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Most uplifting [rock] songs ?


macman

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Ok,

list rock/alternative/britpop songs that make you feel happy. Either lyrically or musically or both.

Here are some songs I already found:

U2 - Beautiful Day

Red Hot Chili Peppers - The Zephyr Song

Travis - Sing

Buckcherry - For The Movies

The Verve - Bittersweet Symphony

The Verve - Sonnet

Blind Melon - No Rain

Blind Melon - Change

Coldplay - Yellow

Oasis - Live Forever

Guns N' Roses - Paradise City

Guns N' Roses - Breakdown

Bob Dylan - Positively 4th Street

Nirvana - In Bloom

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Travis - Sing

The Verve - Bittersweet Symphony

The Verve - Sonnet

Blind Melon - No Rain

Coldplay - Yellow

(Oasis - Live Forever)

Funny... most of those have the opposite effect on me, or at least make me happy in a 'sad' way. With Live Forever it depends entirely on my mood - if I'm happy to begin with, it'll make me happier, and vice versa.

I'll come up with a list of my own later.

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High Voltage - AC/DC

Let the Good Times Roll - Sam Cooke

Here Comes The Sun

And It Stoned Me

Up On Cripple Creek - the Band

Carey - Joni Mitchell

Anyday (Derek and The Dominos)

Friends In Low Places (I'm embarrassing myself tonight)

plus... most of the the Roches first album. Robert Fripp-produced folk... how could it miss?

and a million more.

LBB

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btw, there are many songs I could name that are "uplifting" without making me feel particularly "happy". Lots of blues, lots of Beach Boys, lots of Radiohead, or Byrds, or Bach, or Willie Nelson. These are uplifting from their beauty, even though they may be deeply sad in their content.

But the songs I named before are either happy in an ecstatic kind of way or a simple silly way.

LBB

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The Verve - Bittersweet Symphony

it's such a bittersweet symphony this life

trying to make ends meet,

you're a slave to money - then you die...

really uplifting :shades:

Nirvana - In Bloom

truthfully, Grunge is a genre of music in which I've yet to hear a really uplifting song...

I wouldn't think that it's possible :P

----------------------------

if you'd go with Britpop and uplifting songs I would for the most part ignore The Verve and Oasis (there could be exceptions of course) and rather go with

Alright ~ Supergrass (or Pumping on your stereo)

For Tomorrow ~ Blur (or Girls and Boys, or Country House, maybe)

what else...

Island in the Sun ~ Weezer

Blister in the Sun ~ Violent Femmes

Sun is Shining ~ Bob Marley (or Jammin')

Henrietta ~ The Fratellis (or most other songs by them)

Lump ~ The Presidents of the USA

Ride ~ The Vines

various songs by TMBG (Ana Ng, Don't Let's Start or Istanbul (Not Constantinople) eg)

since you already mentioned RHCP, I would suggest Aeroplane :)

then... something by Madness (our House or House of Fun or My Girl, maybe)

I'll probably think of more later :)

and Welcome to SF, mcman :thumbsup:

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F*ck Forever -- Babyshambles

Tangled Up In Blue -- Bob Dylan

Evil Woman -- ELO

Times Like These -- Foo Fighters

Down Home Again -- Humble Pie

Cutt Off -- Kasabian

Avalonia -- Kula Shaker

The Good Old Days -- The Libertines

D'you Know What I Mean? -- Oasis

Cigarettes & Alcohol -- Oasis

The Hindu Times -- Oasis

Maybe I'm Amazed -- Paul McCartney

Kodachrome -- Paul Simon

Slow Cheetah -- RHCP

Stray Cat Blues -- Rolling Stones

A Quick One, While He's Away -- The Who

Love Reign O'er Me -- The Who (usually after listening to Quadrophenia, my 'p*ssed off album')

Man With Money -- The Who

Those are all sorts of different kinds of happy... some energising happy, some ectastic happy, some 'trees flowers blue skies' happy, some 'everyone outta my way I'm IT'-angry-happy...

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"Happy" Oasis? How about:

- Whatever

- She's Electric ?

But here's a strange one:

There Is A Light That Never Goes Out - the Smiths

... my mate and I love driving along singing the chorus loudly... "and if a double-decker bus crashes into us... and if a ten-ton truck kills the both of us..." How could you not smile?

LBB

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if you'd go with Britpop and uplifting songs I would for the most part ignore The Verve and Oasis (there could be exceptions of course)

okay, I stand corrected, there seem to be more uplifting Oasis songs than I realised :D

But the Verve still seems to be dominated by melancholy songs, or what do you think? :shades:

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The Verve, yes, but I do think Oasis have quite a few uplifting songs.

edit: Although I have to admit that apart from She's Electric, I can't think of any 'happy' happy Oasis songs - the ones I mentioned are all the 'outta my way I can do anything' kind.

