Post by Jesse Cooke

42 years ago on June 29, 1984, Bruce Springsteen pulls 20-year-old Courteney Cox on stage during Clarence Clemons' sax solo for the ‘Dancing in the Dark’ video shot at the Saint Paul Civic Center in Saint Paul, MN during the Boss’s Born in the USA tour. The concert was real, only Cox was planted by the video’s director Brian De Palma (who also directed Carrie (1976), Scarface (1983), The Untouchables (1987) and Mission: Impossible (1996)). After the breakthrough video, Cox was cast in films like 'Masters of the Universe' and 'Cocoon: The Return' and then as Michael J. Fox’s girlfriend on 'Family Ties' before landing the role of her career as Monica Geller on ‘Friends’ (1994–2004). All this from a song Springsteen described as “about my own alienation, fatigue and desire to get out from inside the studio, my room, my record, my head.” Scientists have associated dark lyrics/happy music, or musical-lyrical dissonance (when the emotional tone of the tune clashes with the emotional meaning of the words) and ‘polyvalent pleasant feelings’ to the release of the hormone prolactin. Perfect for a Monday, here’s a playlist of upbeat tunes that’ll get you going (so long as you don’t listen too closely): • ‘Mack the Knife’ (1959) by Bobby Darin about a knife-wielding serial killer named Macheath. • ‘Copacabana’ (1978) by Barry Manilow about a showgirl whose lover is killed in a shootout. • ‘Electric Avenue’ (1982) by Eddy Grant about the 1981 Brixton Riot in London where hundreds of people clashed with the police. • ‘99 Luftballons’ (1983) by Nena about the release of balloons which results in governments panicking and causing total nuclear annihilation. • ‘Today’ (1993) by the Smashing Pumpkins where the suicidal protagonist concludes that today is the greatest day he has ever known because his life can’t get any worse. • ‘Shiny Happy People’ (1991) by R.E.M. about the characters seen in Chinese propaganda posters after the Tiananmen Square Massacre (known in China as The June Fourth Incident) in 1989. • ‘Lust For Life’ (1997) by Iggy Pop about life after getting addicted to heroin. • ‘Hey Ya!’ (2003) by Outkast about a relationship collapsing due to emotional stagnation. And last but not least, Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Dancing in the Dark’ in which he sings about living in a dump and wanting to change his clothes, his hair, and even his own face. I hope all this euphoric music leaves you wanting to dance like Courteney Cox, or even better, 91-year-old Springsteen superfan Jeanne Heintz (November 8, 1924-February 28, 2020), who attended more than 300 of his concerts, who the Boss picked out of the crowd to dance to the song on February 29, 2016 (pictured) at the Xcel Energy Center (now the Grand Casino Arena) in downtown Saint Paul, MN. Workweek, here we come!