Pronounced “Hiya Mate”, this is in fact not a friendly informal greeting, but an Old English word, derived from Latin, meaning to spend the winter elsewhere, sounding a bit like hibernate, but different as it requires moving to another place rather than sleeping in the same. It may be the preferred option for those who have to means to do so, who usually live in a cold climate, but it’s a practice made quite naturall by millions of birds taking flight with thousands of miles of migration. The word’s first known written form is from 1623 in the writings of Henry Cockeram. But how might its meaning, if not the word itself, be expressed in song lyrics? Here’s a short selection:
Here’s Dwight Yoakam describing some hiemate activity in V’s Of Birds flying south for the winter:
Goin' South for humans? Here’s The Beach Boys: “I think of goin' south for the winter / It's getting mighty cold/ I watch the fire glow/ The moon shining 'cross the snow/ Maybe Florida or Mexico/ Is where I oughta go.”
With a much more experimental and unhinged sound, here’s XTC’s Train Running Low On Soul Coal, and the line: “Think I'm going south for the winter / Think I'm going mad in this hinterland.”
And on a gentler, beatiful note, here’s The Be Good Tanyas with Lonesome Blues, describing migration, but being left behind. “All the birds flew south for the winter / Left me these lonesome blues …”
Adia Victoria’s gentle and rather beautiful song also describes hietmate, and is taken from her album A Southern Gothic, where she’s joined in this duet by The National’s Matt Berninger, in which the feeling is about fleeing, but returning home: “In the cold, cutting my bones / It's the cold that makes me wonder why I left home / I think it's time that I head south for the winter … Been far too long I've been licking my pride / Out on the town chasing a big velvet lie / But last night I dreamed a train through the fog / To take me back south where I belong.”
And finally here’s Amy Winehouse, joining her friend Tyler James on a rather fabulous rare and unreleased recording of Best For Me - a soul number with the line about scaring someone else into hiemate: “At night, I ask myself why I treat her so badly, so badly she flyin'/ Went south for the winter, the note shattered in her / She's sitting pretty with some other guy.”
So then, any more hiemate-related music on the move for wintertime? Feel free also to share anything more in relation to it, whether in music or wider culture, such as from film, art, or other contexts, in comments below.
You can also get in touch the contact page, and also visit us on social media: Song Bar X, Song Bar Facebook. Song Bar YouTube. and Song Bar Instagram. Please subscribe, follow and share. New to comment? It is quick and easy. You just need to login to Disqus once. All is explained in About/FAQs ...
Song Bar is non-profit and is simply about sharing great music. We don’t do clickbait or advertisements. Please make any donation to help keep the Bar running: