Best Life Advice from Songs

[fourhats]

Bobby McFarren (had to look that up)

"In every life we have some trouble
But when you worry you make it double
Don't worry, be happy
Don't worry, be happy now"

That's a good one. I'm not an Elton John fan, but lately his song "I'm Still Standing" keeps going through my head.

[fishbrains]

"It's funny how some distance makes everything seem small
And the fears that once controlled me can't get to me at all."
~ "Let It Go" from Frozen

"Dearly beloved, we have gathered here today
To get through this thing called life."
~ Prince, "Let's Go Crazy"

"I've had all that I wanted of a lot of things I've had
And a lot more than I needed of some things that turned out bad."
~ Johnny Cash, "Wanted Man"

"Who do you want?
Who you be today?
And who is it really
Makin' up your mind?"
~ Kenny Loggins, "I'm All Right"

"Hold on tight, shake, and pump venom
Some haters don't learn til you leave lead in 'em."
~ Ice Cube, "F*ck Dying"

[Puget]

Paul Simon always has good advice:
"Kid, you better look around
How long you think that you can
Run that body down?
How many nights you think you can
Do what you been doin'?
Who, now who you foolin'?
Who you foolin'?
Who you foolin'?"

[Bede the Vulnerable]

Two from Nirvana:

With the lights out it's less dangerous (I suspect that it is.)

You're in a laundry room!  You're in a laundry room!  (Which is where I should be right now.)

[Ruralguy]

"Stick around while the clown who is sick does a trick of disaster"
(the 60's band, Buffalo Springfield, from song "Hello, Mr. Soul" written by Neil Young)

Not necessarily "advice", but I was thinking about it the day before I go in front of a class again!

[S-4711]

Not exactly "advice," but "Warrior" by Steve Earle is pretty good.

This is the best time of the day, the dawn
The final cleansing breath unsullied yet
By acrid fume or death's cacophony
The rank refuse of unchained ambition
And pray, deny me not but know me now,
Your faithful retainer stands resolute
To serve his liege lord without recompense
Perchance to fall and perish namelessly
No flag-draped bier or muffled drum to set
The cadence for a final dress parade
But it was not always thus remember
Once you worshiped me and named me a god
In many tongues and made offering lest
I exact too terrible a tribute

Take heed for I am weary, ancient
And decrepit now and my time grows short
There are no honorable frays to join
Only mean death dealt out in dibs and dabs
Or horror unleashed from across oceans

Assail me not with noble policy
For I care not at all for platitude
And surrender such tedious detail
To greater minds than mine and nimbler tongues
Singular in their purpose and resolve
And presuming to speak for everyman

Oh, for another time, a distant field
And there a mortal warrior's lonely grave
But duty charges me remain until
The end the last battle of the last war
Until that morrow render unto me
That which is mine my stipend well deserved
The fairest flower of your progeny
Your sons, your daughters your hopes and your dreams
The cruel consequence of your conceit

[fast_and_bulbous]

"Begin, my friend
                 for you cannot,
                                  you may be sure,
take your song,
                 which drives all things out of mind,
                                  with you to the other world."

(from: Theocritus: Idyl I – A version from the Greek) - a loose translation from William Carlos Williams

Sung on the first track of Steve Reich, Desert Music.

Not sure if it's very useful life advice but I find it motivating, especially the way it slowly unfolds in the piece.