🎤 Get Ready… Get Happy: The Strange Journey of a Joyful Apocalypse
There’s a song older than most of us. You’ve probably heard it — even if you didn’t mean to.
“Forget your troubles, c’mon get happy…”
It’s smooth, swingin’, sugar-coated. It’s been covered by Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, even Rufus Wainwright. Heck, Barbra Streisand and Liza Minnelli did a version together. That’s how deep this track runs in American culture. It’s safe. It’s classic. It’s what your grandma might hum while folding laundry… and that’s exactly why it hides something.
What most people don’t realize is that "Get Happy" isn’t just a feel-good jingle — it's got biblical undertones and fire-and-brimstone roots that have been conveniently sliced out of most modern versions. Seriously, go back to the original lyrics:
"Shout Hallelujah, come on get happy / Get ready for the judgment day..."
Yeah. That’s not just dancing in the rain. That’s end times gospel with a smile — a revival tent anthem dressed in a feather boa.
Most performances ditch the “judgment day” part entirely. It’s too weird, too pointed. Nobody wants to think about their soul while watching a Technicolor musical.
But we do.
💀 Enter The JURN
We wanted to cover it.
The JURN — our undead punk wrecking crew — was ready to drag "Get Happy" back into the grave where it started, clean off the glitter, and put the apocalyptic edge right back on it.
But there’s a problem with public domain law.
That original version of the song doesn’t officially go free until January 1st, 2026. Until then, it’s tangled in copyrights and gnarled legal traps that even a band of skeletal misfits can’t legally claw through without a C&D letter from Judge Dredd-head and his merry band of rights holders.
Taz didn’t care, of course. He wanted to shred it anyway.
But Vox — ever the strategist — decided to do something different.
If we can’t sing it, we’ll write the prophecy that precedes it.
Thus was born “Get Ready, Get Happy” — not a cover, but a prelude to the original. A new song about preparing for the end. A punk gospel anthem with sirens, ash, and molotov joy. It keeps the bones of the original message — the call to embrace joy in the face of oblivion — but rewires it for a world already burning.
It’s not a warning. It’s an invitation.
“The world is ending… but not for you.”
🔥 A New Kind of Revival
“Get Ready, Get Happy” dropped with a video stitched from glitch, rot, and blacklight skeletons moshing through the rubble. It’s an anthem for anyone who’s ever danced through disaster with a grin.
And when 2026 rolls around, maybe we’ll finally drop the cover that started it all.
Until then: Watch the video here!!!
Light the match. Lace your boots.
Get ready. Get happy.
