🎵 Monthly Song Challenge 🎵

Day 17: A song that feels like spring
This one seems quite obvious.

But it runs a bit deeper than that for me. I was in Vienna in 2002 and as luck would have it I was invited to view a chamber orchestra perform The Four Seasons at the Imperial (Hofburg) Palace. This was to be performed in the same antechamber where Mozart would entertain the Royals and their selected guests. For this performance, there were no more than 100 guests and the acoustics were perfect. I don't want to overstate the moment, but this was the most moving musical experience of my life. To listen to world-class musicians perform (yes I know it was Vivaldi) in the same room where Mozart entertained the Royals was for me very much a celestial experience, complete with chills running the length of my spine frequently. This memory is vivid and will never leave me.

Vivaldi- La Primavera- from The Four Seasons.

 
Day 17: A song that feels like spring

Freaking languages... Spring, antecedent to summer. Or, coiled loops of metal. In Swedish it means Run. In German it means Jump. Come to think of it, it means Jump in English too. Spring into action.

I dunno. I got nothing. I'm cold 😭

Rammstein - Spring

 
Day 17: A song that feels like spring

Freaking languages... Spring, antecedent to summer. Or, coiled loops of metal. In Swedish it means Run. In German it means Jump. Come to think of it, it means Jump in English too. Spring into action.

I dunno. I got nothing. I'm cold 😭

Rammstein - Spring

I have no idea what the lyrics say but I'm digging that hammering guitar. To me, it seems more like winter than the coiled metal, but I am really getting into this song.
 
I have no idea what the lyrics say but I'm digging that hammering guitar. To me, it seems more like winter than the coiled metal, but I am really getting into this song.
It's a pretty depressing song. It's about a man who wants to claw his way out of the grime and the muck. But the people around him watch as he climbs towards the light, and they get jealous. They want to tear him down, or he might get what they'll never have. "JUMP!" they scream, but he keeps climbing. The narrator can't take it anymore, climbs up after the man, and kicks him back down into the grime. Into the muck.

"I only wanted to see the view..."
 
A Song That Feels Like Spring

A lot of different covers of this song. This woman was born in France, raised in Connecticut, lives in Montreal, does songs in both English and French. I’ve spent a lot of time in Paris, so this reminds me of a couple of springs there.

 
Tomorrow is a tough day for me. I’ll probably talk a little about it with my song post.
Having a hard time wording this prompt. I want to focus on mental health, but I really don’t want any depressing or pessimistic songs about it.
If you know positive/hopeful songs about mental health, please share one of them. Otherwise, just share a song that makes you feel good when you need it.

Day 18: A song with an uplifting effect on or a positive message about mental health
 
Day 17: A song that feels like Spring

Up in this part of the US, spring is one of those things where it means finally, after 5 months or more, opening the fucking windows again. It meant sundresses and skirts finally coming back out. Finally getting back outside to practice and play, and do all the things. And there's just a...vibe that it means to very middle of the road, boring white folks like me. So here, nothing represents that more than this.

 
Tomorrow is a tough day for me. I’ll probably talk a little about it with my song post.
Having a hard time wording this prompt. I want to focus on mental health, but I really don’t want any depressing or pessimistic songs about it.
If you know positive/hopeful songs about mental health, please share one of them. Otherwise, just share a song that makes you feel good when you need it.

Day 18: A song with an uplifting effect on or a positive message about mental health

There's no truly appropriate reaction to go with this, but I'm sending hugs. Take good care of yourself.
 
I've told this story before. My favorite book is Emma Bull's War for the Oaks, one of the first, if not the first, urban fantasy, which has a rock and roll singer get drafted against her will into the war between the Seelie and Unseelie Courts in modern Minneapolis. The city is as much a character in the book as any person. And being the book goblin I am, I went on a vacation based around my favorite book. I wanted to see some of the places first hand, and one of the main locations is the legendary First Avenue, one of the greatest rock and roll venues in the US. I got there in the early evening on a Tuesday, I think (weekends were way too crowded). It was slow, and I got a table, a two-top in the Mainfloor with no problems, and settled in to see where the climactic battle in the book took place. I grabbed dinner and took notes, annotating a copy of the novel, and was having the geeky time of my life. There was a live band scheduled to play that night with a wacky name I don’t remember. I wasn’t there to pay attention to the band -- I was absorbed with Eddie and the Fey. Well, the band came out with these wild outfits and huge glasses and hats. A roadie comes out with someone wrapped in blankets with a huge knit hat covering most of his face, wheeled out on a hand truck. Interesting. They hand him a guitar, and the opening riff of "When Doves Cry" screams out. As the roadie walks off, he pulled off the hat and it was fucking Prince.

He was working on things for a new tour, and so he and a few of his band would show up at clubs and play under a pile of weird names. It was very minimalist (I had seen him with his full road show back in 85). Within ten minutes, the place was jammed, throat to elbow. It was one of the most amazing shows I have ever seen, and I had a table to do so.

Prince is only mentioned twice in the book, my favorite being:

“Maybe. All I know is, this kid’s cuter than Prince when he wants to be.”
“No one is cuter than Prince.”

…but I still end up humming this song when I read it. He performed it with just piano and minimal drums. I am in a mood, so I found the version from Muppets Tonight, which, for me at least, single-handedly justified that show's existence. It fits one of the Purple One's sweetest songs.

"Starfish and Coffee," Prince

Rizzo and Prince! Yes, thank you ❤️
 
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