musical monday: motivation

(NB: I just discovered this post draft sitting around on my WordPress dashboard. I had no idea that I hadn’t published yet, so here it is now, for your enlightenment. I’ve already added two new songs to the list since I originally wrote the post, so I added those at the end of the list.)

I have recently started reading Og Mandino’s book The Greatest Salesman in the World three times a day. I find it a great motivator, to get me ready for the day and remind me to work my hardest. (See my new blog, The Year of Og, for more information about Og, the book, and my thoughts and experiences with it.)

Actually, I frequently listen to Og reading the scrolls from the book, which I have on both my computer and my iPod. I appreciate the extra flexibility that the audio recordings offer me: I can listen in the car, on the treadmill, or while getting ready in the morning. So a while ago, I created a whole playlist to listen to, with my current Og “reading” and several other songs that help me feel motivated and ready to take on the world. That way, when I’m finished listening to Og, I keep getting motivated, rather than switching over to the radio and who-knows-what.

So this week, I decided to share my “daily motivation” playlist with you, along with a few notes about each song.

• “Unwritten” (Natasha Bedingfield) “Feel the rain on your skin! No one else can feel it for you, only you can let it in. No one else, no one else can speak the words on your mind.” Ah, so great! This one is currently my favorite, just because it syncs so well with my Og reading for the month, which you can read about on my Og blog.
• “Time of My Life” (David Cook) Last year’s American Idol winner is amazing, IMHO. I love the line in this song that says, “I’ll taste every moment and live it out loud.” It reminds me, in some ways, of the next song …
• “Little Wonders” (Rob Thomas) This song always makes me think of my newest favorite movie, Meet the Robinsons and the injunction to Keep Moving Forward. It also makes me think about the small moments in my life and how they are the foundation of my entire life. Which helps me remember to live each moment in the way that I want to live my overall life.
• “Good Vibrations” (The Beach Boys) Not exactly a motivational song, but it reminds me of a fabulous speech that Del Hargis gave last December, in which he talked about the fact that everything is energy and about the vibrations that that energy gives off. Helps me focus on creating good vibrations with my thoughts, which then  attract other good vibrations into my life.
• “Butterflies & Hurricanes” (Muse) You know I can’t create a playlist without Muse, right? This one reminds me, somehow, that it’s up to me to create the life I want.
• “I’m Still Standing” (Elton John) My old roommate and super-close friend once said I was a “closet Elton John fan.” I do like him, and this song also reminds me that I’m still going, even after some kind of crappy things that have happened — which, in turn, motivates me to keep going once more, even if I’m in the middle of something pretty crappy at the moment.
• “We Are the Champions” (Queen) Need I say more?
• “Typical” (Mute Math) Another one that reminds me of Del Hargis last December, since he played it for us then. I love that line, “Can I break the spell of the typical?” It helps me remember that if I want different results, I have to do something different.
• “Through Heaven’s Eyes” (Brian Stokes Mitchell) This song, from The Prince of Egypt, reminds me that even if my life seems insignificant, it is part of the great tapestry of the world, and that without me the pattern wouldn’t be complete. And, naturally, it also makes me think of how Heavenly Father views me and whether I’m progressing in the way that He and I both know I can.
• “When You Believe” (David Archuleta) Also from The Prince of Egypt, this song has long had the ability to make me cry when I’m in just the right mood. I love thinking about the Israelites crossing through the Red Sea, and all the miraculous that symbolizes in my own life. And I like Archie a lot, so I chose to use his version from season 7 of American Idol last year.
• “Eye of the Tiger” (Survivor) Another classic motivation song. Sometimes I actually throw a couple of fake punches, just to get in the mood! This one also reminds me of high school, when they would pump it through the PA system once a year when we were set to play our cross-town rivals, the Tigers.
• “America” (Neil Diamond) I got this from an iTunes Essentials playlist about change. I’m not particularly a Neil Diamond fan, but I have always liked this song. It makes me think of my ancestors, and so many others, who gave up their entire lives for the hope of a better one. And I think: If they could do it, so can I. I might not have to emigrate from my homeland, but there are plenty of other things I need to leave behind. I also like all the “Today!”s in the chorus, which remind me that I have to act now if I am going to accomplish anything.
• “The Impossible Dream” (Brian Stokes Mitchell) This is definitely my favorite version of this classic song. It might seem a little corny, but I really love the lyrics of this song. If I really think–I mean, really … think–about what it’s talking about, it can give me chills. I think that we are all meant to accomplish seemingly impossible tasks in this life, and this song reminds me that “the world will be better for this: that one man, scorned and covered with scars, still strove with his last ounce of courage” to do one of those impossible things.
• “Give Me the Simple Life” (Jamie Cullum) Another great song from Meet the Robinsons. I’d never heard of Jamie Cullum until I saw that film, but I really love his voice. And I like this song’s up-beat, cheery rhythm, and the matching lyrics. “I dont believe in / frettin’ or grievin’ / Why mess around with strife?” Why, indeed? The longer I live and “the more I see of the world” (as Elizabeth Bennett would say), the more convinced I am that all I want is the simple life; I find great power in simplicity.

