"boredom is a sin, ambition should be everything"

[devi]

Help! Compilation help, to be precise. I'm putting together several compilation CDs (of which you shall hear more later) with different themes. I want to fill one of them with songs that inspire you to get up and make something, do something creative with your life, overcome the nerves and the stagefright - and it's occurred to me that I should really have it done by November.

The trouble is that I've only thought of four songs so far (Lose Yourself by Eminem, Goethe's Letter to Vic Chesnutt and Lee Remick by Hefner, and the 'this is your life and it's ending one minute at a time' theme from Fight Club). Which is frankly pathetic.

So. Anyone have any suggestions? What's the song that makes you want to make art? The song that kicks you in the arse and tells you to get on with it?

Edit: Oh yeah, "There She Goes My Beautiful World" by Nick Cave as well.)

Comments

[mr-wombat.livejournal.com]

"My Way" as sung by Sid Vicious.

[mr-wombat.livejournal.com]

Oh and "Walk Away" by the dropkick murphys.

[kesstrel.livejournal.com]

Life is a Highway - Tom Cochrane

[kasku.livejournal.com]

For a suitably cliche choice how about that "don't let go - you've got the music in you" song? I forget who it's by actually. But I could ask Ivan if you want!

[ravenblack.livejournal.com]

Five suggestions each of a quite different sort of inspiration:

For a more martial aggressive sort of inspiration, Laibach's "Life is Life" or Bathory's "Man of Iron" might be good.

Tenacious D's "Rock Your Socks".

Orff's "O Fortuna".

Yuki Kajiura/See Saw's "The World" from the .hack//sign soundtrack.

Something Russian or Russian-esque, such as Ivan Rebroff's "Katjuscha" or "Cossack Patrol" or Wedding Present's "Davni Chasy".

inspiration

[kagomeshuko.livejournal.com]

"Vincent" (aka "Starry, starry night") by Don McLean always makes me want to produce these great works of art.

Stein Auf!
Bridget

[neil-scott.livejournal.com]

Eye of the Tiger?

Or, slightly more seriously, "I've been waitin' for tomorrow (all of my life)" by The The.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

"Dream On" - Aerosmith
"Don't Stop" - Fleetwood Mac

(People who know me well will now be sniggering to themselves since I'm always enthusing about these two tunes anyway !)

[elethe.livejournal.com]

Once In a Lifetime - Talking Heads

Jackie (La Chanson de Jacky) - Jacques Brel (cheese - but prime, ripe French cheese) - covered by The Divine Comedy and Scott Walker (not at the same time) but I have versions in French and English sung by Brel.

Anything by Pulp. Absolutely anything (but especially stuff from Different Class and This is Hardcore).

[miss-newham.livejournal.com]

FYR by Le Tigre. Any chance I could beg for a copy when the CD is done?

[nisaba.livejournal.com]

Korn "Got the Life" kick-starts me when I'm lounging round the house useless.

"Big Yellow Taxi" - Joni Mitchell, or the cover by Counting Crows (or one of a myriad of other covers) and "Round Here" by Counting Crows both give me a "world's in a bad way, get off your arse and do something about it" feeling.

Pink Floyd's "Time" and "Breathe" kinda say the same thing from the opposite end of the spectrum - "Time" tells you off for wasting your life and achieving nothing, "Breathe" tells you off for running around like a headless chicken all your life and achieving nothing.

Smashmouth's "Walking on the Sun", and Soul Asylum's "Runaway Train" spring to mind too.

Damn, if I have so many of these songs, why do I never achieve anything? :)

[trishna.livejournal.com]

What a great idea. Do you think if you have the compilations ready before the last weekend of the month, that I could make copies to hand out at the Nano kick-off party, with full credits to you, of course?

[darklily.livejournal.com]

Garbage's Cherry Lips (Go, Baby, Go!) and Maria McKee's Highdive are the ones that spring to mind...

[erming.livejournal.com]

Anthrax - got the time.

