30 Day Song Challenge: Day 20 (A Song You Listen to When You're Angry)

I was between two minds about today's brief: did I want to choose a song that calms me down when I'm angry, or a song that enhances my anger? In the end, I went with the latter choice, because let's face it, who wants to be calm all the time when you could be listening to Led fucking Zeppelin?

This song doesn't make me angry; it simply imparts a certain resolve to do something about my anger. It's got a relentless pace and halting rhythm that just dares you to sit around and stew in impotent rage; it practically drags you to your feet and kicks you out the door, saying "stop being such a fucking baby!" And you have to listen, because it's Led Zeppelin, and you're not allowed ignore Led Zeppelin.

Walk around the city with this on your iPod on a day when you're in a real bad mood, feeling misanthropic and wishing you had a big fuckoff sword to slash your way through the crowds of shopper-tourist-zombies who suddenly decide to stop and turn around right in front of you (because fuck you, that's why), and you'll feel like you're a fucking Jedi or something. When you've got Page screaming tortured-steel solos in your ears and Bonzo playing your footsteps like a marionette, it's hard not to feel like you're in control.

But more than that, it's the lyrics, and Plant's devastating delivery of them, that make whatever you're doing seem like the most important thing in the history of the universe. When you have the Golden God himself screaming at you from atop Mount Olympus about the mighty arms of Atlas holding the Heavens from the Earth, then you sit up and you take notice of what's going on, because if you start dicking around, Zeppelin's gonna stick a lightning bolt made of guitars up your ass.

Achilles Last Stand is big, it's loud, it's ostentatious, it's thunderous and it's unapologetic for all of this: the perfect song to get you nice and riled up, ready for an argument or a fight, straining to throw an insult or a fist. It will focus your anger to a fine point, so that you know exactly what you're angry about and where and upon whom to unleash your vengeance. So, next time you find yourself consumed with that directionless rage that modern life's seemingly endless stream of tiny injustices can so often push over the tipping point, then listen to this song, and if it doesn't make you feel like taking on the whole world at once, then I guess you can have a glass of wine and scream into your pillow. After the guitar solo, though.