I need your help. A friend of mine is an executive at a company with a large salesforce, and, for the upcoming sales conference, each executive has to come up with a motivational song to include on a CD that will be given out to the thousand-plus salespeople.
Can you come up with anything? Anything you listen to to get you in the right frame of mind to kick some writing ass? Or that you work out to? Or that you put on your iPod before you go out wilding? Please advise. And soon. I need to get back to her in the next week or so.
9 comments:
"Straight Outta Compton," N.W.A.
"20th Century Boy," T. Rex
"Run to the Hills," Iron Maiden
"A Salty Salute," Guided by Voices
"Open Your Eyes," Snow Patrol
"Stacked Actors," Foo Fighters
"Ace of Spades," Motorhead
"Mama Said Knock You Out," LL Cool J
"Don't Believe the Hype," Public Enemy
"Up Against the Wall You Redneck Mothers," Jerry Jeff Walker
"Fight Like a Brave," RHCP
"Waiting Room," Fugazi
"1969," Iggy and the Stooges
"Killing in the Name of," Rage Against the Machine
"Jailbreak," AC/DC
"Hot for Teacher," Van Halen
"Positive Bleeding," Urge Overkill
"Bastards of Young," Replacements
"Mandy," Barry Manilow
(this is a mix I have in my car, for getting pumped for work -- I usually turn it on when I hit the bridge).
"Where the streets have no name" by U2 always gets me feeling revved up and ready to attain benchmarks and achieve traction.
"Volare" by the Gipsy Kings is a good one for envelope pushing and thinking outside the box.
And when I need to leverage my assets, I find "Sweet Emotion" by Aerosmith strangely stirring.
But when I want to really, say, fuel a paradigm shift or change the terms of the dialogue, there's nothing like Eminem's "Lose Yourself"
And "We Can't Dance," by Genesis makes me really want to fuck things up, but for probably non-motivational reasons.
LOL, nothing fires up the sales force like NWA.
Okay, having been to enough of these things to know what kind of acceptable rebellion is allowed, a few suggestions:
AC/DC, "Back in Black." -- Can be worked in as the company getting "back in the black."
U2 is usually a good choice because so many like them. "Where the Streets" is good, "Elevation" works, as does "Beautiful Day" if they are celebrating a good year.
The Cars "Just What I Needed" or "Good Times Roll." "Shake It Up" works if they're doing some restructuring.
David Bowie/Queen "Under Pressure."
Fleetwood Mac, "Don't Stop" (although the Clinton overuse could annoy omnipresent Republicans)
Franz Ferdinand, "Take Me Out" -- no real theamtic link, but the beat really pumps you up.
Smashing Pumpkins, "Today"
Thin Lizzy, "The Boys Are Back in Town" (only if the sales force is heavily male)
Tom Petty, "Learning to Fly" or "I Won't Back Down"
SER - you must tell your friend that making a thousand copies of the planned CD is illegal unless they get copyright clearance!
"Ready to Go' by Republica was our rallying-sales-song-of-choice at BMG.
You guys are the best. And re: PJKM's question, the company is in a business that relates to the legal profession, so they will be on the up-and-up with respect to rights. Don't sic MSF on them!
That makes it much easier:
"Breaking the Law," Judas Priest
"Jailbreak," AC/DC
"18 and Life," Skid Row
"Murder was the Case," Snoop Dogg
"Bulls on Parade," Rage Against the Machine
"Lawyers, Guns, and Money," Warren Zevon
"Philadelphia Lawyer," Woody Guthrie
"I Fought the Law," The Clash
"California Uber Alles," The Dead Kennedys
"EMI," The Sex Pistols
Anything off of Fountains of Wayne's "Welcome Interstate Managers"
"Future's So Bright, I've Got to Wear Shades," Timbuk 3
"Big Time," Peter Gabriel
"Dissident," Pearl Jam
"Step into my Office," Belle and Sebastian
"Mo Money, Mo Problems," The Notorious BIG
"Fuck Like a Beast," WASP
They're probably not interested in a song that begins "I lo-ove you Jesus Christ, yes I do," but once you get past that part "King of Carrot Flowers, Part Two." is one I like to listen to as I sit down to write.
Lyrically, all the following are probably also inappropriate.
Dictators "I Stand Tall"
Billy Bragg "Fear is a Man's Best Friend" (Might work better under the threat of layoffs).
Something by Sly Stone (anything)
Jean Knight "Don't Talk about Jody" possibly only useful if there is someone named Jody in the room. Ok, ok- I'm only putting this on here because it is my favorite song these days.
Another great possibility- the Me First and the Gimme Gimmes do inoffensive, energetic punk covers of pop standards.
There's a list of 20+ positive songs here (includes lyrics and videos)...
http://freemusiclyricsandvideos.blogspot.com
Have fun!
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