Aw, geez — not Monday again. Did somebody fast forward time during the weekend? Because it seems like it ought to be Sunday right now. Yet here we are, five long days before the next reprieve from our weekly toils. Yes, Mondays can be downright depressing but, fortunately, we have music to help us through them. While you’re lamenting about how you need just one more day to unwind, play one of these Monday songs:
More Top Picks Best Tablets For Autistic Adults
Monday
Wilco
The Chicago group’s Rolling Stones-like “Monday” includes drug references, a horn section and, if you listen closely enough during the chorus, a cowbell. It’s a great road trip song, with lyrics that include “Monday, I’m all high, get me out of FLA” and “I only wanna go where my wheels roll.”
Monday Monday Monday
Tegan & Sara
The Canadian duo’s song describes a relationship that’s as bland as the first workday of the week. Sample lyrics include “Your house or mine/I don’t really care about it anymore/I close my eyes/I make myself unhappy so you’ll go/Monday Monday Monday …” and “I say damn your mood swings/Damn your mood swings.” You get the idea.
Manic Monday
The Bangles
The song was credited to “Christopher,” which was a pen name for Prince, who originally wrote the song for “Purple Rain” co-star Apollonia Kotero. Lyrics talk about the struggle of having to get up early and catch a train to work. But what really makes the day difficult is a long night spent with a lover just hours earlier.
I Don’t Like Mondays
Boomtown Rats
On Jan. 29, 1978, 16-year-old Brenda Ann Spencer started shooting at an elementary school located across from her San Diego home, wounding eight students and killing a custodian and the school principal. When asked why she did it, Spencer replied, “I don’t like Mondays.” Then she added, “This livens up the day.” Spencer remains in prison. The lyrically dark song she inspired has since been covered by Tori Amos and Bon Jovi.
New Moon on Monday
Duran Duran
The song’s opening line — “Shake up the picture the lizard mixture” — won’t help anyone trying to figure out its meaning. But it’s definitely a love song. The video showed members of the band organizing a revolt against an oppressive regime.
Blue Monday
New Order
New Order frontman Peter Hook said he was reading about Fats Domino while writing this song. “He had a song called ‘Blue Monday,’ ” he told the Guardian, “and it was a Monday, and we were all miserable, so I thought, ‘Oh, that’s quite apt.’ ” With a drum pattern inspired by a Donna Summer B-side, “Blue Monday” is credited — for better or worse — with starting the synth-pop wave in America in the early 80s.
Monday Monday
Mamas and Papas
More Top Picks Best Paint By Numbers Kits For Adults
Perhaps the best-known Monday song, this was band member John Phillips’ attempt to write a song with universal appeal. Must’ve worked — the song won a Grammy in 1967 and became the band’s only No. 1 hit. It also was the first song recorded by a sexually integrated group to hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts.