Written by UPDATE: You can listen to this entire playlist here. Thanks Grooveshark!
As I was walking to work yesterday and I saw trees ablaze with the change of the season, I was listening to Fleet Foxes’ “Tiger Mountain Peasant Song” and it just FIT. Then it struck me that we always talk about “summer songs.” You know what they are, the fun, springy, poppy jams that color your warm evenings on the beach and backyard BBQs. I LOVE summer songs. But their time is in the summer, and news flash! It’s not the summer any more suckas. It’s autumntimes. Football, pretty leaves, cooling temperatures, and the looming holiday season require a different brand of music. I know what mine sounds like, but I want to know what your jams are for this special time of year. Because the leaves, they are a-changin’. Give me no more than 5 song selections.
2) Yo La Tengo – Autumn Sweater: one of my favorite thing about fall is sweaters. I think it’s a good fall driving song (also, awesome beat).
3) Bob Dylan – Girl of the North Country: the guitar in this song (off the album, not usually in live versions) sounds like crisp, falling leaves.
4) U2- October : this is a late fall song. like Bono sings: “the trees are stripped bare, of all they wear” Fall isn’t warm anymore and it’s almost winter. It’s the end of the season.
Sherman: With YouTube videos, that tend to be hilarious, and undermine the music itself, so watch or don’t watch according to your purposes.
Leaves That Are Green – Simon and Garfunkel- Fall is often a metaphor for mortality, what with all the leaves dying and coldness coming on. This forgotten track off Sounds of Silence lacks almost any subtlety in making that connection (“I was 22 when I wrote this song/I’m 23 now, but won’t be for long”), but Paul Simon’s straightforward, matter-of-fact singing and lyrics still manage to convey the wistfulness of time slipping away. Hello, hello, hello, hello/Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye/That’s all there is/And leaves that are green, turn to brown
Subterranean Homesick Alien – Radiohead- Speaking of wistfulness, the rebound track on OK Computer after the killer cacophony of “Paranoid Android” has the feel of a fall breeze, blowing leaves down the street. Like Fall, Thom Yorke evokes both nostalgia and longing for something else. But like Paul Simon and me on any temperate fall day, he’s not in any hurry to get somewhere else. Maybe Fall doesn’t only demand acceptance of that wistfulness, but enjoyment of it. I’d show them the stars and the meaning of life/they’d lock me away, but I’d be alright
Ev’ry Valley – G.F. Handel- Liturgically, Fall falls in the part of the Christian calendar when preparing for Christmas. In the Catholic Church, it’s the end of Ordinary Time when we read a lot of Revelation and talk about the end of the world, but also when we break into Advent and start doing the prophecies. The first act of Handel’s great oratorio, The Messiah, puts the words of the King James Version of the Bible to song in one of the finest vocal works in the English language. One of the best of the prophecy pieces is the Air for Tenor, “Ev’ry Valley,” taken from Isaiah and the basis of John the Baptist’s voice that cried out in the wilderness. It takes the longing and wistfulness from recognizing the world around you and transfers it to the hope for something better. Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill made low.
BONUS: Because it’s awesome, the re-mix of the first act choral “He Shall Purify” used in Charlie Wilson’s War.
The Man Comes Around – Johnny Cash- Of course, the coming of Jesus may not be something good for everyone, especially not those who made a deal with the devil to win afantasy football game. In one of the last songs he wrote in his life, Johnny Cash wrote, the title track off his fourth album for the American label to address his final days and the final days he believed in for all of mankind. In the classic Cash way, he is both in earnest while putting the words of Revelation to song and somewhat carefree. Even without knowing that “Hurt” comes later on the album, you get the sense that Cash doesn’t have a clear conscience, but also that he welcomes Judgment, because, well, what the hell? And the whirlwind is in the thorn tree.
Last of the Mohicans Theme- Finally, Chase brings up football with fall music, and I feel there’s never been a more perfect blending of football and fall songs than the Nike commercial featuring Steven Jackson running to the theme from Last of the Mohicans. The music is that other fall wind (as opposed to the one Yorke sings in time with), the one that picks up leaves and swirls them around. And since I hate the movie, I am happy to associate this fine piece of music with something else, even if I have an evil corporation to thank for it. Why are we still paying so much for sneakers when you got little kid slaves making them/What are your overheads?
Aaron: I feel like I just got served. But I am happy with that. I want to listen to all of these musics now.
Oddly, Fall represents a time of renewal for me. I suppose that because it coincides (or did coincide) with the academic calender I consider it full of vibrant energy and possibility. Most of my songs therefore, are not about ending, but beginning.
