New year, new playlist: Music to help you get through Kentucky winter blues and blahs
What does the start of a new year ignite in you?
Promise? Renewal? Maybe it’s something a little less glowing, like melancholy. Perhaps it’s one of the polar reflections of the winter season a new year encompasses, such as the warmth of a fire or the chill of snowfall. Then again, it could be the simple dread of heading out into the biting cold at the start of a work/school day or the luxury of not having to and sleeping in under the covers.
With 2023 now underway, we offer a playlist of songs mirroring at least some of those varied sentiments. These recordings cover a period of nearly 90 years with sounds that shift like Arctic cold fronts from vintage rock ‘n’ roll to cross-generational jazz to varying shades of country and more.
Whether you’re relaxing by a fireplace or shoveling snow off a sidewalk, here is a guide to a Dead of Winter Playlist full of music to help usher you into 2023.
U2: “New Year’s Day” (1983)
Not a party song, obviously. Still, despite inspiration rooted in Poland’s Solidarity movement, there is a strong current of hope that makes this breakthrough hit an appropriate bell-ringer of a song 40 years on.
Eagles: “Funky New Year” (1978)
This, on the other hand, is most definitely a party song – or, more exactly a morning after hangover headbanger released as a B-side to the Eagles’ hit version of “Please Come Home for Christmas.”
Rolling Stones: “Winter” (1973)
A very atypical Stones song, largely forgotten, from the “Goats Head Soup” album. Supposedly cut without Keith Richards’ involvement, it’s a rich ballad full of warm, string-savvy melancholy.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience: “Fire” (1967)
While not a New Year’s song or even a winter anthem, this serving of young Hendrix-ian bombast will heat up the coldest of winter evenings. Be careful not to get burned, though.
The Decemberists: “January Hymn” (2011)
A light, folkish reverie from the January-released “The King is Dead” album. Pretty bittersweet at its core, but still warmly nostalgic and wintry around the edges.
Bing Crosby: “June in January” (1934)
Just a simple, sentimental love song popularized by Bing Crosby in the movie “Here is My Heart.” No doubt, though, many will wish the title to come true as winter deepens.
Chris Stapleton: “Starting Over” (2020)
The namesake tune to the Eastern Kentucky celeb’s most recent Grammy-winning album means exactly what its title implies: a warm, hopeful, risk-taking wish for renewal. Quite fitting for the new year.
The Zombies: “This Will Be Our Year” (1968)
Again, the title is quite telling for an efficient, two-minute dollop of quintessential Brit-pop. Another reason why the Zombies’ “Odessey and Oracle” album is such a revered classic.
Billie Holiday: “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm” (1937)
This Irving Berlin standard has been covered by everyone from Ray Noble to Idina Menzel. Billie Holiday cut it twice, in 1937 and 1955, but the earlier version simply oozes with wintry warmth.
The Mama and the Papas: “California Dreamin’” (1965)
One of pop music’s most fabled winter snapshots. Penned by John Phillips during a frigid New York stay, the song wears its forlorn affection for West Coast warmth on every inch of its icy sleeve.
Merle Haggard: “If We Make It Through December” (1973)
Despite getting laid off from his factory job just before Christmas, Haggard sings of hope. “If we make it through December, we’ll be fine.” A true profession of wintry faith.
Simon and Garfunkel: “Hazy Shade of Winter” (1968)
“If your hopes should pass away, simply pretend that you can build them again.” A cocktail of winter sentiments, ranging from gray to gold, from the pen of Paul Simon.
Muddy Waters: “Cold Winter Blues” (1964)
For those who simply can’t shake a sense of seasonal despair, we have the blues – a stark, acoustic meditation from the great Muddy Waters (“So cold up north that the birds can’t hardly fly.”)
The Beatles: “Here Comes the Sun” (1969)
Then again, for souls that can see past the dead of winter, there is this hit of light, unbridled bliss. One of George Harrison’s most enduring contributions to the Beatles’ repertoire.
Kate Bush: “50 Words for Snow” (2011)
Can you give 50 different nicknames for snow? Kate Bush can on the title song to what stands as her most recent album. Among them: “Whippoccino,” “Psychohail” and “Shimmerglisten.”
Van Morrison: “Celtic New Year” (2005)
Alright, alright. The true Celtic New Year is Nov. 1. But American pop appropriates traditions from so many other cultures, why not this one, as well? An underrated bit of poetic Morrison fancy.
Otis Redding and Carla Thomas: “New Year’s Resolution” (1967)
A neglected slice of bright Memphis soul from the “King & Queen” album Redding and Thomas cut for the Stax label. Released a scant nine months before Redding’s death.
Grateful Dead: “Cold Rain and Snow” (1967)
Some people just let winter get the best of them. Such is the state of the beleaguered – and, eventually, murderous – husband in this century-old yarn. Of its many versions, the Dead’s jangly take is my favorite.
Vince Guaraldi Trio: “Skating” (1965)
Technically, this comes from pianist Guaraldi’s beloved 1965 score to “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” But the tune’s gliding grace, like skating itself, lingers long past the holidays.
R.E.M.: “It’s the End of the World (as We Know It)” (1987)
Face it. Not everyone is full of blind hope at the start of a new year. Maybe this classic R.E.M. mash-up is for them. But keep in mind the title’s four-word addendum ... “and I feel fine.” Take that, doomsayers.
