By The Landlord
"The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” – Mark Twain
“Time goes on. So whatever you're going to do, do it. Do it now.” – Robert De Niro
“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius
“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times. It's not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential. As you think, so shall you become.” – Bruce Lee
Happy New Year to you all! So, in 2020, what stops us from just curling up in bed, or staying on the sofa, eating lots of sugary, indulgent foods, and watching endless TV? Well, um, not much to be honest over the past week in my case, but of course that’s changing right now. I’m motivated by time, by a deadline, by a sense of obligation, by responsibility, by an expectation, by other people, namely you, learned Song Bar visitors. The floor must be swept, the surfaces cleaned, the pumps changed, a lick of paint here and there, and the place refreshed so that when the doors reopen in this new year, you will feel welcome, and also motivated yourselves.
But what else motivates us most to twitch into life of a morning? A need to survive, to continue our place in the world? By love, sex, money, and all that brings? By family and what they need? Is it a hardwired drive, or something we are more conscious of, and can control? Are we also motivated by how we are educated and influenced, that for example, because it is a new year now, and numerically at least, if not technically, a new decade, that things must change, be better? Well certainly they should, but how long will that last? Until next week, or next month? And where does that need come from? And is it all a matter of perception?
So might these be new year resolutions, revelations or revolutions? Whether it’s for love, money, survival, fear, shame, self-respect or more, let’s open 2020 with songs that may motivate, but ideally also tell us where that comes from.
Is motivation always driven by happiness (by the mojo - motivation joy) or other, darker forces? Some of the most motivated people are driven by past failure or hurt, after all, or poverty. People in business can have motivation at the highest levels can be psychopathic, but under more obvious spotlight, sports stars, and performers, particularly actors and musicians, their motivation may come from having struggled for years to gain success, but are compelled by insecurity, by anonymity, by the need to be noticed, the will to win.
But for many artists are driven by unhappiness, or a sense of being lost. Singer-songwriters such as Richard Hawley have confessed that they are doing this because they simply can’t do anything else. The much missed Chris Cornell said: “Oftentimes, especially in the context of an acoustic song, I'm motivated to write by some amount of melancholy.” The artist Gary Hume says: “My desire to be an artist really came out of being broke and unemployed and incapable of holding a job down. That's what it was driven by for sure.”
And of course motivation also comes from ideas, subjects, structures, craft. Two random artists who have popped in for a coffee today include Tori Amos, who says "I'm driven by the idea of characters and the song-cycle form is similar to a musical.”
Conor Oberst also identifies different motivations, not just professional pride. “I try to make all my songs good. I don't ever write one to finish one. A lot of protest songs end up that way, driven by some kind of emotional response.”
But ever present in motivation is also a lack of it. George Michael clearly knew what that was like: “I watch people who are not driven by creativity any more, and I think how dull it must be to produce the same kind of thing. If you don't feel you're reaching something new, then don't do it.”
Music itself is a great motivator, but as long as it makes you go somewhere new. To give it an interesting twist, some songs can motivate you in a way that’s not as expected. I used to go to a pub that at closing time would stick on Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana at top volume to drive people away. It mostly worked, but I loved it so much I tried to stay for as long as possible.
This reminds me also of that sequence in the book by and film about climber Joe Simpson, Touching The Void, after the near-fatal climb of Siula Grande in the Cordillera Huayhuash in the Peruvian Andes, in 1985, where Simpson, crawling miles with a broken leg to get back to camp, felt death was near, and began to hear Brown Girl In the Ring by Boney M over and over again, driving him so mad he had to just keep going.
In a more comfortable, theoretical context, this leads me to actor George Clooney’s final choice on BBC’s Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs: William Shatner’s talky destruction of Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, not because George liked it but because would drive him to despair so much it motivate him ‘to hollow out your own leg to make a canoe out of just to get off this island.” A beautiful inversion of musical motivation.
George Clooney (left), motivated by William Shatner, but not in the way you might imagine
Some people might be motivated by the need for for health, but also so they can eat what they want. But we can’t all be Bruce Lee, or Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky sweating up that hill. Many of us are more basic, a bit like this:
The Family Guy motivational technique
Or Indeed these two, whose motivation certainly rings true:
But let’s get back to the music. It seems to me there are broadly three kinds of songs about, or inspiration motivation: those that motivate others, those that motivate themselves, and those that tell others about their motivation. And these often merge. So to help motivate myself, and anyone else coming to the Bar today, here’s a selection, most of which have come up in other topics. And what links most of them? Love.
Starting gently, here’s Wreckless Eric, trying to motivate himself in 1974, finally released three years later on the Stiff label.
“When I was a young boy
My mama said to me
There's only one girl in the world for you
And she probably lives in Tahiti
I'd go the whole wide world
I'd go the whole wide world
Just to find her.”
And here is Bill Withers, declaring, and devoting his motivation to someone else:
“When the day that lies ahead of me
Seems impossible to face
When someone else instead of me
Always seems to know the way
Then I look at you
And the world's alright with me.”
And can there be any more sublime motivation than in this song written by Nickolas Ashford & Valerie Simpson in 1966, here sung by Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell?
“There ain't no mountain high enough
Ain't no valley low enough
Ain't no river wide enough
To keep me from getting to you babe.”
Of course on a more political as well a s personal level, there’s the more defiant Chumbawumba with Tubthumping’s “I get knocked down, but I get up again, You are never gonna keep me down”, but perhaps most powerfully imperative motivation songs, with the weight of history behind it, is that of Bob Marley:
“Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up, don't give up the fight!”
I hope then, that this offers a little motivation, and inspiration to open the first topic of 2020. And taking position behind the pumps, I’d like to welcome back one of our newest, and expertly enthusiastic guest guru’s to help guide you and motivate you to contribute towards eventual playlists, DJ Bear aka PopOff! Place you motivating / motivation songs on comments below for deadline at 11pm last orders UK time on Monday, for playlists published on Wednesday. Let’s do it.
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