1) Further Seems Forever – On Legendary
Whilst I was in England I would listen FSF with my window open to the courtyard of my dorm. This version of FSF was the first replacement of Chris Carraba (Dashboard Confessional) and one of my favorite versions of FSF. On Legendary speaks literally of this season: “Summer’s gone / And winter is never too far now.” To me, the arpeggio overlay is the auditory representation of leaves falling to the ground and the cresendo to –> “On the ground” is the visual example of s*** getting real. On my return to WM senior year, I again listened to the song, and then the cresendo represented the arrival of the respected members of d2e to the banner year of our education, one by one being added to the combustion that would later be known as the madison’s man-love explosion best typified by krdavi’s lemur-loving embrace.
2) Fleet Foxes – Blue Ridge Mountains
Enough said, really. A recent bachelor party convinced me of two things: Josh McCrea really is a ninja who can disappear, and Virginia is my favorite state in the fall.
3) Sigur Ros – Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust
I listen to Sigur Ros whenever i feel up or down or whenever I want to feel anything. I’m consistently amazed at the soundscape they construct and I find myself mostly lost in music unless I stare at trees. Then it makes sense.
4) Pavane In E Minor – Debussy
The arrangement I have is for the classical guitar. I’ll destroy it’s beauty if I speak of it.
5) AFI – End Transmission
Ok, back to the whole energy motif I was trying to work into here. Afi’s newest album “Crash Love” is something I haven’t fully gotten my mind around, but that doesn’t matter when I’m driving. Because a good fall song is a good song while driving. I’ll go ahead and pick “end transmission” because like most AFI songs I never know what the hell they are talking about, but it sounds cool. I will point out afavorite line: “If there’s discretion that you’ve not abandoned, now’s the time.” I think that’s good advice for the kiddies. Throw reason to the wind and drive faster. That’s what I like to do in the fall.
Sherman: If for nothing else in this excellent post, AA deserves a medal for this sentence:
Stephanie: This is a tough decision when limited to only a few choices… I generally separate my fall music into either classics that make me want to relax and jump in a huge pile of leaves, or those songs that get me pumped to run in the much cooler weather. So for softies my choices this fall are:
Bruce Springsteen- Walking in Memphis- My all time feel good song
Bon Jovi- Livin on a Prayer- Because fall = football, and Penn State Football = Bon Jovi
James Morrison- You Make It Real- Because who else would lay in a leaf pile to help me find the longest leaf stem ever?
ne of my favorite tracks during my first fall at W&M and has been associated with the season since then.
Wow. Great Idea!
Of course damn near anything Bob Dylan wrote pre-1967 works for this. Same goes for Cash,with the exception of the last two records.
I’d add the following:
Beirut “Nantes” – I know ‘bouncy roggae’ doesn’t usually shout autumn, but something about the chorus ‘Nobody raise your voices, it’s just another night in Nantes’ makes me feel cozy and wine-drunk.
Sufjan Stevens ‘Casimir Pulaski Day’: I know Pulaski day is in the spring, but this is a tune that will get you out of bed on a late November morning.
Led Zeppelin ‘Stairway to Heaven’: There I said it.
Wilco ‘Ashes of American Flags’: Swirling vortex of aching over the fall of American dominance and the death of our brothers in arms. Yea, that’s fall alright.
Neil Young ‘Harvest Moon’: Really surprised no one said this one! A primary instrument is a broom sweeping up a porch! This song is rocking chairs and apple cider personified.
I see your Harvest Moon and I raise you Harvest. I do regret not bringing in Neil. For shame.
The odd thing about Harvest is that it feels more like a dead of winter album to me. Something about “it’s time to die” theme and the way everything is really sparely produced and straining. There’s the sort of haunting quiet on that album that I think just suits desolate bleakness a whole lot better. I guess if you ‘like’ Fall then Harvest Moon is more your style, if you think Fall is an abomination, Harvest might fit your mood better.
Good point and I agree. I thought we were just talking about the title tracks.
Great idea, and some great ideas up there. I’d add:
1) Aimee Mann – You Do
-This song reminds me of driving on a gray fall day back in NY. I think you could probably pick a lot of her songs though for fall.
2) Ryan Adams – Easy Plateau
-I think the slide guitar, in the way it is used in this song, feels very autumn.
3) The Dismemberment Plan – Superpowers
The first 3 tracks on ‘Change’ by The Dismemberment Plan always remind me of fall, but I guess I’d pick Superpowers above the other two.
4) Beta Band – Squares
5) Grandaddy – Now It’s On
Maybe it’s the beards, maybe it’s the flannel, maybe it is the album cover, but this one always struck me as late fall/early winter.
6) Great Lake Swimmers – Your Rocky Spine
7) R.E.M. – Band and Blame
9) Smashing Pumpkins – Thirty-Three
10) Radiohead – Everything In Its Right Place