Two songs that pick me up

Two songs that, when I need an instant pick-me-up, do the trick. Reading the news these days, a pick-me-up is sometimes required.


In cleaning up my office on late Friday afternoon I came across some stuff I had written back in 2007.  Yes, I've been writing all the time for a long time.  My writing has been, for a number of years, a combination of on-line (well going back to when on-line first existed), some of it was the old pen & paper stuff.  Anyway, reading those few pages from years ago reminded me of how in life you though phases of nothing changing and then everything changing.  As for me,well, I'm grateful for it all.  In the end, "wining" isn't about having toys, or big houses, fancy titles or "power" (whatever the Hell that is...), but it's a state of mind.  Hearing this song by Santana reminds me of that fact all the time.



I just can't listen to this song without smiling.  It just has that "instant happy" kind of feel to it.  It also has just this incredibly catchy first few bars at the beginning that just bring you in for the rest of the tune.  I've always thought that George Harrison was a very interesting songwriter in that if you look at his catalog, you see the usual list of throw-aways, but then he comes up with these songs that are, well, just genius.  Zero to hero kind of stuff.  Think of this song, "Something", "Here Comes the Sun", "My Sweet Lord" and a few others. Interestingly enough, I really hadn't paid too much attention to the lyrics of this song until I found this specific video on YouTube.

Speaking of relatively unknown George Harrison songs, here's one from the Concert for George...

The vocals are by Sam Brown, who just belts the heck out of the song.  The piano playing is courtesy of Jools Holland.  I own a copy of the Concert for George, and pound for pound it's one of the best concert films ever.  Highly recommended.