Manic Depression

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Month: June 2005

Chosen by: Alyssa

Description: Songs that are incredibly happy or incredibly sad.

ChrisAlyssa
:) :(Happy Happy Sad Sad
  1. Katrina and the Waves - Walking on Sunshine
  2. The Isley Brothers - Shout
  3. The Cranberries - Twenty-One
  4. Blue Swede - Hooked on a Feeling
  5. Urfuls - Tsugihagi Boogie Woogie
  6. Aerosmith - Cryin'
  7. The Dell Vikings - Come Roll With Me
  8. Al Jerreau - Ain't no Sunshine
  9. The Beatles - Twist and Shout
  10. Live - Lightning Crashes
  11. Elvis Presley - Burning Love
  12. Nilsson - Without You
  13. Smile.dk - Boys
  14. Ugly Kid Joe - Cat's in the Cradle
  15. The Pointer Sisters - Jump
  16. R.E.M. - Everybody Hurts
  17. Kool and the Gang - Celebration
  18. Tennessee Ernie Ford - Sixteen Tons
  19. The Cure - Friday I'm in Love
  20. R.E.M. - Shiny Happy People
  21. They Might Be Giants - Fingertips 19 (Heart Attack)
  22. Adam Sandler - Somebody Kill Me
  1. Lemony Snicket - Loverly Spring
  2. Belle and Sebastian - Don't Leave the Lights On
  3. Judy Garland - Get Happy
  4. Jude - I Know
  5. Coldplay - Don't Panic
  6. Placido Domingo - Vesti la Guibba (Pagliacci)
  7. U2 - Beautiful Day
  8. The Beatles - She's Leaving Home
  9. They Might Be Giants - Yeh Yeh
  10. Alanis Morissette - Uninvited
  11. Brady Bunch - Sunshine Day
  12. Del Amitri - Driving With the Brakes On
  13. Cuppycake - Theme
  14. Jann Arden - You Don't Know Me
  15. The Levellers - Beautiful Day
  16. Sting - It's Probably Me
  17. Rudy Vallee - Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries
  18. They Might Be Giants - Hopeless Bleak Despair
  19. Lightning Seeds - Life of Riley
  20. The King's Singers - Stormy Weather
  21. The Beatles - Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey
  22. Kansas - Dust in the Wind
  23. Louis Armstrong - What a Wonderful World

Alyssa's Thoughts

The theme for this month was inspired by my friend Greg. Every Wednesday night, Greg used to invite everyone and anyone over to his house for "Music Night." Everyone would bring one song to share with the group---no limits on what could be shared at all---and then we'd all get together and listen to them. Anyhow, after doing this for several months, Greg thought about possibly having theme nights. One theme night that he told me about (but I'm never sure if he actually did) was Manic Depression: songs that are incredibly happy or sad. So, that's where the idea for this CD came from.

So, in retrospect as I compose this entry about my choice of songs, I think that some of the songs I chose are not so purely happy or purely sad as I had originally thought when I put them on the CD. As I listened more closely to their lyrics later, I realized that some of them are quite bittersweet, really. Jude's "I Know" is a pretty sad song being sung to a person who is steeped in depression and contemplating suicide. Yet the deeper message of the song is one of encouragement and kinship: "Step away from the edge," "You're not alone." Coldplay's "Don't Panic" is mostly about how we live in a beautiful world, but the beginning of the track is about how we're all going to die and it may initally seem like life is futile. Rudy Vallee's "Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries" ends with a man teasing about throwing himself from the top of the Empire State building. And Judy Garland's "Get Happy" is about being happy because we're all going to die and meet our maker.

Interesting, isn't it?

Chris's Thoughts

Admittedly this is proabably the worst CD that I've ever done. I really wasn't in the mood to create a CD and I wasn't really into the theme. I feel that some of the "happy" songs really aren't that happy and that some of the "sad" songs really aren't that sad.

On the other hand, Alyssa's CD is one of my favorites.