Do you need to be angry to Rock?

Live Aid creator Bob Geldof once said “Rock and roll needs to be against something. It can’t just BE”   This got me thinking are the best rock songs angry rock songs?  Do you have to be mad to truly rock.   As I type this I am listening to Whitesnake /Here I go again.  David Coverdale is certainly not jolly in this song.  He has wasted enough time and he is out of here!

There are certainly plenty of happy songs out there but are they truly rock songs …  I mean Walking on Sunshine and Good Vibrations are amazing tunes but as much as I hate categorizing music … I wouldn’t call either of those rock hits.    But as I dig a little deeper I think you can go with some positive vibe U2 songs and of course there’s always Three Dog Night’s/Joy to the World.    I can’t decided if Ray Davies is happy or Sad in the below song.  You decided.   I mean on the one hand he wants to always be by her side … but he also can’t sleep at night … so that’s got to make him grumpy.

So our midday guy Nick Jakusz did point out that the party anthems are pretty happy (Rock all night… Shook me all Night Long etc)  Also he claims that Love in an Elevator is a happy tune too.    He definitely has a point … I had kinda forgotten about those …

So in conclusion … I don’t think you necessarily have to be against something to truly rock out Sir Bob but maybe some of the best rock songs have been written out of anger and lets face it a raging guitar riff kinda sounds angry all by itself.