What music cheers you up?

[Des]

Dayna was saying how the Traveling Wilburys cheered her up. I find a nice bit of Soukous does the trick for me when I'm feeling a bit down. What do others put on the turntable to lift their spirits? Or do you like to indulge in a little bit of misery and listen to Lenny Cohen perhaps?

[That Was Jonathan E. Then]

I'm particularly fond of Sarala from Hank Jones Meets Cheick-Tidiane Seck and The Mandinkas on Gitanes or Verve. Deep and rolling and modern and old. You know your problems are very, very small.

I also find that No Sound Is Too Taboo by United Future Organization offers up a positive motivation for getting on with life on a consistent basis.

And then, of course, there's Bob Marley. And Cheikh Lo, any of his albums give me a boost, too.

[Adam Blake]

Charlie Christian, Professor Longhair, The Everly Brothers, doo-wop...

[Nigel w]

Indestructible Beat Of Soweto Vol One (given what the townships were going through and yet they still could sound so joyous, what have we got to moan about?)

almost anything by Van Morrison but. esp Astral Weeks, Moondance, His Band and Street Choir, St Dominic's Preview and, oddly, Days Like This, from 1994

Wasis Diop No Sant

first Tracy Chapman album

Youssou N'Dour Birima

Kate & Anna McGarrigle Dancer With Bruised Knees

Nina Simone singing I Put A Spell On You because it contains my favourite piece of scat singing ever (and which Van copied note-for-supposedly-improvised-note on Them's 1965 recording)

Stevie Wonder Fulfilingness First Finale (esp side one with Smile Please, Heaven Is 10 Zillion Light Years Away and Bogie On Reggae Woman)

Motown Chartbusters Vols 1-12

Bob Marley Live At The Lyceum 1975 because I was there with my wife, me 21 and her 17 and 33 years later believe it or not we are still together

anything by Nusrat and anything by Fela

Louis Armstrong Hobo You Can't Ride This Train, Anybody Here Want To Try My Cabbage , I'm A Ding Dong Daddy, Struttin With Some Barbecue and just about anything else he recorded between 1923-34

and, of course, Brown Sugar (plus Jumpin' Jack Flash, Honky Tonk Women, Gimme Shelter and a few others...)

interestingly, having made this fairly random list, I notice that apart from Van, the McGarrigles and the Stones, it's all black music...

[judith]

Maurice Medioni - "Descarga Oriental" with Roberto Rodriquez, played really loud.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - when the handclapping is really going strong, also played really loud.

Songs like the Four Top's "Sugar Pie honey bunch" (Not the title but too lazy to look it up), and happy Doo Wop and fun music like the Shangri-las, or a couple of favorites by Doctoer Nico, or Orchestra Baobob. All played really really loud. With lots of bass. Luckily, my neighbors can't hear and of those who can, well they've got a drum kit in their house so I don't worry about them.

[Chris P]

Maurice Medioni - "Descarga Oriental" with Roberto Rodriquez, played really loud.

seconded !

[Dominic]

This - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mecNrIaWOA
and this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUnP1MvPZ3I
but also this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtqjmuUaYXA

[David Flower]

I'm particularly fond of Sarala from Hank Jones Meets Cheick-Tidiane Seck and The Mandinkas on Gitanes or Verve. Deep and rolling and modern and old. You know your problems are very, very small.
.

this is one of the great recent albums I agree, and deserves to be much better known. Not so much for cheering up necessarily but the perfect matching music for one of those perfect times, alone of in good company, when you just want the right music on

[David Flower]

PS Keys player Cheikh Tidiane Seck was a major part of that album 'Sarala' . His Hammond sounds just perfect whenever it appears. He also was MD for Dee Dee Bridgewater's Malian album which is on at the Barbican next week. I expect he'll be in the band. He's a bit of a musical genius I reckon, in a quiet background way

[Kirin]

anything by Nusrat ...

I've got In Concert In Paris Vol. 1 playing at the moment, and I think that if I'd needed cheering up this would have done it.

If I wanted to lift my spirits, I'd put on the helium gerbil sound of MiniMoni singing, "Moshi moshi moshi! Hello hello hello!" on Telephone! Ring Ring Ring! or whatsisname from the Butthole Surfers growling "Ding a ding dang my dang a long ling long," in his role as guest vocalist on Ministry's Jesus Built my Hot Rod, or the Reverend Horton Heat threatening to get drunk and shoot himself in the head on Loaded Gun or everyone in Orchestra Baobab being creamily Orchestra Baobab on El Son Te Llama, or a Kyrgyz man named A. Dzhumabaev (who may have lived and died without recording another thing in his life, ever) singing a song called Ak Manday on the Central Asia album from Yazoo's Secret History of the World series. They all cheer me up.

[Nick Boyes]

For me its these in this order

'Kelimanta' Daby Toure never quite get the clapping right

'Riverside' Culture great spluttering reggae and I think the words might make sense !

'Sarah' Tabu Ley Rochereau 11 mins to get the kettle on , the cup that cheers

'Tekere' Salif Keita featured on one of CG's compilations and sent me off into a whole new world, good for old man dancing

and finally 'Youre The First , The Last, My Everything' Barry White I know but he always cheers me up and his 80's concerts gave me some wide grin moments. I then drift off into Mowtown and Philly soul until bedtime

[Ted]

Search and Destroy - Iggy and The Stooges

[Rob Hall]

Thinking about it, I'm not sure if I play music with the aim of changing my mood; rather, I'll play something that reflects it. If I'm feeling pensive and maybe a little glum, I'll probably play some classical music that has a clear, uncluttered beauty, such as Chopin's Nocturnes. If I'm doing something active, such as decorating the lounge or building a bookcase, then I'll play lively stuff, maybe classic RnB stuff from the 50s and 60s, or old party tapes full of soul standards.

[howard male]

All music that I love cheers me up, even sad music. So back in, say, 1976, even 'Berlin' would cheer me up in a funny, twisted kind of way. But if you really twisted my arm I'd have to say 'Jeepster' by T. Rex or just about any Thomas Mapfumo track.

What most recently cheered me up no end, was seeing the film 'Standing in the Shadows of Motown' again - just to hear how good brand new, live versions of those sublime, life-enhancing songs could sound.

[Des]

Thinking about it, I'm not sure if I play music with the aim of changing my mood; rather, I'll play something that reflects it. If I'm feeling pensive and maybe a little glum, I'll probably play some classical music that has a clear, uncluttered beauty, such as Chopin's Nocturnes. If I'm doing something active, such as decorating the lounge or building a bookcase, then I'll play lively stuff, maybe classic RnB stuff from the 50s and 60s, or old party tapes full of soul standards.

I agree that sometimes it is good to have yoiur mood reflected rather than changed. I don't want to bear my soul too much (but we're all friends here!) when I heard that my Mum had died I turned to Bach - the 1st book of the '48'. It seemed to be the perfect music for facing the reality of mortality and doing so with utter dignity.

There that's cheered you all up hasn't it? Where's my Kanda Bongo Man CD?