[Indulge away Spaceplayer - that's one heck of a list to get ~any~ mood upswinging. Oooo whee! Love Motown!!
quote="Spaceplayer"]I have a whole playlist full of them on my iPod. My favorite upbeat songs? Well...time for me to indulge in my obsession...
I did a whole list of them on another site a while ago for summer fun, based on Ayn Rand's preference for "tiddlywink" music," a term I hate, but a concept I like. Gotta balance out all that heavy metal and Pink Floyd with something or we'd all be dead.
Summer Fun: What's your "Tiddlywink Music?"
"We all know about Ayn Rand's preference for her "tiddlywink" music, of which is said that no equivalent exists today, totally lighthearted music. But there's gotta be SOMETHING that gets us out of bed in the morning! (Personally, I couldn't listen to much of Rand's selections, not that they're bad, but a little too...twee? for my taste). But I like the concept, and certainly have my own song selection that achieve the same effect, mostly 60's pop, but with selections from a few decades. The criteria is that they don't have a serious theme, they're not angry, they're not militant, they're fun for fun's sake and make you want to dance around, be a goof, and generally sing out loud even if everyone is looking.
So, do you think tiddlywink music exists today, if not in name, but in spirit?
Here's my list, in no particular order:
"Sloop John B" , "Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys- I LOVE "Sloop John B.", sat in Borders one day listening to it on the listening station over and over. (1960's)
"Be My Baby" by the Ronnettes, and anything with the Spector "Wall of Sound"- Motown mixed with orchestration is, for some, an abomination, for me, one of the best mixes of rhythm and melody ever conceived. (1960's)
"Don't Stop Believing" by Journey. The title says it all, but the music says even more. Most people can't resist singing along to the end, even though the vocal range is beyond that of most mere mortals, it's that triumphant. This is the kind of rock that is usually made fun of by the cynical slacker generation and heavy metal fans, because it lays naked the sense of life of the rock listener. Either you really hate the sentiment, because you'd rather sing about Satan, or you love it and hide it away for fear of being labelled a poser, or you sing it so loud and so sincerely that you just don't care. Oddly enough, appreciated without irony by the working class guys and gals of South Philly and South Jersey. (I'd throw Bruce Springsteens' "Born to Run" in here as honorable mention, but a little heavy to be a tiddlewink contender.) (1980's)
"Our House" by Madness- dumb lyrics, but so irresistable! It has that wierd sort of British beat in the middle that explodes into a great motif on the sax, and combined with the strings is a mix of soaring and British quirk. (1980)
"Let's Go Crazy" by Prince- the ending alone is gold. (1980's)
"She's a Rainbow" by the Rolling Stones- when the Stones tried to compete with the Beatles on their own turf. I love the melody, the instrumentions, even the "oh la la la's" in the background. It's fun pyschedelic before things turned dark at Altamont. (1960's)
"Tears of A Clown" by Smoky Robinson- the lyrics are a modern day tale of Pagliacci, but you wouldn't know it from the music! The circus melody motif, just try to resist that.
"Sir Duke" by Stevie Wonder- The trumpet motif conjures up a New Orleans festival in my mind, and Stevie sings the chorus with such exuberance it's barely containable. Great dance tune. (1970's)
"More Today than Yesterday" by Spiral Staircase- Great sixties pop. "Everyday's a new day" indeed! A love song with movement. "I love you more today than yesterday, but not as much, as tomorrow!" And the music conveys this perfectly. (1960's)
"Uptight" by Stevie Wonder- another one of those barely containable energy bursts. (1960's)
"Alright" by Supergrass-more quirky Britpop, this one celebrating the impish energy of youth. When the grunge bands were hating themselves to death, Supergrass was having fun. Great twin guitar line. (1990's)
"Mickey" by Tony Basil- what can I say about this one...pure new wave tiddlywink. (1980's)
"Elanore", "Happy Together", and "You Know She'd Rather be with Me" by the Turtles- a trilogy of pop paradise. They don't write pop songs like this anymore. (1960's)
"Future Times/Rejoice" by Yes- a childhood favorite of mine, the other epic tiddlywink song on my list, running a range of emotional states that is nothing but bliss. (1970's)
"Saber Dance" by Khachaturian. (?) Probably the closest to Rand's tiddlywink, but not quite. This would be MY version of tiddlywink music if I had been alive in that time period. Less twee, more masculine, exploding energy, great mix of orchestral colors, rhythmic yet melodic. (Early 1900's)
"Rhapsody in Blue" by Gershwin- Only a real classical snob could turn their nose up at this. One of two epics on my list.
"The Sesame Street theme" (Sunny Days)- C'mon, you know what I mean.
'It Can Happen" by Yes-pure optimisim. Great sing-along at the end. (1980's)
"Strawberry Letter 23" by the Brothers Johnson- Starts off slow, funky, but builds on the chorus, and explodes into a magical interlude in the middle before fading out into a sexy night... (1970's)
"Come on Eileen" by Dexy's Midnight Runners-Eightie's pop with a bit of a Celtic flavor and an interlude that sounds suspiciously like the theme song to the TV show "Benson." The breakdown in the middle starts at a crawl, and the vocals start going in a round that gradually speeds up into a whirling dervish of a return to the chorus. (1980's)
"Big Country"- by Big Country- another Celtic-tinged 80's pop song, this one with bagpipe instead of fiddles. (1980's)
(The next three I listen to in order, the first one serves as a warmup, the second lifts me off the ground, and the third serves as channel for that energy.)
"Peaches En Regalia" by Frank Zappa- Jazzy instrumental with a very quirky sound, lots of woodwind orchestration...and a kazoo. Kazoos are always fun. The quirkiness explodes into a full blown celebration in the middle that never fails to give me goosebumps. (1970's)
"Lido Shuffle" by Boz Scaggs- Shuffle beats are a surefire way to get you moving. The song is pretty straightforward, til the middle, where the keyboard arpeggios start to build in such intensity that I feel like I'm going to blast off. It's hard to follow this one up. (1970's)
"Beck's Bolero" by Jeff Beck- Another instrumental built on the greatest rhythm ever, in my view. It's a hard rock instrumention but very melodic and rhythmic, with a Spanish sensuality underneath. The guitar line soars like David Gilmour, but with a sense of joy lacking in Gilmour's playing. The melody is thoughtful yet is not held back by that, and rocks out in the middle to let all that energy out, then returns to the bolero restating the theme that can only be considered triumphant, not the triumph of winning a war, but the feeling of triumph of climbing a mountain. It fills me with a feeling of joy, but in a masculine way that Rand's "tiddlywink" music couldn't provide for me. To me, this isn't the so-called masculine type of rock that celebrates destruction, but celebrates the power of masculinity without being afraid to be sensual and intelligent. I took this song and combined it with Rand's idea of the "Concerto of Deliverance" to create my own "Bolero of Deliverance." (1970's)[/quote]
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Natives who beat drums to drive off evil spirits are objects of scorn to smart Americans who blow horns to break up traffic jams. ~Mary Ellen Kelly
29 Nov 2007, 10:58 am
