude - The Beatles
19th Nervous Breakdown - The Rolling Stones
Any “Feel Good” mix needs some Polyphonic Spree, say, Light & Day/Reach For The Sun. I’d also throw in Forever Today by Tiësto and Seven Cities by Solarstone.
Well, the thread linked above is 2 1/2 years old and there are rules against reviving threads that old unless you have something EXTREMELY compellingly new to contribute. However, the Search I ran did not show this, or the thread from 11 months ago that you also linked.
Gee, I guess apologies are in order since you showed me up not once but twice and chose not to contribute a list.
Van Halen - Panama
Counting Crows - American Girls
They Might Be Giants - Birdhouse in Your Soul
311 - Don’t Stay Home
Sublime - What I Got
Barenaked Ladies - One Week
The Killers - Mr Brightside
Rusted Root - Send Me on my Way
Limp Bizkit and Wu-Tang Clan - N 2 Gether Now
Soundgarden - Spoonman
O.A.R - That Was A Crazy Game of Poker
Blink-182 - The Rock Show
Motley Crue - Dr Feelgood
Sugar Ray - Fly
Beastie Boys - Root Down
Third Eye Blind - Semi-Charmed Life
Everclear - Santa Monica
Digital Underground - The Humpty Dance
I’m in a holiday funk. I may have to burn this for myself.
Alive Again - Trey Anastasio
Red Rubber Ball - The Cyrcle
Chin Up, Cheer Up - Ryan Adams
Inside - Jethro Tull
Room to Move - John Mayall
Reach Out - The Four Tops
Twisted - Joni Mitchell
Here Comes the Sun - The Beatles
You Can All Join In - Traffic
The Ocean - Dar Williams
Going Up the Country - Canned Heat
Uncle John’s Band - The Grateful Dead
How Happy I Am - The Incredible String Band
Sahra - Khaled
Sunny - Bobby Hebb
Try (Just a Little Bit Harder) - Janis Joplin
Illegal Smile - John Prine
… oh, and there never was a horse like Tenessee Stud - Doc Watson & The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.
::: Moderator comment ::: Just because there were existing threads way back there, I don’t see why we shouldn’t go around again. Yeah, there’s an argument for having everything in one thread; and there’s an argument for having a new thread since some of the folks posting to the year-old thread aren’t around any more. In this case, I’m indifferent, and since this thread has a life (and a link to the old threads), I’d say let it keep going.
