Sunday Songbook: Winter
Baby, it’s cold outside
I’m not a fan of winter, especially the holiday jingles and ads assaulting the senses from every TV screen, storefront and shopping aisle — with the attached commercial commandment to joyfully socialize and shop for the sake of the free market, if not the infant Christ. With that in mind, here’s my grudging acknowledgement of the coldest time of the year, with a selection of Yule-proofed songs for your approval.
The Bangles, Hazy Shade of Winter
A nicely electrified and electrifying performance of a Simon and Garfunkel tune by the short-lived eighties girl band.
Sting, The Hounds of Winter
Sting’s 1996 album, Mercury Falling, drew its title from the first song, 'The Hounds of Winter,’ written in his Wiltshire home. “The line 'mercury falling' is very literal,” the artist told The Boston Globe. “It was getting colder and I wanted to write a song about the winter... And it's a phrase that's resonant with references. Mercury is so many things. It's a liquid, an element, a planet, a poison, a god. So it was redolent of all of those references. And I also feel that if you describe the album, it's very mercurial."
Baby it’s Cold Outside, from Neptune’s Daughter
A pink patriarchal penis person stalks an innocent young woman tricked into a holiday visit to his home. The sexual predator psychopathically alternates manipulation with objectification, all in the disgusting service of heteronormative genital penetration. That is, until the next scene, where the tables are turned and a fully empowered woman exercises her sexual autonomy over a typically commitment-phobic male.
Well, that’s one way to read it, I guess.
“Neptune's Daughter” is a 1949 musical romantic comedy starring Esther Williams, Red Skelton, Ricardo Montalbán, Betty Garrett, Keenan Wynn, Xavier Cugat and Mel Blanc. The song “Baby, It's Cold Outside,” won an Academy Award for Best Toxic Masculinity. Whoops sorry, I meant Best Song.
The Pixies, Winterlong
A nice reworking of Neil Young’s classic seventies song.
The Rolling Stones, Winter
Overshadowed by the single “Angie” from the 1973 album Goat‘s Head Soup, this side two track shows the Stones in peak form, thanks in no small part to melodic lead guitarist Mick Taylor.
Tori Amos, Winter
Winter was the fourth single from Amos’ 1992 debut album, Little Earthquakes, and the singer-songwriter’s first single to reach the top 40, peaking at number 25 in the UK. The ballad, dedicated to her father, uses the imagery of winter to address linked themes of love, regret and growth.
Fun fact from Wikipedia:
Professional wrestler Mick Foley penned an essay for Slate about how the song "changed his life"; he listened to it before a bout with Terry Funk on the IWA Japan tour in Tokyo to relieve his stress.
Yoko Ono, Listen, The Snow Is Falling
Some might call it impossible, but here’s an actually listenable Yoko Ono track: the B-side of John Lennon's 1971 single, “Happy Xmas (War Is Over).” (If you do find yourself feeling any ill effects from the song, consult your local song doctor — me.)
Garland Jeffreys, Coney Island Winter
The underrated R&B singer Garland Jeffreys recalls a place in his New York city youth on this propulsive track from the 2011 album, The King of In Between.
Fleet Foxes, White Winter Hymnal
With the band’s mastery of Beatles-worthy harmonies, the first single from their 2008 self-titled debut album could almost be a Christmas song.
According to Wikipedia, “former Cocteau Twins bassist Simon Raymonde, the head of record label Bella Union, was considering shutting it down due to financial troubles, but after hearing a demo version of "White Winter Hymnal", he was motivated to continue going on and signed Fleet Foxes to the label based on how much he liked the song.”
Good decision. The label has done nicely since, signing other talented groups and artists that went on to fame and fortune.
Bruce Cockburn, The Coldest Night of the Year
“I was up all night socializing/try to stop a latent depression from crystallizing,” sings Coburn in this jaunty 1981 song, penned when his marriage was breaking up.
The Cowboy Junkies, Fuck, I Hate the Cold
In the tune above, Cockburn sings of a blistering winter in Scarborough, Ontario. In the tune below, Cowboy Junkies singer Margo Timmins sings of of the same in Montreal. I’ve lived in both areas, and I can confirm they’re frigging cold. Margo puts special emphasis on this in the lyrics.
Merle Haggard, If We Make It Through December
More downbeat winter stuff. AND it’s country-western. Though I must say, this one rises above Nashville’s standard-issue ‘I’m-drinkin’-cause-she-done-me-wrong-and-took-off-with-my-truck-n’-dog’ tropes.
Kate Bush, December Will Be Magic Again
Alright then, let’s have Kate straighten this out. Here’s the newly-minted star in 1979, prophesying a time without cloying holiday jingles, gauche store displays, and the persistent corporate command to eat, drink and be merrily multicultural. Oh wait, the song’s not saying that, exactly…still a nice tune.
BONUS VIDEO
Ray Charles and Dionne Warwick, Baby It’s Cold Outside
Almost forty years after its debut, two legendary R&B performers try their hand at that rapey hit song from Neptune’s Daughter. You can’t go wrong with Ray.
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...and your satirical streak is showing! Great collection, thanks.