I just realised as I was flipping along through my iPod that I associate some songs with certain seasons, regardless of when I first started listening to them. Not all of them jump at me, but some evoke really strong feelings of being tied to a certain season of the year. I’m not sure why, as there are not necessarily any specific memories associated with them.
*Golden Brown * by the Stranglers - definitely Autumn. People Do It All the Time * by Stereolab - strongly Spring. Trouble With Dreams * by the Eels ** - Winter, for certain. Miracles by the **Pet Shop Boys ** - Summer.
Does anyone else do this? I know there are sometimes compilations made of what are considered “Summer Songs”, and usually they have something to do with the weather in them. I suppose Miracles does mention the sun shining and blue skies etc, but I love Winter above all other seasons, and my natural instinct would normally be to file it mentally under a crisp, clear, blue sky wintery day. But no, it feels like summer to me.
Alternately, do some songs feel like daytime/nighttime songs to you?
**Mama Cass Elliott’s ** (in particular her rendition) Dream A Little Dream of Me speaks of the evening. To me, Death Cab For Cuties’ Soul Meets Body is Summery. Cole Porter’s Let’s Do It, Let’s Fall In Love says “Spring” to me.
There’s a whole system within Indian classical music that specifies the season, time of day, emotional state, etc. Wiki reference here. Musicians and musicologists study for years to learn all the ins and outs of how it works. One of these days, I want to read Learning Indian Music: A Systematic Approach which is located on a col on the upper reaches of Mount Toberead.
Even within Western music, I’ve found that there are certain pieces that I just don’t want to hear early in the day. I remember driving at 9:10 AM, turning on NPR, and hearing Mahler 7. Couple of days later, also driving that early, and I hear Mahler 9. Now, I love Mahler symphonies, but who in Hell wants to hear something that complex at 9AM? Obviously, someone at the local NPR station. I’m not sure I want to hear one until about 9PM.
Mornings, I prefer something more ‘central’, like early Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart, Schumann, etc. It isn’t until afternoon that I’m ready for something more adventurous, harmonically speaking. Evenings are when the more complex pieces come out - the thrash metal, the free jazz, the contemporary classical, and so on.
I don’t really have any seasonal associations, although Messiah at Christmastime is so omnipresent that I can’t hear it without thinking of Christmas.
Yes. Light poppy music evokes Spring, fast-paced and lighthearted rock reminds me of summer, and somber or introspective music makes me think of Autumn. Winter doesn’t really have a musical type for me.
There seems to be a subset of songs floating around out there (like an Oort Cloud, if you will) that give me a very strong impression of driving around a city at night.
Off the top of my head:
Front 242 – “Flag”
Girls Against Boys – “Zodiac Love Song”
U2 – “The Unforgettable Fire”
Amon Tobin – “Sordid”
Cop Shoot Cop – “Ambulance Song,” “Last Legs,” “Hung Again,”…hell, most of their songs
Depeche Mode – Everything off of “Violator” (except “Enjoy the Silence”), especially (natch) “Waiting for the Night”
Sisters of Mercy – “Driven like the Snow”
The Devlins – “Alone in the Dark”
PJ Harvey – “Working for the Man”
Actually, a song will remind me of what I was going through when I heard it/it played a lot.
Obvious-California Dreamin reminds me of autumn.
Vacation reminds me of summer.
Sweet Child O Mine reminds me of nighttime.
The whole Automatic For The People album (R.E.M.) feels like being on the road in the dead of night to me, because I liked to listen to it on the Greyhound back to school in Albany (from Manhattan), and I invariably took the latest possible bus, usually 2 or 3 AM. I must have heard the electric guitar kick in on Drive just as we entered the Lincoln Tunnel at least a dozen times.
Also, a lot of groovy instrumentals by Shuggie Otis (which were probably recorded in sunny California by a musician with warm weather on his mind) remind me of snow because I first listened to them while walking around a snowy college campus.
Ulver’s “Perdition City” is tightly linked to winter nights in the city for me.
On the other end of the spectrum, G’n’R’s “Paradise City” is a summertime song.
Well, now, my cynicism regarding those in the music biz leads me to feel the song is almost certainly about heroin, as well, but it has been said otherwise:
However, that came from Wikipedia, so salt grains should be liberally sprinkled.
Regardless of it’s meaning, what I’m talking about is the *feel * of the song. I do not listen to the **Velvet Underground ** (I actively avoid them, to be quite honest, but that’s another thread) and so am not familiar with the song Snow, but it doesn’t necessarily mean the feeling connected with it would be wintery because the drug reference has a wintery name.
Does that make any sense? I might have just confused myself.
Back on track, the **Scissor Sisters ** cover of *Comfortably Numb * makes me think of either late, late, late night or early, early morning - some time before or after all other cars have left the streets of the city and the air is warm and summery… but while the original by **Pink Floyd ** makes me think of nighttime, too, it feels more wintery to me.
Yes! I’m glad to know I’m not alone, since I’ve just gotten blank looks when I try to explain it.
The Eels - I like Birds is late spring, almost but not quite summer. Cheerful and upbeat, still happy at the life that’s springing up everywhere.
Soda Stereo - Efecto Doppler is a mid fall song. You can see winter coming but it’s not quite there. It’s chilly and the wind makes it damn cold, but the last dying leaves are barely clinging to the trees as you look at the white-grey sky.
Monkees - Steam Engine is definitely high summer. I can practically feel the so-bright-it-hurts sunshine and dusty air.
Missed the edit window. I agree with the OP that it’s not the lyrics themselves that inspire what season it is. Heck, it could be a song that’s specifically about, say, Summer, but I might think it feels more like an early Spring one.
