Feeling down? Make a list of the good things in life! It worked for Julie Andrews in The Sound Of Music. Whiskers on kittens? Can’t be sad now.

Ian Dury got the idea to make a happy list after one of his roadies nearly died on stage from electrocution. He wrote the words in his hotel room that same night and even managed to work in a reference to surviving electric shocks. Seems like a pretty good time to accentuate the positive.

Dury grew up in and around London right around the tail end of World War II. In grammar school, as punishment for infractions, he was forced to memorize long passages of poetry which he then had to recite without a single error. This naturally led to a healthy resistance to authority, but also (reason to be cheerful) a love of wordplay and language. Good thing, because Ian’s strength did not lie with singing. In fact, he studied art and became a college art teacher for most of the 60s before starting up his first band at the dawn of the 70s as he approached nearly 30 years of age (quite late in the game for most musicians).

Success proved elusive with his first band, but after they broke up, Dury signed with Stiff Records and gained notoriety (although no sales) with his first single, “Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll.” Soon thereafter he formed The Blockheads, a band influenced by a melting pot of punk, rock, reggae, jazz and disco, and by the end of the decade had scored a UK #1. It was during a tour of Europe in support of that #1 when the roadie’s not-quite-death experience occurred and Dury turned tragedy (nearly) into art (cheerily).

Released as a single in the summer of 1979, the proto-rap “Reasons To Be Cheerful, Part 3” topped out at #3 on the UK chart. The “Part 3” part remains a mystery as there are no Parts 1 and 2. And the world is a lesser place for it.

But hey, another reason to be cheerful? That sweet saxophone solo over a 70s easy-listening dance groove. Delicious. Like schnitzel with noodles, right, Julie? (see above, Sound Of Music).

So why don’t you get back into bed …. with Ian Dury & The Blockheads.