This has been one of the toughest spans around here that we’ve ever had to go through. In troubled times, all throughout my life, I have always turned to Derek & the Dominos for solace. It hasn’t failed me yet.
I feel better already.
What is your musical tonic?
A lot of possibilities for me. “Xtal” by Aphex Twin is near the top of the list.
Back at ya, boo. Struttin’ with some barbecue (assuming I can get the embedding to work)
Kris Kristofferson singing his own stuff makes me mellow.
Jill Scott if I’m feeling somewhat current…
Anita Baker if I’m feeling a bit nostalgic…
And when it has truly hit the fan, Darryl Coley…
Mark and the Schecter Dream Machine…
Dire Straits
Angry? The Who’s “Quadrophenia.”
Contemplative? Simon and Garfunkel – or, Simon solo.
And for any and every thing else, Bob Dylan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8a4iiOnzsc
Ben Cooper, Radical Face. The song is Welcome Home and it always makes me feel better.
He has a band called Electric President, too, and my favorite tune by that band is We Will Walk Through Walls, which always gives me hope. This is my Sing in The Car at the Top of My Lungs song.
Haydn got me through the Bushco years. Try Symphony No 49 “La Passione”
Metallica. It’s always been Metallica.
Harvester Of Sorrow, St. Anger, Bleeding Me, and Outlaw Torn pick me right up.
Solace?
Anything Ella Fitzgerald ever sang…the pure joy of making great music.
She was incapable of singing a bad note and…apparently…incapable of (or at the very least resistant to) portraying negative emotions. The magnificent Cuban-American composer Chico O’Farrill (with whom I worked for years) turned me on to her therapeutic gifts. He said that whenever he was unhappy or depressed with the workaday world in which he lived…he made his living writing commercial music for many years…he went home and listened to Ella.
Blues cured.
Try it.
We’d all be better off.
Later…
AG
Greatest voice ever.
Al Green, Joni Mitchell, Joan Armatrading, Zakir Hussain, Taj Mahal…
Lot’s of the greats perk me up. There’s one guy in particular that let’s me know when I’m on the floor and gives me that first boost up:
The Beatles. I’m not a huge fan, but It’s been background music for my entire life. It’s comfortable like mashed potatoes.
No question.
Schools Out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvDPYOe-7nI