“Rising up it reached my highest line / I had bad ideas and ballast on my mind”
A friend of mine was interested in a selection of music that is pro self-esteem, any genre. I leaped for my mp3 list here at work (which is rather puny) and came up with this selection:
Great Big Sea is my favorite. (Everything Shines, Ordinary Day, When I’m Up, Beat the Drum, Let it Go, Lucky Me, When I Am King, and lots more)
Also, on a very different note, Dream Theater’s “Take the Time”.
Henry Rollin’s “Shine”
Catherine Wheel, “Sparks are gonna fly”
Duran Duran “Sunrise”
Fiona Apple, “Better Version of Me” “Extraordinary Machine”, “Sleep to Dream”, “Mistake”
Halou, “Everything is Okay”
KMFDM, “D.I.Y.”
Massive Attack, “I against I”
MC Frontalot “Braggadocio” (hehe)
Poe, “Control” and “Wild” and “Not a Virgin”
Soundgarden, “Rusty Cage”
The Decemberists, “The Infanta” (I don’t know why, it doesn’t seem to relate, but it always makes me feel better)
Timbuk 3 “Future’s so Bright (I gotta wear shades)”
Tom Cochrane “Life is a Highway”
Tom Petty “Running Down a Dream”
What do you think? Do you have any uplifting songs like that?
I love experiencing people overcoming their internal fears, musically and otherwise. It makes me want to cheer, and it seems like a fun challenge, an encouragement for me to face my own.
Several of mine are already on your list, although I would add:
U2 “Beautiful Day” (I know, I know, gack)
Reel Big Fish “Beer”
Natives of a New Dawn “Good Day”
ELO “Mister Blue Sky”
They Might Be Giants “Birdhouse in Your Soul”
“When I’m Up” isn’t a self-esteem song — it’s about bipolar disorder!
Ha! Fair enough, but your bipolar is my anti-depression, so it works. ;)
The katimari soundtrack… most happiest music evar!
Wha? Johnny Nash, “I Can See Clearly Now” I almost said Bob Marley, but he neither wrote nor sang the song.
Mika (yes it’s fluffy, no I don’t care) “Big Girl,” “Grace Kelly,” “Lollipop.” Happy music :)
I have “Life is a Highway” on there, it’s not like I have any room to complain about fluff. ;)
As long as it’s the original Tom Cochran version, we’re cool.
There’s another?
Sadly yes. I think it’s one of the people American Idol and their ilk has foisted upon us. It’s a really terrible country “hat act” rendition of the song.
Tom Cochran seriously needs to send that badassed black scorpion their way and tell it to “sting, sting, sting…”
Great Big Sea is playing the Ark in September, I believe. You might want to look into that.
Oooh, thanks for the heads-up.
http://www.seeqpod.net/search/?plid=10d6593568
Timbuk 3’s “Future’s So Bright (I gotta wear shades)” is actually about nuclear weapons development and testing.
Eh, I don’t think so – I think the point about studying nuclear science is that A) it’s cool and B) it’ll get you a lot of money when you get out of college.
Ahahahahahhhahashaha, no.
From personal experience, no. No one goes into physics to make money.
And the professor with the dark glasses is a Strangelove reference. “The future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades, is a reference to flash damage.”
It sounds cool, but that’s not a happy song.
Yeah, I have always thought this song to be a tongue-in-cheek thing. Like the naivete of the 50’s and the attitudes toward nuclear power – which, as Mark already pointed out, was parodied in Dr. Strangelove. And actually, the wikipedia article points out that this is a dark-natured song:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Future%27s_So_Bright%2C_I_Gotta_Wear_Shades
OTOH whenever I hear “Magic Carpet Ride” by Steppenwolf, I can’t help but be happy! :D
“I Against I” is pro-self-esteem?
I don’t know why, but Pain Killer by Turin Brakes always makes me happy; I play it in the car and feel all optimistic. There’s not really anything in the lyrics to suggest it, but it has that effect on me all the same.