Being an über music
dork/snob can have its down sides. For one, there is always a song playing in
my head. Always. Mostly good, sometimes annoying, and in rare cases, downright
wretched. I also find myself to be a “completest” as well, having to own every
piece of recorded music by a given musical artist. But there are good things as
well, and I love how different songs and albums play such an important part to
my life over different eras of my own life.
With the changing of the
seasons, my musical tastes shift. For instance, I can think of no spring since
the late-80s that the eternally vernal Skylarking by XTC wasn’t played at least
a dozen times. The soundtracks to summer have been incredibly varied, and so
many fine pieces of music emanated from different car tape decks, CD players
and iPods during road trips while exploring America – usually with a bicycle or
boat or two strapped to the car’s roof racks. Autumn often sees warm Americana
in heavy rotation – R.E.M., The Decemberists, Uncle Tupelo, etc. Which leads
into winter.
Winter generally means
Christmas music to most. And growing up I loved it and always looked forward to
digging out the LPs and playing them on my parent’s bulky console stereo. But
for the past ten years or so, not so much. It’s even more difficult to even get
into winter at all living in a place like San Diego County. However, I still
try to remember what season it is. And there are a more than a few songs that
are winter-appropriate without being tied in the least to the holidays that I
greatly enjoy. Allow me to bore you with the list that I’m pecking out in a
germ tube 34,000 feet above the icy north Pacific ocean.
Wintersongs, Part I
Galaxie 500’s signature
distant, dreamy and ethereal sound reminds me of walking on fresh, crunchy snow
on a crisp, bitterly-cold and cloudless night. Their astonishing cover of Yoko
Ono’s Listen, The Snow Is Falling is
the highlight from their excellent 1990 swan song This Is Our Music. Starting
with Dean Wareham’s gentle, echoed guitar strumming and building to a full band
arrangement, with bassist Naomi Yang handling vocal duties, it’s nearly eight
minutes of sonic bliss.
Galaxie 500 – Listen, The Snow Is Falling
Listen, the snow is falling o’er town,
Listen the snow is falling ev’rywhere.
Between empire state building
And between Trafalgar Square.
Listen, the snow is falling o’er town.
Listen, the snow is falling o’er town,
Listen the snow is falling ev’rywhere.
Between your bed and mine,
Between your head and my mind.
Listen, the snow is falling o’er town.
Between Tokyo and Paris,
Between London and Dallas,
Between your love and mine.
Listen, the snow is falling ev’rywhere.
Snowing, snowfall, snowfall,
Listen, listen,
Listen, baby,
Listen.
Listen the snow is falling ev’rywhere.
Between empire state building
And between Trafalgar Square.
Listen, the snow is falling o’er town.
Listen, the snow is falling o’er town,
Listen the snow is falling ev’rywhere.
Between your bed and mine,
Between your head and my mind.
Listen, the snow is falling o’er town.
Between Tokyo and Paris,
Between London and Dallas,
Between your love and mine.
Listen, the snow is falling ev’rywhere.
Snowing, snowfall, snowfall,
Listen, listen,
Listen, baby,
Listen.
