Songs that remind you of Objectivist themes?

[Eiuol]

By Objectivist themes, I mean themes in The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged, or We The Living, it just didn't fit as a title. I'm thinking of songs in terms of their lyrics, but any song would work. Doesn't have to be a "positive" theme either, after all, We The Living is a tragedy.

 

Here's some of mine:

 

Depeche Mode - Get The Balance Right

 

Well, this next one is obvious

 

Hands Like Houses - Fountainhead

 

Chvrches - Lies

Edited April 26, 2014 by Eiuol

[Reidy]

Didactic message - "moral" if you will - ranks way down on the list of values I seek in a work of art.  Entertainment value, a combination of sense of life and technical excellence, is what most of us look for.

 

That said, Objectivism values beauty and romance.  Here are the most beautiful, romantic songs I know:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTa8U0Wa0q8

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIW_Ah0wg-w

[Craig24]

We are go for launch:

 

[Plasmatic]

Frank Sinatra "My Way"

[Ninth Doctor]

How about this:

For the unwritten scene that takes place an hour or so before "Howard Roark laughed." But he doesn't have a Nun singing it to him, that would be awfully incongruous, eh? So he just sings it to himself, I suppose.

[425]

I've listened to all the songs that have been posted so far. Good stuff!  I quite liked the Fountainhead song and the piece from the Apollo 13 soundtrack.

 

As for myself, I'm an avid fan of progressive rock and metal music myself. One band in particular that I would like to share has quite the sense of life, while being brilliant musicians, composers and lyricists. This band is called Dream Theater, and they have released 12 albums of some of the most brilliant music I've ever heard.

 

Of particular note is their second studio album, Images and Words. This is the single album I've heard with the most blindingly benevolent sense of life. I really cannot recommend the entire disc highly enough, but I'll just share a couple of choice cuts right now.

 

Dream Theater – Learning to Live

 

This song is an 11-and-a-half-minute progressive rock tour de force. Lyrically, I would point out the first few lines:

 

There was no time for pain

No energy for anger

The sightlessness of hatred slips away

Walking through winter streets alone

He stops and takes a breath

With confidence and self control

Which are a paraphrase of a few lines from Atlas Shrugged, which describe Rearden's reaction after he sells all his properties aside from Rearden Steel: "He had no time for pain, no energy for anger... the blinding stabs of hatred ceased and did not return. He was back in confident self control..."

 

 

This one is kind of an interesting one musically, full of a kind of childlike joy that turns over the course of a song into a serious expression of confidence. The lyrics are actually written in pieces by all the members of the band as a reflection on the preceding few years, in which they struggled to find a new singer and a new recrod label; and together represent in a lot of ways what basically is a proper reaction for a rational man to adversity.

 

The whole album is full of great songs like this. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys rock music and is interested in finding some very well written music with a positive sense of life. And if you like it, you can go on to find 11 more albums of great material from the same artists!

 

So that I can do my best to inundate this thread with prog rock, I'll share a couple of songs from other artists:

 

 

Transatlantic, a supergroup of sorts which includes the drummer who played on that Dream Theater album, specializes in writing tremendously long multi-part compositions. I believe that the lyrics that Neal Morse writes actually refer to his own Christianity, but they tend to be written ambiguously enough that the non-Christian listener can apply them to his own life regardless. This song forms a story generally about overcoming periods of malaise by recognizing your personal values and recovering a more benevolent outlook. One of the most incredible verses is this, from around 20 and a half minutes in:

 

Pressed to the wall of the rail station hall is the Venus de Milo

You walk through the park 'til the clouds seem to darken the sky

And you wish you could soften your mind

But you feel like they've locked you in time

And you think you'll be perfectly fine once you get to the water

 

Suddenly you stop 'cause your feet just won't walk

Like there's someone awaiting

The moon seems alive and looks down on your life just to say

It's alright

 

Innocence and undying love will reign

Innocence and undying love will reign

 

 

A shorter song after some of those longer ones! Haken is a fairly new band that has the distinction of putting out three brilliant albums in the last four years. The newest one, The Mountain, is probably the most Objectivist-like one lyrically, though my favorite is the debut, Aquarius. Anyway, Because It's There is a gorgeous short piece that is, again, overcoming-adversity-themed.

[DiseasedManiac]

Noise of Carpet by Stereolab...

I hate to see your broken face
This world would give you anything
As long as you will want to
As long as you will want to
I hate your state of hopelessness
And that vain articulateness
Your loser type wreck want to be
Not a pretty sight really
In another world it'd be funny

I hate to see your broken face
A lazy life of fatal waste
Of fashionable cynicism
The poison they want you to drink
Oh no man that's too easy
Oh no man that's too easy
We weren't talking bout happiness
Apply your leading potential
To be useful to this planet
The world would give you anything
As long as you will want to
As long as you will want to