Entertainment For Lively Minds
A Happy Thread
Posted by daddyclark on 29 January 2012 - 9:34pm.
No real point to be made and to be honest I'm "borrowing" the idea from something I heard on 6music the other day. So records it is impossible not to be happy listening to.
This thread is dedicated to Fraser, for letting us come and play, Stimpy, people who have had good news today, people who have had bad news and anyone else with that Sunday night feeling. Enjoy :)
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Sister Sledge - 'Thinking of You'...
Possibly the most 'up' record ever made.
'Up' is an understatement.
I'd say it is positively orgasmic. How else do you interpret these lyrics?
"I’m thinking of you and the things you do to me
That makes me love you, now I’m living in ecstasy
Hey, it’s you and the things you do to me
That makes me love you, now I’m living in ecstasy"
By the end of the song, her lover joins her in person and, judging by the non-word vocals (the 'ooh's, 'aah's etc) her ecstasy is even more exquisite.
Wow, how good is that!
Is Nile Rodgers capable of making a "down" record?
Weeellllll...
now that you mention it, it has been suggested (no, I can't fulfil the correct Harvard referencing) that Chic's At Last I am Free was written from a post-suicidal perspective. If so, this might explain the covers by noted non-disco types Robert Wyatt and Liz Fraser.
Anyway, it's a stupendous track.
Kinks - Lola
Last verse ALWAYS raises a smile
Whenever I hear this
I always wonder if he came up with the name Lola first or the cherry cola bit as in "Hmm what rhymes with Lola?". A fine song.
Coca Cola
It was Coca Cola first. Then Ray had to change it to cherry cola for radio play because the BBC thought if they allowed brand names to be mentioned in a pop song it would mean the end of civilization as we know it.
It doesn't really answer your question, though, it just poses a new one.
6000 miles to re-record one word
The original recording (on the album ' Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround') had the words "Coca-Cola".
As rightly stated above, to appease the BBC and to ensure radio play, Ray Davies flew from New York to London just to sing the line "and it tastes just like Cherry Cola".
Still doesn't answer the original question though.
No
But it is very interesting just the same, thank you to you both. Having considered what you both say I reckon Lola came first. The logic being coca cola as a rhyme seems less contrived then cherry cola. This theory seemed perfectly reasonable first thing this morning anyway!
New York to London
is 3470 miles.
Or was that the round trip? ;-)
THANK YOU!
I used to have recordings featuring both lyrics but at some point mislaid the 'Coca Cola' version and have since wondered if I made it up. A tiny, confused part of my (tiny) mind can now relax....
The Aliens - The Happy Song
Do you wanna be HAPPY?
..."Even though I'm stuck in Fife"
Brilliant!
Good idea
I'm going to nominate Bobby Conn's Never Get Ahead, it never fails to make me smile...
...
...Mercy!
The Undertones
"Mars Bar"
ha -
that's the one song of their's I can't stand!
There is a reason
that this is both my alarm and my phone ring:
And while we're at it...
My god
that EMF was shit. Sorry.
Try these :
No apologies necessary
Having just mentioned this thread to Mrs C she pointed out I was wrong and should have chosen this....
As always she is right as this is the song that gets all four Clark's dancing around the kitchen. Even the thought of that is making me smile.
Happy coincidence
I played "Enjoy Yourself" in assembly at my school just yesterday (it's Ska Week). Then I taught the children to sing it, then I put this recorded version back on and the whole school (special needs, primary) piled to the front to skank away with unabashed joy. It was wonderful! Ska is irresistable.
Here's another Jamaican happiness pill...
"A Dash Of The Sunshine" by Lord Tanamo (the original, calypso version).
Not on YouTube, but it is on Spotify...
http://open.spotify.com/track/5YdrGYC65X5Q7UG8pUjc5g
...and hopefully here, too...
http://www.divshare.com/download/16705498-dbb
Ska week
Your school is way cooler than my school! I really love this track because it just makes you want to jig about - I might try this next time I do assembly.
Chk-chka-chk-chka-chk-chka-chk!
While we're on the subject of ska increasing the sum of human happiness, a few minutes watching old Madness videos always cheers me up. You'll wait in vain for Mumford & Sons to do a video like "Nightboat to Cairo":
True
Only last week I amused three children thanks to Youtube and Nightboat to Cairo, Baggy Trousers, Driving in My Car and Uncle Sam. Rounded off with Rolf's Jake the Peg - which is very, very funny.
