23 songs for winter

ah, i yearn for those college days and nights... those girls and boys on chapel street were so beautiful and voluptuous and mysterious, offering you their rolling rock and whiskey... she swooned when "cold cold ground" came on... they knew all the words to "the first attack" by the proclaimers, and they sang them full-voiced around the kitchen table... also that "we are" song that leslyn wrote... you were a genius in the kitchen with a single glance... and it smelled like dirt and perfume and beer and weed and books...

dave gave me a tape i listened to non-stop on a winter break trip i took with my parents. i sat in the back seat as we drove through the oppressive south. i couldn't have cared less what was outside those windows besides green fields, cows, and sky. it was all a beautiful motion painting for me. i was stoned and wedged in among the suitcases, headphones on.

SIDE A: ELEVEN SONGS FOR WINTER

1. PLAINSONG by The Cure

2. LOOKS LIKE MONA LISA by Michelle Shocked

3. CLOSER TO FINE by Indigo Girls

4. HEY JONI by Sonic Youth

5. MUST I PAINT YOU A PICTURE? by Billy Bragg

6. THIS IS THE DAY by The The

7. DOUBLE-DECKER BED by Phranc

8. TEMPTATION by Tom Waits

9. LIL' KING OF EVERYTHING by Los Lobos

10. TROUBLE ME by 10,000 Maniacs

11. THE PAN WITHIN by The Waterboys

SIDE B: TWELVE MORE

1. I FEEL POSSESSED by Crowded House

2. YOUNG NED OF THE HILL by The Pogues

3. SOUNDS GREAT WHEN YOU'RE DEAD by Robyn Hitchcock

4. WE CAN WORK IT OUT by The Beatles

5. GOD'S COMIC by Elvis Costello

6. KISSABILITY by Sonic Youth

7. WELL I WONDER by The Smiths

8. SIDE OF THE ROAD by Lucinda Williams

9. A PAIR OF BROWN EYES by The Pogues

10. BABY PLAYS AROUND by Elvis Costello

11. THE SPANGLE MAKER by Cocteau Twins

12. EVERY LITTLE COUNTS by New Order

(HIDDEN TRACK: PROVIDENCE by Sonic Youth)

 it was such a beautiful collection of music, each song leaving you perfectly prepared for the next, especially the transition from "sounds great when you're dead" to "we can work it out." 

i think part of the beauty of this tape must have been its tacit expression of my relationship with dave at the time, which was full of possibilities and love, and a certain degree of angst.

in my classic nostalgic manner, i am recompiling this tape on my ipod so that i can remember that wonderful period of my life.