Mary Schmidt Marketing Troubleshooter

Terry Starbucker recently tagged me to name the one song that gives me good vibrations. ‘cuz his friend Hilda Caroll of Living Out Loud tagged him. As she noted, “I noticed that I’m not alone in the use of listening to music and/or singing to raise our energetic vibrations, and it dawned on me: why not ask others what their number one energy-raising song of choice would be, and compile the lot into the ultimate spirit-lifting play list!”

This is a tough one since I’ve got different soundtracks for different times in life and business. If I had to pick just one - that one is Etta James’ cover of The Eagles’ Take It To The Limit. She puts real deep, down heart and soul into the song. The actual words, other than “take it to the limit,” are almost irrelevant.

All alone at the end of the of the evening
And the bright lights have faded to blue
I was thinking ’bout a woman who might have
Loved me and I never knew
You know I’ve always been a dreamer
(spent my life running ’round)
And it’s so hard to change
(can’t seem to settle down)
But the dreams I’ve seen lately
Keep on turning out and burning out
And turning out the same

So put me on a highway
And show me a sign
And take it to the limit one more time

You can spend all your time making money
You can spend all your love making time
If it all fell to pieces tomorrow
Would you still be mine?

And when you’re looking for your freedom
(nobody seems to care)
And you can’t find the door
(can’t find it anywhere)
When there’s nothing to believe in
Still you’re coming back, you’re running back
You’re coming back for more

So put me on a highway
And show me a sign
And take it to the limit one more time

Take it to the limit
Take it to the limit
Take it to the limit one more time

Other times, I feel like Sugar on The Floor. (Ms. Etta’s version again.)

Martini Time Music is Sinatra, Ella, Dino, Lady Day, Nat King Cole, Rosemary Clooney, Ray Charles…with a little Aretha and B.B. thrown in to liven things up.

“Get some work done” music is pretty much anything by Stevie Ray, John Lee Hooker, Sonny Landreth or Zachary Richard (if Richard’s Snakebite Love collection doesn’t get you moving, nuthin’ will.)

Now, I’m tagging Bruce, Susan and Ann. What’s gets you up and outta your doldrums, rut, chair? (I’m off to plug in some rockin’ blues and get some work done!)

If you’d like to leave a comment, please do so. It may take a bit to show up since I hate making people type in little letters (I can’t read most of them myself) - so I moderate all comments. Feel free to disagree - debate is healthy. However, I’ve blacklisted the worst obscenities, including the “f” word, as part of the troll wall.

Tags: Mary Schmidt, Etta James