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But the Verve still seems to be dominated by melancholy songs, or what do you think? :shades:

I'm completely with you on the Verve, who rarely make me feel happy or uplifted. For me they are, like Coldplay, a band with a great sound, but in desperate need of a hook. Sonnet and The Drugs Don't Work have hooks, but after those I think they ran out. No offence meant...

LBB

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I don't think you need a hook to make good music, but perhaps you need a hook to make happy music. Hmm.

Interesting thought...

I, for one, can't think of any examples right now where that's not the case...

some more thoughts

B'52s

Shiny Happy People or Stand ~ R.E.M.

Step On ~ Happy Mondays

Cannonball ~ The Breeders

Ca Plane pour Moi ~ Plastic Bertrand

The Impression that I get ~ Mighty Mighty Bosstones

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I don't think you need a hook to make good music, ...

I think that music without a hook is probably only suited to being ambient music. I have nothing against ambient music, but when I'm listening actively, I need something for my ears and my mind to grab hold of, or the experience is just frustrating or even aggravating.

Of course, we can argue about whether particular music has hooks or not, but that's a different question. I know that lots of people love the Verve, and even more love Coldplay, so presumably their minds are latching on to something in there. I just find it hard to remember those songs an hour after I have heard them. I *can* remember Yellow, though, and I really like it... but which is the cause and which the effect ? ;-)

LBB

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and Welcome to SF, mcman :thumbsup:

Thanks for warm welcome!

it's such a bittersweet symphony this life

trying to make ends meet,

you're a slave to money - then you die...

really uplifting :shades:

I know that the lyrics are quite depressing but the melody just makes me feel good.

That is why I said either lyrically or musically or both in my first post.

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Did someone say '(The) Verve'? :)

Is my favourite band you know :D

You might think I'm going to disagree with Lee on the 'the songs have no hook!' line, but I think that's absolutely true. It holds true for (The) Verve and the entirety of shoegaze/dreampop. Oddly enough, I can not listen to ambient music (such as shoegaze/dreampop) passively. I love listening to the ebb and flow of the rhythm, because it rarely repeats itself so the song is 'new' for its entire duration. But that's just me, I love their dreamy, ambient and utterly mesmerising sound.

But... I've heard almost everything they ever recorded and they are notoriously depressing. Musically and lyrically. Well, except for Lucky Man. That's a song which is adequately described by the word 'uplifting'. Always makes me smile :)

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Uplifting Rock songs? Hmmm. Lyrically, they may not be uplifting, but they're very upbeat, air-guitar, windmill, slide across the polished floor and all \m/

- "Do You Wanna Dance?" as covered by T-Rex and The Ramones

- "Ohs**t!" by The Buzzcocks

- "Crazy Train" and "Iron Man" by Ozzy

- "Breaking The Law" and "You Got Another Thing Coming" by Judas Priest

- "Ace Of Spades" by Motorhead

- "Eighties" by Killing Joke

- "Dance With Me" by The Lords Of The New Church

- "Round And Round" by RATT

- "Time Stand Still" and "The Spirit Of Radio" by Rush :rockon:

- "Jump" by Van Halen

- "Dreams" by Van Hagar

- "Fly To The Angels" by Slaughter

- "It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" by R.E.M.

- "Deanna" by Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds

- "One Divine Hammer" by The Breeders

- "Pretend That We're Dead" by L7

- "Vow" by Garbage

- "Burn, Baby, Burn" by Ash

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Did someone say '(The) Verve'? :)

Is my favourite band you know :D

You might think I'm going to disagree with Lee on the 'the songs have no hook!' line, but I think that's absolutely true. It holds true for (The) Verve and the entirety of shoegaze/dreampop. Oddly enough, I can not listen to ambient music (such as shoegaze/dreampop) passively. I love listening to the ebb and flow of the rhythm, because it rarely repeats itself so the song is 'new' for its entire duration. But that's just me, I love their dreamy, ambient and utterly mesmerising sound.

Hi Levis,

You know, I never really thought of The Verve as shoegazing/dreampop before. Not Like MBV or Cocteau Twins or Lush, but now you mention it I can certainly hear it. But I can't agree about shoegaze/dream having no hooks. MBV, for one, are full of hooks for me. But of course, that is always a subjective matter.

But yes, I see where you're coming from about listening to music that ebbs and flows without obvious hook, and there certainly is music of that sort that I like, eg Brian Eno and lots of Krautrock. So I'm going to give The Verve another whirl and see what happens. Perhaps I had my expectations miscalibrated ;-)

THanks,

LBB

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'ello Lee :)

MBV has hooks yes, but that's not a feature of all of shoegaze/dreampop/ambient/whatever... Ride's Vapour Trail is a shoegaze standard and has no hook either... the vocal part of the 4 minute song song is over in the first minute and a half. Slowdive - apparently the second most popular shoegaze band after MBV, I believe - doesn't have any catchy hooks either. I haven't heard any yet, anyway.

To me, a hook is fairly unimportant - I don't know about 'better', but of course it makes a song much more memorable ;)

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