Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for August 06, 2012

It;s called bubblegum pop and you’d rather French kiss a light socket.

Um, I might not enjoy her music as much as The Beatles, but I’d love to just get by with Katie Perry…

There is a truth here though. Happy music is considered childish or silly. Actors can have a ball and win an award playing a handicapped person. Who can play a normal person well? It’s a lot harder to make it real….

Will Goat be successful in tuning him out? Doubtful.

You people are nuts. Rat is a genius.

@ Varnes: There’s no such thing as an average person.

Rat’s logic is faulty. The music called The Blues makes us happy that we’re not sad like the poor schlub in the song’s story….

Obviously, Rat has never heard any kiddie songs. They’re so “happy” they can drive you out of your mind in fifteen minutes.

I’m going to sing “The Just Getting By’s.”

Don’t worry…be Happy!

Here’s food for thought. How sicky sweet do you think a type of music called the Happies wound be. And who would say “I feel like singing the Happies.”

On the flip side maybe we do have a musical genre called the Happies and every song has to have the word happy in the title and the refrain. Chicago had “Happy Man” back in ‘74. Bobby McFerrin was telling us in ’88 to "Don’t Worry, Be Happy." The Turtles were “Happy Together” in ‘67. Going all the way back to ’29 you’ve got “Happy Days are Here Again.” The TV series “Happy Days” may have started with “Rock Around the Clock” but it changed it’s theme to…. “Happy Days.” Gotta be hundreds of songs with Happy in both the title and the refrain.

The following is a list of comedies that have won the Academy Award.

If Rat started off the day viewing gocomics he wouldn’t have the blues.

Now that’s funny.

The first thing that popped into my head was “In the Summertime” by Mungo Jerry. Hard to get rid of now.

Sadly we have “Call me Maybe”

Actually, there is a type of music called “Happy Hardcore”

“Giving it all up” music anyone?

“Figs” to you for that one!

Good thinking, Goat.

LOL LOL xxx

There are some songs with “just getting by” lyrics. (See Google.) One is about selling crack. Another contains the words “I ain’t settling for just getting byI’ve had enough so so for the rest of my lifeTired of shooting too low, so raise the bar high . . .”http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/sugarland/settlin.html

Note to Rat from Bobby McFerrin:Don’t worry, be happy. P.S. Happiness is a warm royalty check.

Actually, in the early day of jazz, there were tunes I guess they thought were too happy to be called blues, so they called them “joys”. “New Orleans Joys” was one.

Okay! Rat!

Yeah but yeah but…it seems to be harder to evoke the Happies than it is to evoke the Blues. Is that cultural, or are we “born to trouble as the sparks fly upward”, genetically?Me, I try to keep on the Sunny Side, I was a great blues singer, many thought so…and then life sort of got VERY strange.

For the heck of it, sing “San Francisco Bay Blues” a few thousand times…yeah, I know it’s not really a blues…butyou do THAT and I’ll see you in San Francisco looking for another good time with a girl you can’t find…ask me about that three times over the years sometime.

Happy song by Baby’s Gang? (80s Italo, find it in utube).

Anyway, I think I’ve proved the thesis. Again, three separate times, separated by years…

“I was drunk the day my momma got out of prison.”

Hasn’t Rat ever heard of polka music?

THANKS for that. (it’s a small,small world)

Goat should just slap that rat – then he could be slap happy.Would serve him right.

Sing along with The Rock ‘n’ Roll Dubble Bubble Trading Card Co. of Philadelphia 1941:

“Give me more, more, more of that bubble gum musicMakes me feel so good, oh, I never want to lose itLet me dance, dance, dance to that bubble gum musicIf you really want to turn me on”

Proginoskes, someone has probably beat me to this, but there;s a big difference between “average” and “normal.” There is no average person, true. There are plenty of normal people and even more more-or-less-normal people.

’It’s a small world after all…‘, isn’t THAT happy?

And then there’s the fact that over 90% of all popular songs are about romance or love or relationships.

Is Rat actually drinking coffee?

“Happy Hardcore” music. Worth a listen.

Anything from San Francisco 1965 to 1968 is “The Happies”

what about Happy hardcore?

Ha! This is funny, but in reality the discussion is pretty silly because music is happy. At it’s most basic, I would say music elevates the soul. Sure there is some sad music and certain genres that would be hard to describe as uplifting like deathmetal and certain songs that are a definite downer like “It’s a Small World”, but, generally speaking I think music is upliftingand meant to help transcend our woes and celebrate life- something I’m sure rat would never be able to relate to.

To those that mentioned happy hardcore- wrong audience peeps. These parts, I believe, are mostly populated with Old farts and geezers. Snicker!

If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands.

I’m getting by da ba de ba da bi! by eifel 65

wow all these comments and not one person has even come close to mentioning well for example sinatra had a lotta songs based on happiness and being in love and falling in love… now then i think that ska (which for those of the older persuasion is a mixture of big band and punk for lack of a better deffinition) (think benny goodman mixed with the ramones) not that, that is really what ska is but they are the oldest examples i could think of… now then i digress ska is almost in its entirety “happy music” and for those that dont know you should truly check out bands like less than jake, the mighty mighty bosstones, reel big fish, suicide machines,(dont let that title fool ya) etc. thats all happy music and sublime and bob marley and flogging molly and the dropkick murphys all shining examples and if after listening to these you need to be brought back down to an even keel well simply listen to i dont know uh any country song ever made ever lol

that is what polka is about (and more polka)

Pharrell ‘Happy’