I’ve had a bad week with that little fecker of a black dog. Bastard keeps nipping at my heels.
I have certain songs that I go to when he’s around, but this is always the one that soothes my soul.
It is my comfort blanket.
Come on then you lot. Let’s do an old fashioned Friday night thread of songs that you go to when life is getting you down.
What is your comfort blanket?
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dai says
Hope you feel better soon.
niallb says
Gorgeous.
fentonsteve says
Keep your pecker up, old chap, and take a trip with our Pet.
niallb says
Always makes me think of my Mum, who would dance around the kitchen to it, in the 60’s. Thanks.
fitterstoke says
This one puts a smile on my face, irrespective of my prevailing mood…..works without fail….
niallb says
My fave Tull song. Ta.
Moose the Mooche says
Drop the needle anywhere on the mighty Stephen Duffy and his mighty Lilac Time’s mighty album Keep Going…
Would have had the title track (it’s not on YT) but this is just as good.
PS the recent No Sad Songs is a good prescription too. All the best Mr niall.
niallb says
Lovely, thank you.
Lemonhope says
Sometimes I just need to remember
niallb says
Classic Van, with added Brian Kennedy. Perfect.
monsignorbonehead says
This fella normally does it for me. All the best Niall
niallb says
Yes, he has that knack with me too.
Locust says
This track is one of a handful that will instantly make me cry, and I won’t stop until it finishes. I will also start crying if I hum it to myself, and just thinking about this song gives me tears in my eyes…
I don’t know why it has such a strong impact on me, but it’s like a big emotional dagger being run through my heart. Tears of both immense happiness and a deep sadness that I can’t quite grab hold of. So as much as I love it and think it’s a work of genius, I wouldn’t listen to it if I was being visited by the black dog!
For that I’d turn to disco or funk or afrobeat, something I could dance my worries away to.
Ahh_Bisto says
This one has stood me in good stead in recent years.
Lovers come and lovers go
Friends are hard to find
Guess I can count all mine on one finger
So I sing for everyone who feels there’s no way out
So maybe if you all shout someone will hear you
Listen to them shout
Kevin Ayers – Shouting In A Bucket Blues
niallb says
Blimey, haven’t heard that in yonks. Lovely.
fitterstoke says
Or this aptly titled ditty:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=p60Wm9xy7Cg
retropath2 says
Oddly, it is dirges that cheer me up, when serotonin plummets, reaching back into ye olde englishe songe booke. Knowing most here would sooner have that dog over than listen to that, judging by posts I may have included such in. So here is a milder one, vintage RT, back with the codgers for a TV special.
niallb says
New one on me. I see what you mean though. Hypnotic.
Barry Blue says
More, perhaps, a response to broken-heart state than depression (though they’re often bedfellows, but this does it every time for me. I’ve chosen the live option because there’s a sense that the band themselves twig, midway, that this is their best song, the one that truly touches:
niallb says
Never been a Blur fan but agree this is their best song. Ta.
Rigid Digit says
If I need a lift, these are my two “go to” tracks
Faces – Stay With Me
Stevie Wonder – Superstition
(In fact, the whole of Talking Book aint a bad blanket)
Rigid Digit says
The other “relieving the lows” track is this one – a sort of mantra/reminder:
Stiff Little Fingers – My Dark Places
also available in acoustic variant:
niallb says
A band I was in used to cover Stay With Me. My happiest time behind a drum kit was playing that. Magical.
niallb says
Superstition has my favourite brass/bass riff ever written. Wonderful.
Beezer says
Paul Brady – One More Today
niallb says
Oh, Beez, our lovely Paul Brady. Beautiful version.
fishface says
Played to death by everyone everywhere but The Boys are Back In Town can always lift me out of a fug.
“Won’t be long till summer comes…now that the boy’s are here again”
niallb says
70’s, battered Mk2 Cortina, big old cassette player on the back seat, booming out The Boys Are Back in Town, The Cowboy Song and Rosalie. ‘Appy days.
davebigpicture says
That Cortina. was it grey?
https://youtu.be/MK10exPKN6s
If so, I believe it should have been Springsteen playing on an 8 track.
niallb says
Ha! No, a revolting orange colour. £300, shared with my brother.
Tiggerlion says
Peter Gabriel’s Solisbury Hill never fails to uplift me. I hope it works for you, Niall.
niallb says
Funny, it popped up few days ago and I hadn’t heard it in years. Not only is it a truly uplifting song but it sounds fantastic. I find I am transported back to when it first came out and how different it sounded to anything else.
Tiggerlion says
It’s a great, timeless song. Hard to believe it’s over forty years old.
This link articulates ten reasons why it’s great far better than I can.
https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/7702117/peter-gabriel-solsbury-hill-anniversary-greatest-song
Declan says
Not a knees up, Niall, but you’ll know it, great song
https://youtu.be/LOEQ9YXQZPE
Here’s another
And one more
niallb says
I used to hate Ode To Billy Joe, because it was bloody everywhere when it came out. Like feckin’ Where Do You Go To My Lovely, you couldn’t get away from it. Now? It’s a brilliantly written song, sung with the perfect level of distracted emotion. (Not so, WDYGTML, still shite.)
Pajp says
Weightlifting by the Trashcan Sinatras always does it for me: the refrain of “you will find a great weight lifting” combined with the gorgeous harmonies and a lovely tune.
I also find the promo very evocative. It reminds me of being a child, which is comforting even though I am no doubt looking back through rose-tinted spectacles.
All the best.
niallb says
Gorgeous. I have it on a freebie CD from Mojo or Uncut. Properly hypnotic, like the best Josh Rouse songs (I can give no higher praise.)
aging hippy says
My go-to cheer up album these days is Ronnie Lane’s Kuschty Rye – The Singles 1973-1980. I particularly love the title track which, of course, isn’t on youtube but Slim Chance’s version (minus Ronnie) will have to do.
niallb says
A beautiful album. I could easily have posted Roll On Babe in the OP. Great shout.
salwarpe says
Spiral Down, by the Cowboy Junkies. Margo Timmins’ voice is soft, consoling, numbing, the strummed guitar keeps the pace steady, but it’s the violin riff that cuts through, like a run of hot water into a gradually cooling bath. It’s both a calming and a mildly disconcerting song. All the best for you, Niall.
Charlie Gordon says
Again hardly an upper on the surface but I find the lyrics very positive
retropath2 says
Hah! Certainly fits my definition of an uplifting dirge. Absolutely love the song. Jorma wrote it about the break-up of his marriage, even tho’ the words sound as if they are about the looking on the positive side of a death. Up there with Townes’ Tower Song to lift you up after a parting.