Photo by Eric Nopanen on Unsplash
What I find intriguingly counter-intuitive, is that the next post that I had scheduled to write was going to carry the name: “Why Are People So F**ked Up?” and it was going to combine some questions about the fundamentals of existence with the empirical data provided by the life lessons that Bart Simpson has taught humanity (listen to Uncle Bart, children, not the news). And yet, here I am, trying to unf**k everybody and myself with a completely different article, because we all crave some sense of security and comfort, no matter how Alfa our responsibilities require us to be.
Disclaimer: by f**ked up, I don’t mean psychopaths. If you consider yourself one, this post is not intended for you. I would politely advise you to still listen to these songs, however, because they might warm up the blood in your toes. What I mean here, is that we are all such bizarre conglomerations of neurotic worries and shameless chill that we often feel like something has unscrewed our nails, while the nature of that ‘something’ remains a mystery. And so we laugh hysterically through bitter tears until we can only hear ourselves and nobody else. But that’s why we have melodic anti-depressants.
May I present to you the songs that have brought me so much peace that I wish I could squeeze them like a sponge over the heads of everybody who is walking through the unlit, underground tunnel of their clouded vision. Maybe not like a sponge, because rats drown first during a flood and I don’t want to liquidize their home, as well as your vision. So, without further ado, here is a SUBJECTIVE list of songs that let you know everything will be all right.
1. Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right - Bob Dylan
Do I even need to say anything in support of the title? Except that, well, Sir Robert Dylanious the First wrote the song to commemorate his will to keep going without that much grudge against Suze Rotolo, when she opted for staying in Italy, rather than going back to America and to him (she was the girl accompanying him on a cold city walk on the cover of ‘The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan’, so you can imagine that the love was pretty much out there, in the face of all of Dylan’s fangirls). Yet, not even the fact that the song was based on an older tune by Paul Clayton, which carries the name “Who’s Gonna Buy You Chickens When I’m Gone,” can take away the sweet, slightly foolish, and illusory misunderstanding that comes with “It’s All Right”, at the end of every verse.
2.Astral Weeks (Full Album) - Van Morrison
Yeah, this might create complications with the number 10 in the title, but this album is the reason why I am writing the post. If you have ever felt that obsessive desire to let people know how amazing something that you have experienced is, then you will get me when I say that, every time I listen to this album, since I discovered it in 2018, I just want to rip Spotify apart and release the music to conquer everybody’s ears. My last university year was a shaky castaway raft on top of stormy waves and calm waters under gorgeous sunset skies. One would say that it was simultaneously shit and THE shit, and Van Morrison was through all of that with me. If you don’t feel the weight lifting off your shoulders when listening to this album, then you will at least check the Internet for an article on the similarities between the voices of Van Morrison and Mick Jagger.
3.Why Worry? - Dire Straits
My dad calls it “The Song with the Bubbles,” which saves it the softest spot in my heart. In his mind, the harmony between the guitar and the synthesizer emerges from the inside of water bubbles, serenely making their way to the surface of the sea. Somebody in the comment section on YouTube called it ‘a lullaby for adults’, and it really does cover the wounds and bruises of grown-ups with an ointment that quickly sends you back to the game. Believe me, when Mark Knopfler sings to you:
Why worry?
There should be laughter after pain.
There should be sunshine after rain.
These things have always been the same.
So why worry now?
...he will convince the left and right side of your brain to share a cup of tea, even if the brain sees the world falling apart through the eyes. Because things have always been the same and there will be another world to observe somewhere else.
4.Any song by Fleetwood Mac
Every time I send a Fleetwood Mac song to a friend of mine, the same words are typed under my fingertips: “Fleetwood Mac always remind me that everything will be okay at some point.” Yeah, they might have been the band with the longest lines of cocaine on the backstage tables, and yeah, maybe “Rumours” was produced by the anguish that the band members caused each other, but the magical realism of their “Everywhere” can literally take you everywhere or bring the everywhere to your reality.
5.Heroes - Peter Gabriel (originally by David Bowie, of course)
We can all agree that David Bowie left a scandalously divergent heritage, which will probably convince the aliens that we are not that dumb to be destroyed. But it is exactly because we are resourceful and skilled, that one of Bowie’s most unapologetically and deservedly greedily covered in gold gems was passed down to Peter Gabriel who stripped the melody of the drums and guitar, basically minimizing the layered sound to let it grow unassisted and bounce off the strings. Even when you are at your lowest, you can be a king, I might be a queen, and we can all be heroes, not just for a day.
6.Ocean - John Butler
If you have not listened to this masterpiece, I suggest that you immediately get off the toilet seat (wipe yourself first, please), book a bungalow next to a pine forest, sit on the porch and start playing the studio version of the track, created by one of the kindest and most considerate performers I have ever had the honour to see live. I would also suggest that you hit the ‘play’ button about 11 and a half minutes before the rain starts pouring over the rooftop of your bungalow. For the majority of the melody, you will be listening to the rain approaching from the forest, and then, right before the drops reach your little temporary home under the clouds, the guitar will peak and all your worries will burst from the inside out. The end. For them - the worries. And another beginning for you.
7.Stranded - Van Morrison
You are judging me - I can feel it - but this is my list and I will use Van Morrison as much as I want. If you don’t slow-dance with yourself to this song and its saxophone smooth moves, in the middle of the night, then you are doing something wrong. Or maybe I am doing something terribly wrong, if I am executing such creepy actions, but again - my list, my fucked-upness, my ambition for calmness.
8.Only Love - Alex Ebert
Isn’t this all we need - only love? No, of course not, we also need more greenery in over-populated cities, stable economic pillars, clean water for stranded communities, proper sex education, and a lollipop for the bosses that speak too much and too loud. But, from a selfish point of view, Alex Ebert provided me with the song that slapped me across the face the first time I heard it and closed my head for everything slightly off that was happening in the world. It might do it for you too, you know. Don’t shy away from it.
9.Winters Love - Animal Collective
This one is a new discovery from the past month. If you have never listened to Animal Collective before, you are in for a trippy surprise. It is so repetitive, with a sudden change after a minute and a half, that it brings you back to summer days of childhood (in spite of the winter in the title) and makes you cry because you suddenly realize that, in spite of viruses, pandemics, and lockdowns, you have unmeasurable capacity for love for life.
10.So Long, Marianne - Leonard Cohen
The proper ending to a subjectively proper list comes with the groovy 'hallelujer' Leonard Cohen. We opened the frame and closed it with songs about separation without the anger and loss without the grief. The song is also the background to THE BEST SCENE IN THE HISTORY OF CINEMA - the Biscuit scene in The Boat That Rocked. Make yourself a favour and watch the film or the scene, the link to which is below. Anyways, what both the film and the song teach us, is that, sometimes, peace comes through acknowledging the occasional melancholia of existence. Only if you accept it, you will manage to not dwell on it and suffer the consequences of whoever’s or nobody’s actions. There is only place “to laugh, and cry, and cry, and laugh about it all again.”
Biscuit scene:
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