Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

So fucking stupid, and still doing a tremendous amount of damage.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

Giving in to doom is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

To the privileged, equality seems like oppression.

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

No one could have predicted…

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Optimism opens the door to great things.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

Giving up is unforgivable.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

They spent the last eight months firing professionals and replacing them with ideologues.

You are here: Home / Medium Cool / Medium Cool – Celebration Songs!

Medium Cool – Celebration Songs!

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Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in.  We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.

Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered.  We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.

It seems impossible that the Democratic Convention started not quite a week ago – I had to check the dates because it feels like a lot of time has passed since the convention.  Is it just me who feels that way?

Anyway, tonight let’s share our favorite celebration songs!

No, we’re not prematurely celebrating a win in November.  But damn, we had a great convention and a great week, so let’s celebrate that with some great music!

So, celebration songs, and nominations for songs that Harris-Walz could or should use at their public events.

Reader Interactions

130Comments

  1. 1.

    Villago Delenda Est

    The University of Oregon fight song.  I’m sure Minnesota has one, does Howard?

  4. 4.

    Orange is the New Red

    My favorite “blast it in the car because I’m happy” song is Volunteers by Jefferson Airplane.

  8. 8.

    citizen dave

    @dmsilev: Recently watched this explainer of the 9th.  Nice animation and tongue in cheek humor alongside the facts.  I did not know how down and out Ludvig was for the 10 years before he wrote it.  youtu.be/iY2lPuWrhkU?si=zD-A7duO_2DECw_

    Also, copying the first comment under the video: Never forget that a format war over the size of the compact disc was settled by Sony and Phillips to 74 minutes so that a complete 9th Symphony would fit. So CDs are 120mm in diameter because of the greatest piece of music ever written.

  10. 10.

    MuSquared

    Reposting from a few days ago:  The Dollyrots regender “Holding Out for a Hero.”

    youtube.com/watch?v=aqHaBXMmBTo

    This was released earlier in the summer and must have been recorded no later than the spring, so the timing doesn’t work.  But every time I listen to this, I feel like it was recorded for Harris.

  15. 15.

    piratedan

    maybe we could consider an anti-anthem for the other ticket… perhaps George Thorogood’s Get a Haircut (and get a real job).

  20. 20.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    @dmsilev: Google added a beaker icon to it’s search page a while back that’s titled search labs.  It contains a silly game where you move the mouse back and forth while a giant bird plays the cello.  The first song is Ode to Joy.  It is very satisfying.

  27. 27.

    PAM Dirac

    Sister Sledge is hard for me. It is a great song, but it is also was the theme song for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1979 when they beat the Orioles in the World Series. Yes, yes it is impossible to hate Willie Stargell, but still. I was just starting graduate school at Johns Hopkins and I remember being so excited for the opening game and while sitting in class that morning I looked out the window and couldn’t quite figure out what I was seeing. It was snowing and the first game got snowed out.

  28. 28.

    Suzanne

    A less well-known one that always makes me feel uplifted is “These Days” by R.E.M.

    All the people gather, fly to carry each his burden
    We are young despite the years
    We are concern, we are hope despite the times
    All of a sudden, these days
    Happy throngs, take this joy wherever, wherever you go

  32. 32.

    cain

    Not exactly a celebration song but definitely one with good advice.

    My man Neil before he passed had this great song, crafted for MAGA

     

    Wish Them Well
    All that you can do is wish them wellAll that you can do is wish them well
    All that you can do is wish them wellAll that you can do is wish them well
    Spirits turned bitter by the poison of envyAlways angry and dissatisfiedEven the lost ones, the frightened and mean onesEven the ones with a devil inside
    Thank your stars you’re not that wayTurn your back and walk awayDon’t even pause and ask them whyTurn around and say goodbye
    All that you can do is wish them well(Wish them well)All that you can do is wish them well(Wish them well)

    youtu.be/1ns9BvYz8WE?feature=shared

  47. 47.

    different-church-lady

    I am not supposed to do this.

    I have been requested not to do this.

    But.

    J…F…C… it is goddamned unbelievable how the front pagers at LGM are just clinically unable to just be happy and enjoy this good fortune.

    (D-C-H +who the fuck is counting?)

  49. 49.

    hueyplong

    @different-church-lady: A-hole gonna a-hole. Might be that simple.

    I went over there for the first time in a while and was disappointed with myself for thinking it might be different after a cooling off period.

  54. 54.

    different-church-lady

    @banditqueen: Honestly. I dunno about toxic, but there really does seem to be something about the way the men feel the need to infinity-down and the women never went there in the first place.