There you have it! I’d love to expand this playlist, so if any of you have suggestions about other songs that you find motivating, drop me a line!

 

musical monday: mormon folk songs and hymns

I have been thinking a lot about the Mormon pioneers in the last week or so and–while this is by no means an exhaustive list–I wanted to share a few of the songs that always remind me of them. Only one of them, so far as I know, is strictly a Mormon folk song, but the others, as I said, remind me of the Mormon pioneers crossing the plains.

First are two songs that I know from the BYU Men’s Choir: “We’ll Shout and Give Him Glory,” and “Whoa, Haw, Buck and Jerry Boy.” You can listen to “We’ll Shout and Give Him Glory” on YouTube, though the video has nothing whatever to do with going to Zion, shouting and giving glory, or the BYU Men’s Choir. Oh, well. “Whoa, Haw, Buck and Jerry Boy,” on the other hand, is nowhere to be found online (at least not that I can tell), and I am sadly unable to upload it to my blog. This song was written by Mormons, for Mormons, about Mormons. I love so many things about the words, and I especially like the thought of my pioneer ancestors singing things like this to try and keep their spirits up while they walked or pulled handcarts to Salt Lake Valley.

Next is a song I first heard performed by the BYU Men’s Choir, but have since been unable to ever find a recording of it by them. I do, though, have a recording by the BYU-Idaho Men’s Choir, in which my brother was singing at the time.  “Whistle, Maggie, Whistle” is apparently beloved as a comic choral song, particularly in men-only choruses. There are a few versions available on YouTube, such as this one (although I think the BYU-I version is vastly superior). I’m not sure this song even existed when the pioneers were crossing the plains, but it still reminds me of them nonetheless.

Finally is a beautiful folk hymn that is widely known as a standard of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. “Bound for the Promised Land” (YouTube) is a classic American folk hymn, and I find the MoTab version particularly stirring–so much so that it often brings tears to my eyes. I can’t help but think of my pioneer ancestors and their feeling that they were, in literal truth, bound for the Promised Land–which then always makes me think of my own journey through life and my own quest for the Eternal Promised Land.

Below are the lyrics for all of these songs. Enjoy!

 

musical monday: mute math

I’m a little late with this particular post, but at least I’m posting something, right? Today’s Musical Monday highlights the song “Typical” by Mute Math. I heard this last weekend during a training meeting in Boise, and I loved it.

Here you go:

Come on, can I dream for one day?
There’s nothing that can’t be done
But how long should it take somebody
Before they can be someone?

Cuz I know there’s got to be another level
Somewhere closer to the other side
And I’m feelin’ like it’s now or never
Can I break the spell of the typical?

Now I’ve lived through my share of misfortune
And I’ve worked in the blazing sun
But how long should it take somebody
Before they can be someone?

Cuz I know there’s got to be another level
Somewhere closer to the other side
And I’m feelin’ like it’s now or never
Can I break the spell of the typical?

I’m the typical
I’m the typical
Can I break the spell of the typical?

Because it’s draggin’ me down
Oh, I’d like to know about when
When does it all turn around?

Yeah I know there’s got to be another level
Somewhere closer to the other side
And I’m feelin’ like it’s now or never
Can I break the spell of the typical?

Break the spell (of the typical)
Break the spell (of the typical)
Can I break the spell of the typical?

I just love that line: “How long should it take somebody before they can be someone?”

As it turns out, Mute Math also have a song featured in the new movie Twilight … Didn’t especially love the movie, but I’ve found the soundtrack to be pretty darn amazing, so that tells me a little something about the band.

And, if you’d care for a little more info about the band, here’s the Wikipedia article on Mute Math.

 

musical monday: tool

I recently asked my colleague Jack Harrell for advice about classic/heavy-metal rock.  I am working on a story–for Jack’s class, incidentally–in which I knew that the main character listens to classic rock music, but I wasn’t sure what, so I asked Jack for some thoughts about it.  He offered me a different CD first, which I liked just fine.  But when I returned it the next day and asked whether he could recommend any good heavy metal, he thought for a moment and then lent me Lateralus by Tool.