For the country music fans:
I love this. Crappy filming but great playing and sentiment.
http://youtu.be/lu4oyMTBJW4
Happy thread??
Can't they protect us from this sick filth?
Where's the conflict and arguing gone? This stuff is disgusting and will turn our children into warped happy clappers.
Ban it I say......bring back threads about arrows, conspiracies, cliques etc. Thats the stuff we want, not this smiley shit...
Hildegard Knef
From the delightfully non-pc monickered "the in-krauts" series. This always perks up a jaded Whitney
Happiness, oh-oh-oh happiness
Oddly
I prefer this cover
and it's only one of two Wedding Present songs I ever liked (the other is Why Are You Being So Reasonable now?)
Also worth hearing
the writer's own version from the "You Can Make It If You Boogie" lp ( a little heard and - sadly - hard to get gem)
(No subject)
These tunes are making me
These tunes are making me very happy at the mo;
The 2 bears - Take A Look Around
Rihanna - We Found Love (I should really be sick of this song. I hear it often enough but it's still a gift that keeps giving)
Pulp - Countdown
The Maccabees - Pelican
The Rihanna one is great
but it's also like a tutorial in Dance Music 101. I was going on about this (suitably refreshed) one night to a few mates, that dance music was all about 'fours' - that you count four beats and then multiply that by four and there's a build up and it's all about fours and and and...
(people had started to walk away...)
But this song has it. It's so 'stark' the whole way the thing is built up and built up and built up and then crashes back into the synth riff, bang on the 1st beat of the next 'fifth' bar.
Another from The 2 Bears
Time In Mind
This boy is in motion
Alright, it's derivative and dumb as a box of rocks
but...
smile guaranteed
and, even more perversely, listening to this always makes me feel cheerful. It might not be hugely cerebral but it always makes me smile.
If you can't beat em, join em
As ever, Mr Partridge has the answer.
Of course this is a brilliant song
but whoever did the video is also to be commended for giving us a roll-call of British comedy greatness from 1950 to 1990. I'm sure John Johns would approve.
....and I'm happily stupid.
The Great Jonathan Richman...
...sings When Harpo Played His Harp...Sheer joy.
Jonathan Richman
YES!!!
Someone else recognises the genius that is Jonathan Richman - and Harpo Marx's harp playing. Simply perfect.
Thanks Nuff...
See what you make of my top twelve Jonathan tracks on the "Best ofs that never was..." thread. Why not post your own top ten (or twelve)?
Harpo doesn't make it.
I could be happy
Be Happy!
...because it's the Mahavishnu Orchestra!
That sounds like
something from Starsky & Hutch, and I mean that in a good way.I rather like that. I have to ask how long is the full version? You may finally have a convert Colin :)
You think THAT sounds like something from S & H...?
...obviously you haven't heard 'Cosmic Strut' from the same LP!
Here it is, followed by If I Could See/Be Happy.
And yes, that really WAS the full version of Be Happy!
Of course, one should point out that the pic accompanying the (Mk2 MO) track shows the not-at-all-funky Mk1 MO line-up. 'Visions Of The Emerald Beyond' (1975) is the album you need, Daddio - funk/fusion central!
Well Professor H
you will be pleased to know that my first thought was this must be the MO Mk2, you see I have been paying attention in class! One further question does this still qualify as prog?
A gold star is indeed...
...coming your way, ClarkMeisterDaddio!
And yes, I'd say the 'Visions Of The Emerald Beyond' LP (1975) was easily the closest the MO, in any incarnation, came to conventional prog... except that every track on it, epic and monumental as many are, was remarkably short - not least, 2 minute UK single release 'Can't Stand Your Funk'. Unfortunately, the UK single-buying public of the time agreed.
Each time I read that last line
I laugh out loud!
One aims...
...to please! :-D
Don't just be happy...
...be young and foolish, too.
(Be Young, Be Foolish, Be Happy - The Tams)
This one
never fails to cause everyone within earshot to start dancing.
(Big Chief - Professor Longhair)
Few songs raise the spirits
like The Lovin' Spoonful and Do You Believe In Magic?
God bless you Squire
Genius. The Lovin' Spoonful were incapable of singing a bad song.
