10 Songs That Inspire...

[Zzzptm]

Not necessarily a top ten list of ranked tunes, but ten songs that you turn to when you need something to lift your spirits. The songs that get you to do one more rep, one more push, one more day...

Todd Rundgren, for me, is a source of much music that uplifts and encourages me. His 1981 album, "Healing", is one I keep going back to, in my mind or in re-experiencing, to remind me that there's reason to hope, reason to live.

That's a live version, and it's beautiful. The whole song is wonderful, including the deliberate silence between the opening lament and the revelatory remainder of the song. The line, "The healer was not alone", I've quoted to myself repeatedly to remind me that if I'm struggling to do good in the world, I'm not alone.

[Vyn]

Todd is great at writing music that noodles the noggin!

Here's one straight from the heart: Sea of Joy by Blind Faith. I don't listen to it very often at all, but have found that when there is an overabundance of change in my life, that I have not directed, it works magic to ground me. So, maybe not so much, "inspirational," to me as it is "perspecitve adjusting".

Here's the official version, with hip violin solo from Rick Grech:

[Charger]

Okay... Inspirational tunes.

This is gonna need a bit of thinking and pondering on my part.

But I will take part for sure.

[Thelemech]

Life is a Long Song by Jethro Tull always grounds me and makes me contemplate life and my own mortality
It takes me out of bad thinking and forces me out of my own mind and lightens my feelings
Just a great tune

[Charger]

Alright I'm gonna kick things off with this one.

SLAYER is a band that can most certainly give you a nice boost of energy when you need it the most. Especially if you're feeling down...and if you feel like someone's done you wrong this song works extremely well because ofcourse we all know that PAYBACK's a bitch motherfucker!

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

I'll catch up later!!

[Vyn]

With echoes of You've Got Another Thing Coming and many other songs of self-effectiveness in their catalog, here's a newer tune off of their Firepower release, called No Surrender:

It leaves no room for equivocation about its meaning, it could only be written in more of a concrete manner if it only had one lyric:

Fuck it, I'm doin' it!

For those times when I want to hear something upbeat, positive, and no bullshit. Good workout tune.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

I guess I find this song quite inspirational. A song by a Heavy Metal band dealing with domestic abuse...

Metallica - The Day That Never Comes

[Charger]

For my second pick I'm also gonna have a JUDAS PRIEST tune.

This one from the criminally underrated DEMOLITION album.

This is a fight song, but it's also a nice booster song when feeling down and beaten.


ONE ON ONE!!

[Zzzptm]

Good stuff so far, and the Blind Faith tune is one I hadn't heard before, nice addition to my experience.

My next two go together:

Black Sabbath - "Looking for Today" and "Spiral Architect"

They go together so well, emphasizing hope in a difficult, harsh world.

[Vyn]

Sabbath is just awesomely chock full of inspirational tunes, those two are fantastic.

From 1995, I find this to be a great song to listen to when facing instability and uncertainty:

Rancid - Ruby Soho

Bonus tune. A bit older than Rancid's tune, a nifty little post-punk banger that I enjoy when the wind is blowing with change:

New Order - Temptation

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

2nd pick and a song from someone who made a habit of including inspirational songs on his albums:

DIO - We Rock

[Charger]

^^^^

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

Crosses that one of me own list.

[Zzzptm]

The Grateful Dead - Touch of Grey

Got me through a sheer hell of a summer in 1987 that saw me have a major bout of depression (even though I didn't know what it was at the time) and some spiralling that saw me move out of the house, drop my major to Undecided, and get married. I'll be 39 years of that marriage this coming August and I still get by with this reassuring composition from The Grateful Dead.

[Vyn]

I know a few people who really find a lot in that tune, I have never liked it, from the first day it aired and I think, if possible, even less today, Not sure why - there isn't anything "wrong" with it, it's thoughtful, it's the GD (although never been much of a fan, they can jam), but it just always clicked with me, the wrong way.