Wow.

Jack later told me that he calls Tool “the thinking man’s heavy metal.”  I like that classification.  He also mentioned one day that he doesn’t usually tell his students that he listens to Tool, since apparently some of their early stuff is … kind of … well, questionable.  But Lateralus is incredible.  My favorite song from the album is probably the first, “The Grudge.”  I’m including the lyrics below.

Wear your grudge like a crown of negativity.
Calculate what we will or will not tolerate.
Desperate to control all and everything.
Unable to forgive your scarlet lettermen.

Clutch it like a cornerstone. Otherwise it all comes down.
Justify denials and grip ‘em to the lonesome end.
Clutch it like a cornerstone. Otherwise it all comes down.
Terrified of being wrong. Ultimatum prison cell.

Saturn ascends, choose one or ten. Hang on or be humbled again.

Clutch it like a cornerstone. Otherwise it all comes down.
Justify denials and grip it to the lonesome end.
Saturn ascends, comes round again.
Saturn ascends, the one, the ten. Ignorant to the damage done.

Wear your grudge like a crown of negativity.
Calculate what you will or will not tolerate.
Desperate to control all and everything.
Unable to forgive your scarlet lettermen.

Wear the grudge like a crown. Desperate to control.
Unable to forgive. And we’re sinking deeper.

Defining, confining, sinking deeper. Controlling, defining, and we’re sinking
deeper.

Saturn comes back around to show you everything
Let’s you choose what you will not see and then
Drags you down like a stone or lifts you up again
Spits you out like a child, light and innocent.

Saturn comes back around. Lifts you up like a child or
Drags you down like a stone to
Consume you till you choose to let this go.
Choose to let this go.

Give away the stone. Let the oceans take and transmutate this cold and fated
anchor.
Give away the stone. Let the waters kiss and transmutate these leaden grudges
into gold.

Let go.

I am also throwing in a YouTube video of “The Grudge,” so that you can hear it–because it’s really just not as good without the music.

 

musical monday: muse ‘time is running out’

Some time ago, I posted something about how much I love the song “Time is Running Out” by Muse–and the music video of it.  I recently learned, though, that the US version of the music video is a little different from the UK one.  Less pseudo-nudity, basically.  And, in my book, that’s a good thing.  So, this week’s Musical Monday post is … well, that video.

I honestly can’t say why I love this video so much, but I sure do!  Something about it just makes me wanna go out and conquer the world.

 

musical monday: hem

Mega-thanks to Ellie for introducing me to these guys.

I have been listening to a lot of Hem lately, especially while I write, and I have been loving them. One website I saw referred to them as “country-politan,” and I think that’s an apt description. They have a very mellow sound, with roots in Country music, but with a more up-to-date take on it. I love their cover of “Tennessee Waltz.”

 

musical monday: sweeney todd

First off, my apologies for not posting anything last week.  But it was the first day of classes last Monday, and I had family visiting during the weekend right before that, so those things took precedence.  No worries, though, because today I’m back!

This week’s Musical Monday is about Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, a classic (if gruesome) musical by Stephen Sondheim.  I’ve been listening to it again during the last week, so I thought I’d share my love here on my blog.

This is kind of a tricky musical that arouses many and varied responses in its listeners/viewers.  I first watched it when I was a student at BYU, shortly after coming home from a mission.  It wasn’t a BYU production, however, and I’ve often wondered whether the university would be willing to produce it.

 

musical monday: george gershwin

Certainly one of my favorite composers of all time is George Gershwin.  I know, big surprise.  I especially love his popular songs, with the lyrics of his brother Ira–one of the greatest lyricists of all time, in my opinion.  Here, in no particular order, are ten of my favorite Gershwin songs:

