November 19, 2011

Nature’s music slows,
moves inward into silence
to measure a thought.

Each season seems to have its own rhythm.  As autumn progresses the music slows and becomes more internal, more pensive.

I have always loved music and certain music reminds me of the music of particular seasons.

The summer sizzles with the hotter music of Sly and the Family Stone (epitomized by “Dance to the Music” and “Everyday People” and “Hot Fun in the Summertime”), Santana (embodied in “Oye Como Va” and “Black Magic Woman”), Joe Cocker (“Feelin’ Alright” and “Cry Me a River”), Creedence Clearwater Revival (“Down on the Corner” and “Lookin’ Out My Back Door”), and the Beach Boys (“Good Vibrations” and “California Girls”) and the B-52s (“Love Shack”) .

Autumn has a softer sound, more singer-songwriter like James Taylor (epitomized by “Fire and Rain” and “Long Ago and Far Away”), Don McLean (“Vincent” and “Winterwood”), Simon & Garfunkel (“Sounds of Silence” and “Scarborough Fair”), and Joni Mitchell (“Urge for Going” and “Help Me” and “Hejira”) and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (“Helplessly Hoping” and “Find the Cost of Freedom”).

Winter seems to me more instrumental, as the world and the words disappear inward: George Winston (December) and Windham Hill (Winter Solstice).

And then the world slowly wakes up again in spring to Enya (“Orinoco Flow”) and some crisp Al Jarreau (“Mornin’” and “Easy” and “Superfine Love”).

These are the songs and singers that pop into my soul at this moment.  I know I am leaving out some I will later regret.  Maybe I will do better next time as we “go round and round and round/ In the circle game” [Joni Mitchell].