#28: Why Would Anyone dance on a crummy day? (Part 3)

🎵Intrinsic motivation playlist, continued

I’m celebrating the end of one of those weeks that can go straight to the bin, with some brand old additions to the Why Would Anyone playlist.

You’ll find links to YouTube videos below and the list on Spotify:

Please send me your suggestions! I’m always on the look out for more songs of intrinsic motivation — lyrics of freedom, self-knowledge, individuality, persistence, and permission — to add to my rotation. You can reply to this post if you’ve received it by email, or

Continuando · Jehro

Jehro’s multilingual album brings me back to 2007, and this song feels like rocking in a hammock somewhere under a late afternoon tropical sun.

Aunque dañan [sic] tus sueños
Sigues continuando, sembrando, continuando
Hasta los dias tranquilos
Sigues continuando, explorando tus deseos

(Even though they’re damaging your dreams
You keep going, sowing, going
Until the quiet days
You keep going, exploring your desires)

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La Mauvaise Réputation · Georges Brassens

This is one of the most classic of French classics: a celebration of quiet anti-conformism and rebellion by prolific singer-songwriter-poet Georges Brassens. (I’ve added a hypnotic cover by Sandra Nkaké below; check out also this créole version by Danyèl Waro from Réunion Island.)

Le jour du 14 juillet
Je reste dans mon lit douillet
La musique qui marche au pas
Cela ne me regarde pas

Je ne fais pourtant de tort à personne
En n'écoutant pas le clairon qui sonne

Mais les braves gens n'aiment pas que
L'on suive une autre route qu'eux

(On Bastille day
I stay in my cosy bed
The marching music
Doesn't concern me

Yet I don't do harm to anyone
By not listening to the bugle that sounds

But these good folks don't like it that
You follow another way than them)

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I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free · Nina Simone

Another widely covered song. This cry for freedom was first recorded by Billy Taylor in 1963 before becoming an anthem of the Civil Rights movement.

I wish I could give, I'm longing to give
And I wish I could live, like I'm longing to live
And I wish I could do, all the things I can do
Though I'm way overdue, I'd be starting to move

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My Life · Billy Joel

Back when my dad played (and re-played) this song on vinyl, I didn’t understand the lyrics—but I did pick up on Joel’s defiant tone.

I don't need you to worry for me 'cause I'm alright
I don't want you to tell me it's time to come home
I don't care what you say anymore this is my life
Go ahead with your own life leave me alone

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My Way · Frank Sinatra

Duh.

And through it all, whenever there was doubt
I ate it up and spit it out
I faced it all and I stood tall
And did it my way

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Bonus track

Jimmy Cliff is the king of uplifting songs (I mean…!). I linked below to the song If I Follow My Mind — also the title of his 1976 album — but couldn’t find it on Spotify today. Your mind is a fine mind, too!

My mind is a fine mind
My mind is a right mind
My mind is a clear mind, clear mind