In December of last year, I wrote a two-part blog titled “What I Really Want to Do Is Direct.” But I never got to finish it—to include the essential final touch for any movie: the score! After all, what’s a great film without a great soundtrack?
I’ve always been super proud of my dad’s contribution to music in the last century. He was born in 1906 (yes, you read that correctly) and he had a hand in so much of the great music of the ’50s through the early ’90s, including a great many movie soundtracks. (He passed in 1992, but I like to think he was “promoted” to work on “the music of the spheres.”) Sometimes he’d take my brother and me along to early screenings of the films whose scores he was involved in making, before the music had been added. There’s something disconcerting about a film without music, and the same can be said of life without music.
Sometimes life gets heavy and we need to psyche ourselves up if we are to persevere with our highest ideals, our greatest sense of purpose, our most inspired energy. In such moments, I’ve found that nothing beats switching on a personal life soundtrack. Everyone should have one: music that can resuscitate our power and sense of purpose when we need it, or simply re-center us and remind us of our joy, our inner passion, our essence.
So, if you don’t already have a personal motion picture soundtrack for your life that will lift you up when you’re feeling down for the count in the middle of the fourth round, I encourage you to make one. I think everyone will enjoy seeing their Natalia Rose Institute Friends’ personal soundtracks! Simply post yours as a comment, and it will be listed right here to help inspire others.
To help get you started, your movie soundtrack is ideally a compilation of music that makes you feel instantly more yourself, reminds you of aspects of yourself that you enjoy most, or just makes you feel at home. It should have the power to bring you quickly back to your center, and to give you the energy to serve your highest purpose of productivity and conductivity.
In the spirit of sharing, I will start the ball rolling by offering my soundtrack here. It might seem really hokey to you, but I’m not afraid of hokey, and this is what works for me!
“America The Beautiful” by Lee Greenwood
“The Battle Hymn of the Republic” by Lee Greenwood
“Burning Heart” (from Rocky IV) by Survivor
“The Power of Love” by Huey Lewis and The News
“Dogs in the Yard” (from Fame) by Paul McCrane
“Give Yourself to Love” by Kate Wolf
“We Don’t Need Another Hero” (from Mad Max) by Tina Turner
“God Love Her” by Toby Keith
“I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool” by Barbara Mandrell
“It’s A Great Day To Be Alive” by Travis Tritt
“The Happiest Girl In The Whole USA” by Donna Fargo
“I Can’t Be A Slave” (from the country soundtrack of The Prince of Egypt) by Toby Keith
“I Got Mexico” by Eddy Raven
“Independence Day” by Martina McBride
“Any Dream Will Do” (from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat) by Andrew Lloyd Webber
“Let The River Run” by Carly Simon
“Let Your Love Flow” by The Bellamy Brothers
“Little Bit O’ Soul” by The Ramones
“Me and Bobby McGee” by Janis Joplin
“The Moment of Truth” (from The Karate Kid) by Survivor
“Sidewalk Surfin’” by Jan & Dean
“Put Some Drive in Your Country” by Travis Tritt
“Born to Boogie” by Hank Williams, Jr.
“Six Days On The Road” by Dave Dudley
“You’re The Best” (from The Karate Kid) by Joe “Bean” Esposito
“When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going” by Billy Ocean
“We Shall Be Free” by Garth Brooks
“Watchin’ The Wheels” by John Lennon
“The Last Dragon” (from the movie) by Dwight David
Here’s to the music you make, from your fellow DJ at the great party of life!
Natalia