Tuesday Tunes 181: Courage

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The first Tuesday Tunes of 2024 is upon us, after the inconvenient changes forced on me by the calendar! So it’s back to the usual routine of a set of tunes around a theme. While I was away I saw several posts around the theme of being brave – I think it must have been one of those prompts I usually ignore – and I thought I might use I too. I kinda changed it, though, for some songs which are about showing courage, which doesn’t necessarily mean the kind of bravery you might expect on a battlefield. These are my usual mixed bunch, and you may even know some of them!

So let’s get started. My regular rousing start comes from a band I’ve liked since they first burst onto the scene:

Mumford and Sons released I Will Wait in August 2012 as the lead single from their second album, Babel, which followed a month later. The official video, which I played here, was recorded during their performance at the famous Red Rocks Amphitheatre on 29 August of that year, and was released to promote the single early in September. It captures a really good feel for the joy and energy the band brings to their music, and the crowd seemed to be enjoying themselves. The song tells a story of having the courage to wait for someone to realise that they were meant for each other: Marcus Mumford, who wrote it, had got married earlier that year to the actor Carey Mulligan, with whom he had been penpals in childhood before reconnecting in adult life. Methinks there is an element of autobiography in this one! The single peaked at #12 in both the UK and the US, and has gone triple Platinum in both, selling 1.8m copies in the UK and 3m in the US. The album topped the charts in both countries and in several others too, and has sold well over 6m copies worldwide.

Today’s next tune is about having the courage of your convictions when others are telling you that you’ll never make it:

Imagine Dragons released Thunder as a single in April 2017, ahead of its inclusion on their third album, Evolve, in June of that year. The album peaked at #2 in the US and #3 in the UK, and has sold more than 4m copies worldwide – 3m of them in the States alone. As a single this song reached #4 in the US and #20 in the UK and this video is incredibly popular, with more than 2bn views on YouTube. I rather like its quirky feel.

Having started with a band making their debut on my blog, followed by another who had only been here once before, I’m back with one of my favourites for this next one:

Walk Unafraid was a track on R.E.M.’s eleventh album, Up, which came out in October 1998. In sales terms it wasn’t their biggest, but it still managed to get to #2 in the UK and #3 in the US. It was their first album after Bill Berry, their drummer, had left the band for health reasons, and they admitted that his departure had given them cause to think about splitting up. But they carried on and made four further albums, three of which reached #1 here in the UK, making that a total of seven UK chart toppers for them. They eventually broke up in 2011 but have left us a great legacy of music – one of my favourite bands of all time.

This next one goes back to the 70s, but it is a first appearance for the band here (it seems to be the day for that):

Rod Argent put together the band that bore his name in 1969, after the break up of his previous band, The Zombies, who ironically were enjoying massive success (#3) in the US at the time with their song Time Of The Season.  Hold Your Head Up was his new band’s biggest hit, reaching #5 in the UK, the US and Canada in 1972, though it had actually been released in October 1971. It was included on the band’s third album, All Together Now, which was released in April 1972 and peaked at #13 in the UK, at the same time that the single was taking off after its slow start. The album version was over six minutes long, but it was pared down to just over half of that for the single release, which is what the band are playing in the video I shared. It is, I think, very much a song of its time, but I’ve always liked it and the positive message it conveys.

I’m completing today’s set of (mostly) relative newbies with another band that I have only played once before:

The grammatically-challenged OneRepublic released Counting Stars in June 2013 as the second single from their album Native, which had come out in March of that year. The album did well, peaking at #4 in the US and at #9 in the UK, selling over 5m copies worldwide. The Counting Stars single did even better, getting to #2 in the US and #1 in the UK and Canada. To date it has sold more than 41m worldwide, including over 10m in the US and 3m in the UK – phenomenal figures by anyone’s standards. The video is another huge YouTube favourite too, with more than 3bn views. It has a positive message of looking beyond counting money to define success, which feels like a good place to end today’s selection.

