Joyous Music.

[Des Nilsen]

Right now I'm listening to Jimi Hendrix with his Band Of Gypsys live at the Fillmore East on disk one of the two disk set. It's track one - a barnstorming, monster live version of 'Stone Free'.
It makes me feel so happy and alive to hear Jimi play a truly heartfelt solo and vamp along to Billy Cox and Buddy Miles' solid rhythm section.
It's fantastic, gorgeous, life-affirming music. I couldn't do without it.

So, you can go on about the music that, for you, makes listening to it truly worthwhile. What makes you feel totally happy and on top of the world?

-

[Ciarán2]

Sorry, but....

SMiLE!

[TraceyQ]

Cocteau Twins, more than definitely. I've taken to having early nights after smoking a funny fag to lie in my bed, surrounded by cushions, listening to "Treasures" on my ipod. Absolutely delightful and utterly life-affirming.

[non capisco]

Double post, so I'll nominate another

The 'ice is slowly melting' bit in 'Here Comes The Sun'. A real hairs-on-the-back-of-your-neck thing.

[non capisco]

The riff in the middle of 'In Caliente' by Reverend Horton Heat.

[TraceyQ]

The riff in the middle of 'In Caliente' by Reverend Horton Heat.

Weeeee!! you've heard this too? Isnt it magnificent? Do you have the Fourty-Fives? It's great!1 I'm overexcited!!!111oneoneoneonethousandonehundredandeleven!

[non capisco]

The riff in the middle of 'In Caliente' by Reverend Horton Heat.

Weeeee!! you've heard this too? Isnt it magnificent? Do you have the Fourty-Fives? It's great!1 I'm overexcited!!!111oneoneoneonethousandonehundredandeleven!

Yeah, it's killer, ain't it? Never seen 'em live, mind. Should imagine it's quite something.

[Neil]

Good Stevie Wonder stuff, everyone always mentions Innervisions and Songs In The Key Of Life, but Talking Book has some belters too.  For individual tunes, Don't Look Back by Teenage Fanclub*, September Gurls and Thirteen by Big Star, I Am The Cosmos and You And Your Sister by Chris Bell, WOW, also Brass Buttons by Gram Parsons.  Back In Black by AC/DC also really does it for me, that wet posh girl from Big Brother went up in my estimation when it transipred that this was the track she had chosen for her best bits.   Oh and Two Sisters and Situation Vacant by The Kinks.  

* Loads of Teenage Fanclub really, the acoustic version of The Shadows, Ain't That Enough, The Concept, Sparky's Dream, I Don't Want Control Of You etc, I hope the new album is a belter.

[non capisco]

'Broken' by the Fannies is lovely.

[Mr Colossal]

The cures 'inbetween days' always sounds really joyous when it kicks in... And a lot of upbeat ska-punk like Goldfinger - Superman does.

A few dance/trance classic like Energy 52 - Cafe Del Mar , and Southside Spinners - Love Struck.

There are two or three Beethoven songs that fit the bill as well (Theres probably loads of classicals actually ), i just  don't remember the names...

Hang on i'll go check, got the CD upstairs somewhere.

Edit:

The 'presto Agitato' of the Moonlight Sonata

and

'Allegro Con Brio' of Pathetique.

The second more than the first...Im undecided wether they feel more frantic than  joyous though.

[Dr David V]

The cures 'inbetween days' always sounds really joyous when it kicks in...

Bollocks, beaten to it. I feel all depressed now. God, how can I cheer myself up?

[Mr Colossal]

go lock yourself in a soft sell and listen to 'zippedy-doo-dah' on repeat until your smiling like Esther Rantzen.

[Robot Devil]

The Smashing Pumpkins - 1979
The Knack - My Sharona
Polaris - Hey Sandy (Otherwise known as the theme tune to the old Nickelodeon show "The Adventures of Pete and Pete)

I implore everyone to seek that last one out, it is just an amazing song.

[Des Nilsen]

The Knack - My Sharona

Yyyyyyyyou beauty!

That has such an infectious bass riff! I borrowed the phrasing of that for one of my own chord progressions. Good call Robot Devil.