1. Slap That Bass I had never heard this song until I worked as the assistant stage manager for our high school musical during my senior year, when we performed Crazy for You.  As it turns out, it was originally performed in a classic Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers film from 1937, Shall We Dance.  It’s one of my favorites now, with its upbeat rhythm and lyrics.  It’s one of those songs that make me happy about life in general.
2. They All Laughed My favorite version is Bing Crosby’s recording, with his mellow voice and casual phrasing.  I also just love the lyrics and the happy-go-lucky-yet-victorious tone they set.
3. Summertime Of course, the definitive version here is by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong.  Enough said.
4. They Can’t Take That Away from Me This is one my all-time favorite performances by Fred Astaire.  Again, the tone of the lyrics is just wonderful–sort of “I’m sad that we’re breaking up, but I don’t regret the time we spent together, and I appreciate that you’ll always be part of me in the memories we’ve shared.”
5. Nice Work If You Can Get It Again, I had never heard this one until Crazy for You in my senior year.  I relate to the lyrics very well, as do a lot of people, I think.
6. But Not For Me I actually think the best version I’ve heard of this song is Jodi Benson’s performance in the original Broadway cast of Crazy for You (Jodi Benson also did the voice of Ariel in the Disney movie The Little Mermaid).  It’s very Broadway-ish, but I love her intonation and phrasing.
7. Love Walked In I really like what they did with this song in the movie Rhapsody in Blue, a 1945 biopic of Gershwin’s life, which is almost entirely inaccurate, but interesting nonetheless.  During one scene, George is pleased to see his current love-interest in his apartment, having thought that they were through.  But she has come to visit him again, and he happily sits at his piano (back to the door, and the girl) and plays her this new song he’s just written: “Love walked right in and drove the shadows away; love walked right in and brought me sunniest day.”  And as he’s playing, the girl slips out of the apartment–turns out she had just come to tell him goodbye and couldn’t face it when he was so happy.  I appreciate the irony of her walking out while he sings about love walking in.  Anyway, my favorite version is by Kenny Baker, who sang for a few years on Jack Benny’s radio program.
8. The Man I Love Perhaps my all-time favorite Gershwin song, I especially love the version by Sarah Vaughan.  My favorite part is the oh-so-hopeful bridge: “Maybe I will meet him Sunday, maybe Monday, maybe not; still, I’m sure to meet him one day–maybe Tuesday will be my good-news day.”
9. S’Wonderful This is one of the best twitterpation songs ever written, and I love to sing with it when I have a new crush.  The Count Basie-Joe Williams version is the best I’ve heard.
10. Our Love Is Here To Stay Another of my favorite love songs of all time.  Who wouldn’t want to think that their love will still be going strong long after Gibraltar and the Rockies had crumbled?  I prefer the Nat “King” Cole version, although Shirley Horn’s performance is also a classic.

 

musical monday: coldplay

As promised, today a new “Musical Monday.”

I have been loving Coldplay’s latest single, “Viva La Vida” (lyrics).  The last day of the summer semester, I heard it about three times on the radio driving to work, and it still wasn’t enough.  I ended up looking it up on YouTube to watch/listen to about five different live performances of it.

Then, while I was in Kansas a few weeks ago for a friend’s wedding, someone gave me this song and I was able to listen to it over and over on my iPod.  The lyrics fascinate me, and I would love for the band to explain the meaning from their point of view.  Flying home from Kansas, I decided that it was all about Death, personified, and how our modern society has greatly marginalized Death’s tyranny in our world.  However, my friend Ellie and her husband think that each verse is about a different person: one about Christ, another about John the Baptist, etc.  I’d love to hear other interpretations if you’ve got one to add.

I also recently learned that Coldplay is my niece’s favorite band of all, and that they are coming to play in Salt Lake this fall–right where my niece lives.  I hope she gets to go, and I just may buy a ticket myself.

(Check out Coldplay’s official website.)

 

musical monday: how can i keep from singing?

One of my favorite CDs of all time comes from my college days, back at BYU. (Go, cougars!) A Thanksgiving of American Folk-Hymns features all of the BYU choirs singing a variety of religious folk music. Today in particular, the song “How Can I Keep from Siging?” has been on my mind. It took me a while to find the lyrics as sung on the CD by the a capella BYU Singers–I had to piece several of the verses together from other versions I found out there on the ‘net–but I finally managed to do so. They are reproduced below for your convenience and edification.

My life flows on in endless song.
Above Earth’s lamentation,
I hear the real, though far-off hymn
That hails a new creation.

Through all the tumult and the strife,
I hear that music ringing.
It sounds an echo in my soul.
How can I keep from singing?

When tyrants tremble sick with fear
And hear their death-knells ringing –
When friends rejoice both far and near,
How can I keep from singing?

In prison cell or dungeon vile,
Our thoughts to them are winging.
When friends by shame are undefiled,
How can I keep from singing?

What, if my joys and comforts die?
I know that truth is living.
What, though the darkness round me close?
Still truth its light is giving.

No storm can shake my inmost calm,
While to that Rock I’m clinging.
Since Love is Lord of Heav’n and Earth,
How can I keep from singing?

I lift mine eyes among those hills;
I see the view above it;
And day by day, this pathway smooths,
Since first I learnt to love it.

The peace from Love makes fresh my heart;
A song of hope is ringing.
All things are mine since truth I found–
How can I keep from singing?

The song has also been recorded by Eva Cassidy (hate it) and Enya (can tolerate it), but I don’t find any other version to be so personally moving.