That’s all for this week. One from a regular favourite, two making just their second appearance here, and two making their debuts. I tried to avoid the usual suspects for once, and I hope you’ve enjoyed them. I’ll see you again in a few days, so until then stay warm and dry, and keep away from the floods if you can. Take care 😊

74 thoughts on “Tuesday Tunes 181: Courage”

  2. Pingback: January | Take It Easy

  7. Hi Clive – that opening song, I will wait – was terrific – and reminded me a little of a Judah and the Lion song – but was all its own
    and the Thunder song is a fav of mine (one of my favorite lines is “who do you think you are… dreaming about being a big star” – ugh.
    Because who we think we are gives is the right to dream. and have the courage it takes! Oh and I also like the quirky feel of that video – the fantasy and the real is good mix

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  8. Hey Clive. Excellent post and video picks today. The only one I was not familiar with was your first, “I Will Wait” by Mumford & Sons. I’m usually not swept away when I hear a song for the first time; I need to warm up to it. Not the case with this one. Very exciting combination of guitar, stand-up bass and banjo (and, boy, could he pluck that thing!) Uplifting and encouraging songs never go out of style and we certainly need them now more than ever. Great selections!

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  9. Love your selections Clive and it does seem that all is loading well for you.. whooo hoo.. so glad to see.
    Love your line of courage and so it is riding us into the New Year.. Love the songs..
    I’ll wait for you, if you’ll wait for me💓

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      • They are incredible for sure. The tongue and the stretchy arms, and those bent legs dancing. All amazing. Thank you for sharing. I would never have seen it anywhere else, Clive. You have a ministry with your music sharing. 🙂 Lots of people share music and videos – even I do on occasion, but it takes a lot of time to review them to get just the right thing for the post. I appreciate all the time you spend thinking and reviewing.

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      • Thank you for your kind words. It’s very much my hobby so it’s time I enjoy. I mostly post music but I actually started off posting about mental health, which still gets an occasional look-in.

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      • I was a business and projects manager for a specialist mental health trust in our National Health Service for 20 years until I retired in 2013. But the blog started from my personal experience: I had a nine month spell off work with depression 2011-2 and saw the in-house counselling service as part of my return to work. My counsellor got me to do some written pieces as the basis for our sessions, described what I gave him as ‘inspiring’ and said I should start a blog to help others. So I did! Music has always been important to me and it gradually took over as the main focus of the blog four or five years ago.

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      • Yes they are – I never delete anything! They are in the ‘My Story’ section: parts one, two and three are the initial set, with some later revisits to the theme. Thank you for your interest 😊

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      • I read the first four on the list. My husband’s family suffers from depression, Clive, and I can see some of those symptoms affecting my husband since he has undergone gallbladder surgery and is still recovering SLOWLY. It’s going much slower than any of us expected it to go, and sleep eludes him, or at least he feels like it does. He has a good reason to be depressed, but your articles remind me that I need to be alert to that possibility. I’m glad you made it out of that cycle and now seem to be enjoying a full life. Thanks again for sharing your life. 🙂

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      • I’m sorry to hear that, but from what you say I think your support will help him through. Thank you for reading, and for your kind words. I hope these help – that’s why I was encouraged to write them, after all 😊

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  11. Hi Clive, I’m posting this link on my Story Chat page as a thank you for commenting on Yvette’s post. But I have an ulterior motive. One of my topics for Wednesday Quotes this year is courage. This is the perfect post to link. I don’t want to lose track of it. Thanks for sharing. I’ll have more to share after I listen to all the songs. 🙂

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  12. Good choices! I know and like all the music with the exception of the R.E.M. song – never heard it before. It’s been years since I’ve heard “Hold Your Head Up;” the other three are favorites. I’m a fan of OneRepublic and enjoyed watching Ryan Tedder on the television show Songland. Nice guy and super creative.

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    • I’m glad you like them all. The R.E.M. one was an album track so unless you had the album – as I did! – you wouldn’t have known it. I’ve not heard of that show – I don’t think we get it here – but it’s good to hear that he’s a nice guy 😊

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  15. Great songs for the theme Clive. I wasn’t familiar with the REM song but I like it. The Argent one is a great blast from the past. My favourite is the far more recent – ‘Counting Stars’. It’s so upbeat and positive.

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  16. Lots of great songs for this theme. I could see this being one of those three week themes, Clive. If pressed to choose a favorite, I’d pick Counting Stars (great video). I like Imagine Dragons but prefer more of their other music over this one.

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    • It’s definitely going to be two weeks, Pete!

      I’d be hard pressed to pick a favourite from these too. Possibly the Mumfords, but Counting Stars runs it close.

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