More from me... Later on the same Hendrix CD there's perhaps THE best live version of 'Hear My Train A' Comin'', which Hendrix has performed time and again and refined and so on.
The Band Of Gypsys version is heavy as anything, and seemed totally realised as a song, rather than a jam or whatever.

Also, the lovely 'making it up as they go along' quality to the organ riff, and pretty much the rest of 'Tarred & Feathered' by the Cardiacs and various other bits and bobbles. It's the exhilaration of it really.

-

[Duffy]

Some of mine:

- The bit in the middle of "Complete Control" where Strummer exclaims: "This is Joe Public ... SPEAKING!!"
- Just about every last minute of "Pet Sounds"
- The piano break in "Heartbreak Hotel"
- The first side of "What's Going On"
- "This Ol' Heart Of Mine" by the Isley Brothers
- "Higher than the Sun" (album version)
- The intro to "Another Girl, Another Planet"
- "Sreet Spriti/Fade Out"
- "Everybody's Happy Nowadays"/"Love You More"/"What Do I Get" and a whole bunch more where they came from
- An obsure blues 78 called "Last Kind Word Blues" by Geechie Wiley. This was featured in the soundtrack to the film "Crumb", and is somehow both scary and life-affirming at the same time.

And if you wanna bit o' classical, Mozart's Requiem, Mahler's 5th or Sibelius' "Valse Triste".

[Ciarán2]

Most JOYFUL record I own is probably "Very" by Pet Shop Boys. The perfect pop album, I'm saying. Music I put on before going out for an evening tends to be joyful (and triumphant) like what I've been listening tonight...

An Él Records compilation called "Sunshine 99"
"Diana (deluxe edition)" by Diana Ross
Scissors Sisters' album
Madonna "Immaculate Collection" (if "Into The Groove" isn't joyous I don't know what is.

For joyful, read gay where I'm concerned I suppose!

[fanny splendid]

I'm just listening to 'Racing The Tide' by Mercury Rev. That's pretty uplifting.

I don't suppose any other Mercury Rev fans out there have David Baker's solo album, 'Shady World'?

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

Sally MacLennane by The Pogues:

I played the pump and took the hump and watered whiskey down
I talked of whores and horses to the men who drank the brown
I heard them say that Jimmy's making money far away
And some people left for heaven without warning

[Joy Nktonga]

I mentioned here Tilly and the Wall's fantastic happy-clappy-masking-some-dark-lyrics album, Wild Like Children. Might as well be in the dictionary as the definition of "joyous".

Piney Gir's "Greetings Salutations Goodbye" has me singing along, rushing like a chemical's never made me.

For a beautiful, spiritual* joy just about anything from Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's catalogue.

Lastly, Spiritualized's Ladies and Gentlemen... gives me a similar feeling. Each time I hear it, which isn't often as I don't own it for some reason, I feel almost cleansed somehow.

*Not in any religious way. It's hard to define without using religious imagery, but in the soul, if you get me.

[non capisco]

- The bit in the middle of "Complete Control" where Strummer exclaims: "This is Joe Public ... SPEAKING!!"

I see that Strummer ad lib and raise you 'el clash combo, available for weddings, parties, anything...and bongo jazz a speciality!'  from 'Revolution Rock'

and the the last line in the last verse of  'The Right Profile' where he gives up singing and just makes that gurgling noise.

and the 'Cost Of Living EP ' version of 'Capital Radio'
'The drummer's in the box office..counting all the MONEY!'

[Bogey]

Having been reminded of them yesterday night, I'd say The Wannadies are somewhat unbeatable on a summer's day on a country road in the car.
They're quite thrilling live too; completely unpretentious, almost childlike gay abandon. Big big smiles. You don't get much of that.
Not twee.

[Ambient Sheep]

Cocteau Twins, more than definitely. I've taken to having early nights after smoking a funny fag to lie in my bed, surrounded by cushions, listening to "Treasures" on my ipod. Absolutely delightful and utterly life-affirming.

