Mind Coffee: Music that makes yardwork a little easier

A weekend spent up a ladder, heat gun and scraper in hand, peeling old paint off window frames is pretty much the definition of “yuck.”

But you can make it a bit more palatable by creating a music playlist for your iPhone, Shuffle, iPod or whatever method you use to cart your music around. It won’t make the job any less yucky, but it is a distraction.

It’s important, though, to pick the right songs. You need energetic ones to keep the gloom away when the 300th piece of scorching-hot peeled paint falls on your forearm and you want to jump back but you’re teetering on the top of a ladder with a 10-foot fall beneath you. Good times.

For those who have a weekend of yardwork ahead, here are some songs I’ve found.

» “Pink Cadillac” by Bruce Springsteen. Three minutes of piston-pumping that should be on any playlist that will be listened to during physical exertion. Max Weinberg’s drums sound like a rifle shot.

» AC/DC. Just about anything.

» “Poolside” by Webb Wilder. “Sittin’ in a chaise lounge, greased down, turning brown.” Better than “pushin’ a mower, gettin’ out the blower, always goin’ slower.”

» “Radar Gun” by the Bottle Rockets. Plowing-ahead pace and terrific lyrics.

» “Wine, Women An’ Song” by Whitesnake. Back when Whitesnake was R&B not cheesy hair rock. And you can’t argue with the song’s sentiment.

» “21st Century Digital Boy” by Bad Religion. A blend of punk and true harmonic melody with intelligent, socially relevant point of view.

» “Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers” by ZZ Top. My kind of people.

» “Dead or in Jail” by William Clark Green. Phenomenal lyrics, punchy beat; you ought to get to know this guy.

» “Sooner or Later” by the V-Roys. Knoxville band gets the blood flowing.

» “Life is a Highway” by Tom Cochrane. Chugging beat wants to make you ride that highway “all night long.”

» “Midnight Black” by the Temperance Movement. “I hit the floor around 4:47 with the mornin’ blues, cryin’ like a puppy dog.” Yeah he did, but he ain’t staying down for long.

» “No Mercy” by Tad Morose. Like getting walloped with a mallet. In that good way, of course.

» “Last Night I Wrote a Letter” by Starz. Hard rock with dynamic shifts in tempo and a melody you can sing along to. There’s sheer poetry in: “I ain’t no Shakespeare, but I tried to put down into words …”

» “50 Ways to Say Goodbye” by Train. The hooky-happy chorus is laugh-out-loud.

» “Free Fallin'” by Tom Petty. Lyrics are kind of sad, but the melody is just so darn uplifting.

Contact Shawn Ryan at mshawnryan@gmail.com.