  55. 55.

    KatKapCC

    Hmm, this might not be exactly on the nose, but I feel like Comme Des Garçons by Rina Sawayama could be a celebratory-type tune, fitting for MVP:

    I’m done waiting, anticipating
    Keep going and going (Going and going)
    Yeah, I’m just in it, born to win it
    Keep going and going
    Comme des garçons (Woo!)
    Like the boys, like the boys
    Comme des garçons
    I’m so confident
    Excuse my ego, can’t go incognito
    Every time you see me, it’s like winning big in Reno
    Don’t fuck with me, ho, take you down like judo
    Make it rain, I’m taking names from London to Meguro

    I mean…I would love it if she said to Trump in their debate, “Don’t fuck with me, ho”, but I’m guessing we won’t get that lucky :p

  56. 56.

    Almost Retired

    @HumboldtBlue: I like Flash Mobs.  Doesn’t seem to be a thing anymore.  Sure, we still have a version of flash mobs here in Los Angeles.  But swarming a Prada store and cleaning out the merchandise just doesn’t feel as joyful.

  63. 63.

    persistentillusion

    @HumboldtBlue: I was in a children’s choir that got voluntold into the children’s chorus of Carmen in the 70’s.  My recollection is that Maria Callas was Carmen.  The joys of growing up in a smallish city with high hopes.

  64. 64.

    lowtechcyclist

    All About Soul – Billy Joel

    This life isn’t fair, it’s gonna get dark, it’s gonna get cold
    You gotta get tough, but that ain’t enough, it’s all about soul
    .

  66. 66.

    prostratedragon

    @dmsilev:  The night the tanks rolled into Ukraine I attended my first live performance of tbis. The conductor made a small remark, and they went right to the only work on the program. It was the place to be.

  68. 68.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    We are the champions.  I went down a Queen rabbit hole the other night.  Always entertaining.

  70. 70.

    Nancy

    @Dangerman:

    Yup, that one makes me feel good. It’s pretty raw sex and that’s always celebratory.

    I like Chest Fever–The Band’s version. Three Dog Night was less good but still OK.

  71. 71.

    Nancy

    Great ideas. Now I have lots of songs in my head. But Dangerman might win. Maybe it’s their name.

  76. 76.

    Keith 1953

    When I think of a celebration song, it is I Just Want to Celebrate by Rare Earth. Great karaoke song, too.

  84. 84.

    Anotherlurker

    “The Mary Ellen Carter” by Stan Rogers.  Keep working in the face of adversity until you achieve your goal. I find this song very inspirational.

  96. 96.

    Chris

    @different-church-lady:

    First slowly, and then all at once?  I’ve been getting progressively more grossed out with the place for a while, and cut my commenting back noticeably over the last year and change compared to what it used to be.  Debategate was pretty much the straw that broke the camel’s back.

    The original triggering incident was when I spent a long weekend camping in a place with no Internet, and when I came back realized how much I didn’t miss LGM.  Which wouldn’t have been true just a couple years earlier; I used to come back and eagerly check what I’d missed.

  98. 98.

    DesertFriar

    This will weird, but “Purple Rain” as my youngest son and I are at the Meagan Rapinoe jersey retirement at the Seattle  Reign soccer game.

  99. 99.

    HumboldtBlue

    @NO one You Know:

    I can’t stand that goddamn song, and it’s not Pharell’s fault at all. Nope, it’s the fault of the Phillies, they used that fucking song as the intro and outro music during a recent season IIRC, and it now sits among songs done by the Chipmunks as making me want to commit heinous acts.

  100. 100.

    Chris

    @HumboldtBlue:

    I don’t hate the song, but it’s one of those songs that got overplayed to the point that most of the time I just change the station when it comes on.

    There’s a few of those, “Heat Waves” being probably my most hated.

  101. 101.

    geg6

    Sister Sledge, damn!  What a year 1979 was here in Pittsburgh.  The Steelers won their third Super Bowl and then a magical Pirates run to the World Series championship.  Willie Stargell made “We Are Family” the team’s theme song and the Buccos comeback in the series was legendary.  I was working at a bar part-time and the night before the last game, a bunch of us decided to drive down to Baltimore and see if we could get into the game.  We couldn’t find a hotel and we were in a van, so we just pulled into the next empty parking lot and slept there until the cops rousted us out.  We actually did make it to the game and went absolutely nuts when they won and Willie was the hero of the game and the series and the entire city.  Then, I was a college sophomore at Pitt that fall and the Panthers went 11-1 under Jackie Sherrill and beat Arizona in the Fiesta Bowl.  It was nuts!  One of the greatest sports years ever experienced by a city.