I'm glad you're enjoying them.  :-)

But if you think "Treasure" is good (which it is), you should now try the next thing they did: the "Tiny Dynamine" and "Echoes In a Shallow Bay" EPs.  They were their first major work after "Treasure", and really should have been their next album.  However the success of "Treasure" scared them, so they decided to sabotage themselves by sneaking the tracks out on two four-track 12" EPs a fortnight apart.  Idiots.  Nevertheless the best thing that they ever did IMHO.  The only problem is it's all downhill from there...

If you're buying, they're available on a single CD for £5.99 from Amazon here, or you should still be able to find it in the shops; despite the Amazon page being all third-parties as far as I know it's still available.  If you want to check out the tracks on Amazon I'd suggest #3 and #5 for starters (although I haven't listened to their extracts myself so don't know if they're the best bits).  Sadly #6 isn't up there.

Anyway, absolutely essential, even if the CD is so badly mastered that you hear the tape machine being turned on too late at the start of track 5!!!

(Thinks: when he gets the equipment he must encode his vinyl pressings.)

[Ambient Sheep]

Meanwhile I recently found an old cassette I made back in about '85 or so of all the various mixes of Dr. Mabuse by Propaganda.  It hasn't come out of my car stereo since.  Brilliant stuff to put a smile on your face and a brisk purpose to your day.

[Ciarán2]

Nevertheless the best thing that they ever did IMHO.  The only problem is it's all downhill from there...

Nooooo!! I seem to be the only person in the world who loves "Heaven Or Las Vegas" and particularly "Four Calendar Café" - which is lovely, lovely lovely. Things like "Know Who You Are At Every Age" and "Bluebeard", ah they make me so happy. I love "Head Over Heels", "Treasure", "Victorialland", "Aikea Guinea" etc and yet "Four Calendar Café" is my fave of their records. At the moment.

[Dirty Boy]

-The endless spiraling outro riff in 'Instant Street' by the wonderful dEUS

-The last minute or so of  Jeff Buckley's 'Grace'.The orchestral crashing and other worldly wailing...Oh yes!

-The utter madness that erupts in the last couple of minutes in 'Fiery Gun Hand' by Cardiacs :) :)

-'My Baby Is A Headfuck' by the Wildhearts.The most rock'n'roll guitar solo i've ever heard crashing into some honky tonk piano and then a mass chorus of "HEADFUCK HEADFUCK HEADFUCK HEADFUCK...etc" :) :) :)

[Ambient Sheep]

Nevertheless the best thing that they ever did IMHO.  The only problem is it's all downhill from there...

Nooooo!! I seem to be the only person in the world who loves "Heaven Or Las Vegas" and particularly "Four Calendar Café" - which is lovely, lovely lovely.

Don't get me wrong...it's a gentle downward slope in my opinion, not a steep hill.  I *like* them all, and I'm rather fond of Heaven Or Las Vegas (less so Four Calendar Café, sorry!) but to me they just don't have the indefinable magic of that mid-period stuff.

What I was really trying to say to TQ was: once you've listened to TD/EiaSB, do be prepared for the fact that you might never hear anything better ever again.

I could go on for ages about the Cocteaus, but if I start I won't stop typing for literally hours, and I can't unfortunately.  Maybe a new thread another time...

[Neil]

I thought of another one, Daydream by The Lovin' Spoonful!  Aaah, and it has whistling in it, which instantly makes it even more joyous.  That song leads to thoughts of Sunshine Superman by Donovan and Summertime by Mungo Jerry.  Oh and when I saw Situation Vacant by The Kinks it's specifically the "So to keep his little momma satisfied" bits really.  I just rediscovered the Something Else album recently, after not hearing it since I was a child, and it was like, I dunno, coming home on a cold night and finding a cuppa, a big bowl of stew and a hunk of buttered bread waiting for me.

[Sam]

The whole of "A Love Supreme", read Ashley Kahn's book about the album and be inspired.

I won't start listing classical music because I wouldn't be able to stop!

[chand]

I'm always elated by 'Mogwai Fear Satan', a genius lesson in how to essentially play 3 notes for 16 minutes and make it sound like the best idea you ever heard.

[Goldentony]

morrissey - everyday is like sunday

delightful.