This one’s a little easier. Though I don’t generally choose music depending on my mood, when I’m in a good mood and driving – for instance, on a beautiful summer day when I’m cruising home from the office and looking forward to a long weekend – I will crank something on my car stereo. I have a handful of go-to songs for that situation, songs that I love, that sound great loud, and that I can sing along with. This is one of them.

The garage sound, the chord progression, the rhythms, the shouty-rootsy vocals… it’s a great song reminiscent of the original garage/psychedelic/punk of the 60’s released in the Pebbles and Nuggets series. (My college roommate was heavily into those series; I was not much impressed at the time, and now I’m sorry I didn’t pay more attention.)

I don’t know all the lyrics to this one perfectly, but half the time, I’m “singing” along to the bass line or the guitar anyway. The one downside to playing this when I’m happy is that it’s possible to forget yourself in the music and drive a little over the speed limit and get pulled over and ticketed. Dammit.