Happiest song I know
Finley Quaye
Oh yes!
I loved this album but not played it for years!! First on the spotify playlist at work today.
Thanks for the reminder stardust2 - my Tuesday is starting on a good 'un!
Happy to oblige
And yes, the whole album is fantastic. Such a shame that Finley's subsequent records were of nowhere near the same quality.
And I also think
this is so-o-o- jolly!
http://youtu.be/SCRrXZP8b0I
Good-time Gladys
This is by no means a happy song, if you listen to the words - but man, what a joyous, irresistible groove, which always lifts my mood. I bloody love Gladys, and here's one of her finest: Just Walk In My Shoes.
There's a Tams record up there!
So I need to post this one...
reggae, funk, horns, happy
(Cedric Im Brooks - Shaft)
Bah Why hasn't this been posted yet?
I am getting violently happy:
But seriously this answer is
this:
Happy clappy
Gospel goodie - sounds great loud on a Sunday morning.
I know I've been seen in
I know I've been seen in traffic singing along to this:
A happy song
'A Wonderful Day' by Stackridge (from the 'Lemon 2002 mini-CD) has all the qualities to instill an instant sense of happiness in anybody: catchy melody, a quirky edge, a chirpy nothing's-gonna-upset-my-good-mood now vibe, understated but bubbling musicianship. Bliss.
We need a little jollity too
the original
and the Bonzos
Has anyone made the
Has anyone made the inevitable Spotify playlist of these yet?
Question though - Has this thread worked?
Genuinely uplifting stuff from Finsbury Park's finest
"Taxi!"
Ponchos!
"It's impossible not to be happy in a poncho"
It's a curious one, this.
I find quite deliberately 'up' records like Yazz's (not forgetting the Plastic Population) 'The Only Way is Up' and D:Ream's 'Things Can Only Get Better' utterly spirit-sapping, whereas melancholy songs (I won't even choose examples as they clearly abound) can often induce a euphoric rush.
An ideal compromise may be well-known curmudgeon Paul Weller singing a happy song, such as [inserts YouTube videos for Shout to the Top and Headstart for Happiness]...
Maybe that explains why the thrill of hearing Weller's comeback single Into Tomorrow remains the most exciting of any of the artists I'm fond of. It's the juxtaposition of upbeat lyric penned by a melancholy personality that seems to appeal.
Enforced jollity
Apologies again - I do revisit this from time to time.
You can spot enforced false jollity a mile off and such songs depress me no end. A clear-headed, deliberate and business-like decision was made to create something that sounds like - wooah! there's a party goin' on! Whistles, bongos, parping trumpets and a few "woos" and "hey hey heyys!" will do the trick.
My top 3 in that category are M People's Sight for Sore Eyes, Phil Collins' Dance Into the Light and Eurythmics' Right By Your Side. Kill me now.
Lionel Richie due to a dignified vocal and smooth production gets away with it and comes out the other end intact (All Night Long) and even Whitney's I Wanna Dance With Somebody just about survives, again because the vocal seems sincere, even if the song is a pile of cack.
What rescuses the Yazz and D:Ream songs is that they are both themed along the lines of "well at least things things couldn't get any worse...". This also redeems Livin' on a Prayer by Bon Jovi.
REM's Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite is actually a happy song due to it's bouncy upmelody and the obvious enjoyment that Michael Stipe shows in the recording of it. Shiny Happy People also survives due to Kate Pierson, mainly, who can probably turn Send in the Clowns into a floor-filler due the sheer force of her persona and loudness. And God Bless Her for that.
Everybody Sing-Sing!
Who'd have thought that one of the lynchpins of none-too-cheery alleged shoegazers Lush (who were great, btw) would kick off her next band with such a joyous song: Sing-Sing with Feels Like Summer.
This just came up on shuffle
and it made me smile from ear to ear.
The beginning of the Rutles.
arise, Lord Innes!
More Bonzos
What on earth did German TV viewers make of this?
The Primitives - Crash
a very good call
every time I play this the
every time I play this the sun comes out ...
(No subject)
(No subject)
If you feel slightly ashamed
If you feel slightly ashamed of yourself for loving this, like I do - just remind yourself that it's all done by the marvelous Mr Giorgio Moroder.
Though no need for any embarassment with this one. beautiful joyous soaring thing: