"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

[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...

This might be some sort of heresy

[shermarama]

But I think I prefer the RHCP version of Fire, it's even more drum-driven and faster. It's great to dance to but I don't know that it would make me want to be creative.

An entire song exhorting you to avoid thinking about stuff too much and just get on with it because it's rock and roll and all you've got to do is do it; Do It by the Pink Fairies. It's from 1970 and it's punk from before people thought they knew what that was. There's a copy here if you've a useful way of downloading it..