The 2023 A-to-Z blogging challenge theme is resilience. Resilience is the ability to get back on our feet and keep going after life knocks us down and kicks sand in our faces. Resilience is how the psyche survives and copes, but resilience doesn’t necessarily wear a cape of positivity.
The 26 songs I’ve chosen show us, musically, what resilience looks (sounds?) like. I’ll offer a reflection of the resilience in each song. The songs are alphabetical by the artist’s first name or the group’s name, except for M, O, U, and X.
N is for Nancy Sinatra and These Boots are Made for Walkin’.
This song is resilience anthem song #6 of 7 in the 26 songs I’m looking at this month.
Nancy Sinatra released this Lee Hazlewood-written song in December 1965. On January 22, 1966, the song charted and kept climbing until it reached No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in late February.
I like to think of this song as fitting right into the story in the song Chain of Fools. The singer has called-out the cheating, possibly abusive, partner for his behavior…
*You keep sayin’ you’ve got somethin’ for me
*Somethin’ you call love but confess
*You’ve been a’messin’ where you shouldn’t ‘ve been a’messin’
*You keep lyin’ when you oughta be truthin’
*You keep playin’ where you shouldn’t be playin’
*And you keep thinkin’ that you’ll never get burnt
She’s on the verge of leaving him, and she warns him that he’s pushing his luck, because one of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you.
This is a resilience anthem, because the singer is putting the partner on notice, just like in Chain of Fools. She’s willing to stick it out for a while longer, but she’s got a brand new box of matches. Translation: “I’m going to metaphorically burn your cheating house to the ground with you in it.”
This is resilience-in-waiting, because she still harbors a tiny shred of hope (also an aspect of resilience) that her Come-to-Zeus talk with him will make him stop his cheating ways.
The song, much like I’m Still Standing, is a resilience anthem, because the message is a declaration of gaining independence or being on the cusp of independence emotionally and physically.
Plus, These Boots are Made for Walkin’ is just so darn catchy and fun to say. 😉
*Boots image by carissarogers Pixabay
Until next time,
Kaye Spencer
writing through history one romance upon a time
i do remember her. and her voice was truly captivating.
Fun song. Visiting from the A to Z!
Janet’s Smiles
It is a fun song. Thanks for stopping by!
That is one amazing video. She was a very pretty young woman, and had a great voice. She did the theme song for the Bond movie “You Only Live Twice” when her father turned it down, and really did a nice job of it.
Yes, she was (is) quite musically talented. She’s one of the few children-of-famous-singers who could actually follow in her parent’s singing footsteps to have her own successful singing career.