Feb. 4, 2016
Writer: Sheila Deane (thoughtballoons)
Being guru this past week has been a fascinating journey, and so I chose the playlist to somewhat recreate that journey for you. The very first nominations tended to be for songs about the losses and regrets passing time entails: broken relationships, nostalgia for youth, the pain of ageing, and the grief of bereavement. Then, songs began to appear that recorded what might endure despite the passing of time: songs about long-lasting love, powerful memories, and the newborn generation that can create a sense of hopefulness as we face our own mortality. Some songs celebrated the endurance of the Earth itself, trees that outlive humans by hundreds of years, and the constancy of the Sun. Finally, many songs spoke of time itself as the greatest gift of all, the way it breaks us and heals us, changes us and renews us, makes life precious, but also refreshingly insignificant in the greater scheme of things.
A song about the relentlessly young imagining they might one day be older, responsible, and respectable. That’ll be Someday as far as The Strokes are concerned, but it sure won’t be today. And on the other end of life’s spectrum Katzenjammer try to imagine the youthful memories locked in the mind of an old woman with Alzheimer’s in Lady Grey.
The largest amount of time expressed in a song must be Jens Lekman‘s Postcard 29. It gives the “long version” of his love story by beginning at the Big Bang, 14 billion years ago. In a shorter time frame, Gretchen Peters sings of a waitress’s lifetime of regrets in the Five Minutes it takes her to smoke a cigarette out behind the diner.
Bonnie Raitt observes the way time brings unfortunate effects, to her parents, friends and herself, then finds it can quite take you by surprise as she welcomes new love into her life in the Nick of Time. The lines that age carves into a face can be expressive of a long and interesting life, as The Beautiful South take note of the “crows feet” in The Prettiest Eyes.
Active Ageing is, according to the singer’s wife in Leon Rosselson’s song from his 2016 album, all about cramming as many activities into the day as possible. Time may be short, but it will be full, to the dismay of the husband who just wants some rest. And in a spectacular vocal performance from 1961, Jacques Brel plays with musical time, packing as many notes as you might think possible into the line, then doubling, tripling, and sextupling that, in La Valse à Mille Temps.
Life goes by in days: some may be foggy, rainy, or stormy, but, fortunately, some may be, as Belle and Sebastian hope, Another Sunny Day. Other ways of counting time passing: schemes, dreams, and bottles of wine emptied. All This Crazy Gift of Time by Kevin Ayers.
I live on a farm, and am responsible for our animals. That means I don’t get away much. I’m rooted like a tree to this one spot. Every morning I walk the dogs just as the sun is rising, and every morning I am struck by the way small things have changed, fungus, grasses, wild flowers, insects etc, as they fulfill their life plan, but the rising sun is a massive consoling constant. This experience seems to me to be summed up in the final two songs, one celebratory, one perhaps more elegiac, but both of them rich and wise musical expressions that attempt to penetrate the power and mystery of time. Thea Gilmore in Sol Invictus. Nina Simone in Everything Must Change.
The A List
- The Strokes. Someday.
- Katzenjammer. Lady Grey.
- Jens Lekman. Postcard 29.
- Gretchen Peters. Five Minutes.
- Bonnie Raitt. Nick of Time.
- The Beautiful South. The Prettiest Eyes.
- Leon Rosselson. Active Ageing.
- Jacques Brel. La Valse à Mille Temps.
- Belle and Sebastian. Another Sunny Day.
- Kevin Ayers. All This Crazy Gift of Time.
- Thea Gilmore. Sol Invictus
- Nina Simone. Everything Must Change.
The B List
I organized the B List as a series of awards.
The “Tearjerker” award is shared by Abba, Slipping Through My Fingers, Kathy Mattea, Where’ve You Been, and No-Man, Back When You Were Beautiful.
The “This is the song I discovered I want sung at my funeral” award goes to Kate Wolf, Back Roads. This really really is my song.
The “Eye-opener” award for songs that were new to me and very exciting for many different reasons, goes to Karine Polwart, Rivers Run, Band of Horses, The Slow Cruel Hands of Time and the enchanting Blackalicious, Twist of Time.
The “Old Friends” award, appropriately, goes to Paul Simon, Leaves That Are Green, and Simon and Garfunkel, A Hazy Shade of Winter.
The “Most Successful Shoehorn” award goes to Traveling Wilbury’s End Of The Line.
The award for “Most Uplifting” song goes to Shirley Bassey, Make the World a Little Younger.
The “Damn that an inferior version of this song was zedded” award goes to Louis Armstrong, and his sublime version of We Have All the Time in the World, and the glorious old rockers celebrating Bob Dylan’s 30th Anniversary with a rousing rendition of My Back Pages.
The “Please can I have my three minutes back” award goes to Frazer Hines, Time Traveller. I played it to everyone I met this week, because laughter is good for the soul.
- Paul Simon. Leaves That Are Green.
- Karine Polwart. Rivers Run.
- ABBA. Slipping Through My Fingers.
- No-Man. Back When You Were Beautiful.
- Kathy Mattea. Where’ve You Been.
- Band of Horses. The Slow Cruel Hands of Time.
- Blackalicious. Twist of Time.
- Simon and Garfunkel. A Hazy Shade of Winter
- Kate Wolf. Back Roads.
- Shirley Bassey. Make The World a Little Younger.
- Traveling Wilburys. End of the Line.
- Louis Armstrong. We Have All the Time in the World.
- Bob Dylan. My Back Pages.
- Frazer Hines. Time Traveller.