I think this school year needs to start on a happy note. Seeing as how most people reading this column are at the start of an eight-month slog through classes good, bad and indifferent, I thought I’d search the vaults for a song that could touch upon school and do so in an optimistic way – either through the lyrics or through the music. With this week’s installment I think I have been able to do both.

Although not specifically about school, “Monday” by Wilco, contains enough direct references to that hallowed institution to offer it to you as this school year’s first Song of the Week.

Released in 1996, “Monday” can be found on Being There – perhaps one of the greatest collection of songs in any genre ever consigned to tape. (If you are at all interested in Rock/Country/Folk/Noise, do yourself a favour and buy/download it. Kill if necessary.)

As already stated, Being There is a genre traipsing record. Amid the slow country ballads and occasional detour into experimental noise, “Monday,” with its high energy and electric guitars, punctures the inherent darkness in Wilco’s music like an exuberant drunk at a funeral.

Complete with backing horn section, “Monday” is reminiscent of the Rolling Stones’ “Heartbreaker.” But whereas “Heartbreaker” wants to break your heart with its jaunt through the underside of the city, “Monday” wants to pick you up and mix you a drink at the party of the year.

In terms of the lyrics, “Monday” doesn’t appear to be about anything in particular. But despite primary songwriter Jeff Tweedy’s inclination towards the obtuse and nonsensical, there is something familiar about “Monday’s” lyrics. Seemingly evoking the simple pleasures of wasted youth, Tweedy sings, “He said/Monday, I’m all high/Get me out of FLA/In school, yeah/I fooled ya/Now I know I made a mistake.” In keeping with the slacker student sentiment appearing throughout the song (“I cut class in school yeah”) the listener is also presented with images of reckless abandon: “Blister on a turnpike, let me by/I only want to wonder why when I don’t want to die/Oooh, I shot ya, yeah, I know/I only want to go where my wheels roll.”

Rather than be an approximation of some situation or story, the lyrics really serve the life affirming nature of the music. And what could be more life affirming than guitars, bass and drums and a horn section?

Listen to “Monday” and get happy.