Quite literally...

Music weaves a narrative through much of our lives and informs and influences the way we feel about different situations in life. What’s great is that with my music collection at my fingertips in my ipod, I can now play the most literal song to complement my reality.

If I am digging in the garden, I can put on Peter Gabriel’s Digging in the Dirt. If I am being strangled by an escaped mentally deranged convict, I’ll cue up Eyes of the Insane by Slayer. Just imagine if there was some crazy apocalyptic meltdown where blood rained from the sky – it’d be amazing if I cued up Raining Blood by Slayer followed by Red Rain by Peter Gabriel. What a perfect day that would be… except for, y’know, the blood falling from the sky.

So I’ve been thinking about this and would like to make some song recommendations for your daily life.

1. Wash Me – The Grates: Wash Me is the perfect tempo for washing and scrubbing yourself in the shower. If you have a loofa, all the better.

2. We Walk - The Ting Tings: I’m almost shocked that a song called We Walk could be so effective for walking at a brisk pace

3. Roadrunner – The Modern Lovers: Like We Walk, this song surprisingly effective although more for jogging than running. However, in my case the difference between walking/jogging/running is debatable.

4. Acid Food – Mogwai: Perfect for any dinner party where you’re eating acid.

5. November Rain – Guns N’ Roses: Perfect for standing in the rain in November. However, Axl wasn’t lying when he said it was hard to hold a candle in the cold November rain. Actually, it’s hard to hold a candle in the rain in any month but I guess no one's going to argue with Axl about this technicality.

6. Sweet Emotion – Aerosmith: There’s no better song when you’re having a sweet emotion (that one is for Claire).

7. Killer Queen – Queen: When you’re hanging out with a cross dresser called Bob who keeps talking about killing people with laser beams. Happens more often than you think.

8. Burning Down The House - Talking Heads: Perfect for barn burning but any acts of pyromania go with this song.

9. Pretty much any Dead Kennedy’s song: These guy’s wrote the book on literal songs with Let’s Lynch The Landlord, Take This Job and Shove It, Kill The Poor and Riot.

All good fun but you have to be careful though because literal songs don’t always work. I listened to Holiday in Cambodia when I was on holiday in Cambodia – it was lame, obvious and embarrassing. Be careful out there.

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