[arachne.livejournal.com]

Cabaret, as sung by Liza Minelli.
Mis-shapes, echoing elethe's Pulp suggestion.

[philipstorry.livejournal.com]

I started trying to think of anything that picks me up and makes me feel full of vim and vigour, but the list ran a little short. A little time with my walkman solved that, however...

All of them, naturally, are in the key of Rock. (Or blues. Or funk.)
The first few that jumped instantly to mind were:

• Burn by Deep Purple - a fast, powerful song which has some nice descriptive lyrics in it. Descriptive lyrics are always a good starting point for creativity, I think.
• Walk This Way / Toys In The Attic / Sweet Emotion / You See Me Crying / No More No More, by Aerosmith. All from the same album (Toys In The Attic - arguably their best album ever), you can't possibly force me to choose. Philistines who place nostalgia higher than art may prefer the Run D.M.C. collaboration of Walk This Way, but the original is far better - it's got the blues tinge that was lost in the later version, and it and overflows with funk. Toys In The Attic belts along at a cracking pace, and songs about sanity are always good for the creative soul. Sweet Emotion needs no explanation whatsoever. You See Me Crying appears to be a song about someone who really, really doesn't like his girlfriend's new hairstyle. That'll shift your mindset somewhat. And finally, No More No More rocks like a bastard and is about being in a band, and how much hard work it is. Honest. It's really hard.
  Frankly, why I don't just recommend the whole album is beyond me, but those are the outstanding tracks for this particular need...
• Northwinds / Sunny Days by David Coverdale. Soulful and bluesy, Northwinds develops into something outstanding... Sunny Days of course exhausted the worldwide quota of fun when it was recorded, making the rest of the year somewhat dull...
• Freakshow by Bowes & Morley is a fantastic upbeat song about going into town to have fun in clubs full of strange young people. If that's not your bag of activities, then I'm a thong-wearing monk with a penchant for rusty spoons...

Some listening to MP3's at random found these:

• Play That Funky Music, as covered by Thunder. Maybe you can grab the original by Wild Cherry, but the Thunder version is what I have - funktastic, rocking stuff about finding a new groove.
• Fire by Jimi Hendrix (or the rare, but excellent, cover by Alice Cooper) - this song is used in some hospitals to test for braindeath, and by new Church inquisitions to test for the presence of a soul... The drums, especially, are just nuts - they drive the song like nothing you've ever heard before. You just have to go and do SOMETHING - ANYTHING - when you're heard this. Fantastic stuff.
• Raspberry Jam Delta-V by Joe Satriani. Instrumental, but the title's enough to earn it a place surely? Good music, too.
• Easy On My Soul / Travelling In Style by Free. The former is relaxed, yet surrounds you and supports you wonderfully. The latter is both amusing and uplifting. Neither are what you might expect if all you've heard is their hit, All Right Now.
• Young Gods / Too Much Too Young by the Little Angels. Both are upbeat songs about the folly and arrogance of youth, and how you should enjoy it whilst you have it. How can that fail to get me to do something?
• C'Mon by the Quireboys is certified 100% Bar-Room Rock. Fun, uplifting, and demanding involvement.
• Jailbreak by Thin Lizzy. Tonight there's going to be a jailbreak, somewhere in the town...
• Drop Dead Gorgeous / Ready To Go by Republica. The first makes me think of you... *ahem* Just kidding. Good song, though. Not quite as good as Ready To Go, but a little more off the beaten track - it's not been used to death in adverts, links and suchlike for starters. Ready To Go itself should need no reason, of course.

Hmmm. There's lots more that spring to mind now. I should make my own compilation, perhaps...

[caescarna.livejournal.com]

The Lilac Time: "The World In Her Arms."

Powered by a simple but infectious accordian solo, this is one of Stephen Duffy's finest works, neatly exposing the band's European musical influences.

[zenithed.livejournal.com]

Something Hot In A Cold Country - Echobelly: "Feed the fire, fan the flame, till the world remembers your name."
We Rule The School - Belle & Sebastian: "Do something pretty while you can..."
The Run Lola Run soundtrack.