Look/hear: Get happy

I started a new job this week. The pay is good, and I'll be advising several hundred (!) students who need me, but I've already got a legal pad filled with notes from training, and an ever-growing to-do list.

Needless to say, this weekend feels much-earned. I had dinner with friends tonight. Tomorrow, I'll go to my hometown to see friends from high school, eat breakfast, and go to an annual rummage sale. I'll spend the evening with my best friend. Sunday includes breakfast with my boyfriend's beloved grandfather, and my first run coming off major illness.

When I'm feeling overwhelmed -- when all those good things waiting at the end of the week seem far off -- I like to listen to music. Even if it's just a song between the car and my desk, it's usually enough to lift my spirits.

Some of my never-fail, all-time-favorite happy songs are:

The Clash, "Revolution Rock"
I've owned multiple copies of this on CD and vinyl. I never get tired of it. It's the album that's stayed in rotation the longest (I think I was 14 when I got it), and this song, in particular, always cheers me up.  I finally re-uploaded a bunch of music that got corrupted on my iPod, so I can listen to this again.

 

Desmond Dekker, "Peace of Mind"
Someone else I've loved since high school. It doesn't matter that he's singing about trouble and misery. His voice always makes me feel better.

Steve Earle, "Steve's Last Ramble"
I have a lot of good feelings about this one.

Look/hear: We're gonna see a movie called "Gunga Din"

One of my all-time favorite songs is "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere," by Bob Dylan -- though I first discovered it by way of The Byrds. The lyrics don't make much sense, but there's something about it that makes me happy every time I hear it. It's a good sing-along song, too.

My absolute favorite version is the one The Byrds did with Earl Scruggs, because I am a sucker for banjo.

There are two versions of the lyrics. The first version is what The Byrds covered, but apparently they got some of the lyrics wrong. When Dylan wrote a second version of the song a couple of years later, he added a line that called out Roger McGuinn by name.

This is the Swell Season covering that other version. So sweet.

 

And here's The Byrds' album version, off of "Sweetheart of the Rodeo."

 Any time I need to be cheered up, I listen to some version of this song.