Music for Walking in the Cold Damp Streets

The charm of the first rainy days has withered and a rather bleak dampness seems to permeate even the most optimistic of spirits. It isn’t winter wonderland yet, Christmas is still too far to cheer you up… But somehow I quite like this time, mostly because it makes me want to go to the pub (The Pogues, The Streets) and get warmed up by having a few drinks with friends or enjoying a good whiskey by the fireplace (possibly in a lodge in Twin Peaks or in the company of Tom Waits).

I have always been amazed by the way the Brits seemed to keep their morale up in spite of the weather, and when things get cold and damp, I try to find poetry in the reflection of city lights on the glistening pavement (Simon and Garfunkel). French people tend to stay home and mope like a disgruntled teenager (Sylvie Vartan), when they should live by the Monty Python’s creed, and “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”. Therefore this new collection of songs is designed to help you find inspiration for those greyest of days, the way The Byrds didn’t get the sunny swinging London they expected but came up with “Eight Miles High”. These are not exclusively songs about rain or snow, but more about the way you have to carry on in spite of the elements. Consequently some choices might seem rather odd, like DJ Shadow’s “High Noon”. It was featured on an autumn compilation by French magazine Les Inrockuptibles twenty years ago, and to me it has always been associated with walking swiftly in the gloomy streets. Similarly Manchester and its lovely weather is only here represented by The Stone Roses, because honestly I find the bleakness of Joy Division too literal under the circumstances (and New Order is too “Sumnery”, geddit?).

One needs to keep a sense of humour, and the grandiloquence of some songs never fail to crack me up when I’m on my way to work, hence the trilogy of Elvis/Guns N’ Roses/Morrissey, in hoping it will work for you as well and make you want to blast out the music or play air guitar on the tube, pretending to be outside a sunny church or stuck frolicking in the freezing Moors (“Wuthering Heights”). Keep on walking (Gerry and the Pacemakers), keep on dancing (Pulp and Eurythmics), November will soon be over. Proper winter will finally arrive (The Housemartins), with those cold beautiful sunny days (“Picture This”) or winter storms when the city is on lockdown (Bruce Springsteen). Then it’s time to stay inside, and listen to Leonard Cohen, while waiting for (or dreading) the impending holiday season.