Forget the happiness of Thanksgiving and sharing time with family and friends. It is Black Friday! This is the day your dollar goes toward lining the pockets of huge corporations. Rejoice, oh Lord Commercialism!
So while you pick out presents for people a month away and battle with fellow shoppers in store checkout lines or snatch up items online, you need something to listen to. Forget about Christmas music. This is war!
Happy songs about reindeer and elves? It's not even cold yet. But to help celebrate the cold hearts of CEOs of giant companies, here are three songs to sing along to.
Three songs to listen to while you do your Black Friday shopping
Rolling Stones - "Paint It Black"
Mick Jagger has never been overly forthcoming about the meaning of any song. That is fine. Leave it up to the listener to interpret the lyrics.
But the lyrics to "Paint It Black" definitely appear to be about the death of a girl. "I see a line of cars/And they're all painted black/With flowers and my love/Both never to come back" seem pretty straight forward. Fun! Plus, the sitar is creepy.
Pearl Jam - "Black"
Just got out of a relationship? Already missing the person you no longer see? This song lyrically won't help exactly, but the music is cathartic as heck.
The tune started off as an instrumental only by Pearl Jam Guitarist Stone Gossard before singer Eddie Vedder joined the band. But after Vedder was added, he and the band put Vedder's words to Gossard's music and magic happened. I mean how awesome are these lyrics for a sunny day?
"I know someday you'll have a beautiful life
I know you'll be a star
In somebody else's sky
But why
Why
Why can't it be
Why can't it be mine"
Songwriters: Eddie Jerome Vedder / Stone C. Gossard
Soundgarden - "Black Hole Sun"
Some have mentioned that these lyrics could be about Kurt Cobain, but that seems unlikely. The late Chris Cornell, who wrote the lyrics, said the song is just him playing with words instead of some deeper theme about a specific subject. But there is no way of interpreting the term "black hole sun" as joyful.
The words "Hang my head/Drown my fear/Till you all just disappear" are even more haunting years later since Cornell sadly committed suicide in 2017. But don't let you Black Friday be that bleak. Many people out in the world likely love you and want you to stick around.