  102. 102.

    frosty

    @PAM Dirac: ​
     I was at that game! Snow on World Series Opening Day. I’m with you on We Are Family. I don’t care if I never hear it again; too many bad memories.

    My first date with the girl I married was the 7th game in 1979. She kept going out with me even after I hit the Pirates fan next to me with my hat because he was cheering for the wrong team in MY stadium.

  107. 107.

    Splitting Image

    It’s All Too Much, by the Beatles.

    Not so much a “celebration” song as a “gushing forth with happiness” song.

    “Show me that I’m everywhere, and get me home for tea” has to be one of the greatest lines in any song ever.

  108. 108.

    thruppence

    Gotta have “Dancin in the Streets” ! Hopefully playing everywhere on November 6th.

    except Mar a Largo

  115. 115.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    So many good ones listed.

    Also Sprach Zarathustra, the Deodata version, unusually the single version (album length songs are usually better but this one works great at 5:06).

    It’s use in “Being There” is absolutely brilliant and works as a celebration song.

  117. 117.

    frosty

    @geg6: ​​ I hope he wasn’t one of yours, here’s a clue: he had a portable TV watching (ugh) Howard Cosell during the game.

    As magic as 1979 was for you, it was the same for me and for Baltimore. I’d just moved from LA where my Dodgers were in the Series for the previous two years and I was like, “I have to watch these minor leaguers?” They had an amazing season. This was the year when the Orioles started to overcome the Colts as the city’s favorite team, too.

    We’re in the mix again after a 30-year drought. Hope your Pirates can do the same. It’s tough competing against the other monstrously rich teams.

  121. 121.

    HumboldtBlue

    I was this many minutes old when I learned that it was the Boston Pops in 1974, who added the cannons, bells and fireworks to Tchaikovsky’s 1812 overture that made it a staple of 4th of July and other martial celebrations. In fact, I can almost guarantee that the live version was playing on the TV in my house, the Boston Pops were a staple.

    Here’s the Boston Pops on July 4, 1976 (a summer recalled with such fondness for a 10-year-old boy with an interest in history and absolutely surrounded by all of it when it came to that Bicentennial).

  125. 125.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @Mai Naem mobile: I was singing “Right Here Right Now” after the convention.

    The line about “watching the world wake up from history” really resonates for me. It’s like we’re watching Dems and others wake up and realize things don’t have to be the way they’ve been for the past decade or so. E.g. we don’t have to accept the framing of our media betters, we can say Republicans are weird instead of scary (albeit for some of us the possibility of Republican rule is scary as hell), we don’t have to be defensive, we can be joyful.

  126. 126.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @Sister Golden Bear: South African musician Johnny Clegg & Savuka’s  “Your Time Will Come” has also been on my mind, since it’s a song about keeping faith that victory will come. Most of the lyrics are in Zulu, but then comes:

    I saw the Berlin Wall fall
    I saw Mandela walk free
    I saw a dream whose time has come
    Change my history — so keep on dreaming

    Dream on dreamer, dreamer

    The lyrics are especially apropos given Clegg’s personal history and South Africa’s history.

  128. 128.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @RevRick: also “our god is an awesome god. Very jubilant. I found you the rocker version.

    youtu.be/v9p8zJNisXY?si=stte4OXMnojTz84H

    (For a song this uplifting, I’m willing to overlook any theological differences I may have w some of the wording. it does sound pretty religion-ey, but I first connected with this song at chants and India-based spiritual events, where it definitely isn’t boxed “Christianity” which leaves a slight bad taste in my mouth these days.)

  129. 129.

    prostratedragon

    Repeating from DNC thread because the chorus was quoted by several speakers, including Hakeem Jeffries and Angela Alsobrooks. Spiritual, but not at all doctrinal — maybe call it a song of hope.

    “Joy, Joy,” Edwin Hawkins.

  130. 130.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Tehanu: yes. Here comes the sun..

    And any number of Beatles songs, other music from that era; Going blank. But also, any Pink Floyd ( mostly too weird for democrats coming on stage.)
    how about o fortune by Karl orff, or some selections from handels  messiah, or some exciting Mozart, or Beethoven. Maybe not crowd pleasers, but so very upbeat.

    there was some wonderful music by vangelis, part of the soundtrack for chariots of fire. Here’s one piece by vangelis, that’s not from the movie, but is uplifting.
    youtu.be/VwLtjnNIS9M?si=ujYEfptjJ-Sxn7g8

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