By The Landlord
“Morning will come, it has no choice.” – Marty Rubin
“Dracula is a morning person compared to me.” – Kim Dallmeier
“Outside the open window
The morning air is all awash with angels.” – Richard Wilbur
"Busy old fool, unruly sun,
Why dost thou thus,
Through windows, and through curtains call on us?
Must to thy motions lovers' seasons run?” – John Donne, The Sun Rising
“I wake up every morning at nine and grab for the morning paper. Then I look at the obituary page. If my name is not on it, I get up.” – Benjamin Franklin
Welcome to the Song Bar Breakfast, and a very good morrow to you all! Should I whisper this softly, or loudly and brightly? Wherever you are, and whatever time it is, whether it's the crack of dawn, all profound and calm, or you’re having swift piece of toast and a guzzle of tea rushing on the rush to work, already in the throw of things, or just lazily and late-brunchily approaching a sort late-morning holiday time, or anything in between, then this week's topic is all related to your first music of the morning. Indeed right now, as you read this, anywhere across the globe, it might be another time completely, but there's no harm in thinking back, or planning ahead, as morning is always on its way.
So, this is not a topic focused lyrically the subject of the morning itself, or sunrise, or waking up, coming out of a dream, breakfast, or any such associations, though they may indeed figure, but is more of a mood, style, feeling, association, motivation, invigoration or relaxation topic, depending on how you might like to interpret it. While less about the morning per se, although some may mention it, instead it is music complementary.
It’s more instinctive, about feeling, style, not unlike that previous topic of songs that was less about walking, but more about expressing the movement, rhythms and pace of walking . So in short, we're asking for songs or instrumentals you might like to hear regularly, occasionally, or at random, to start the day with, and, as this could be a very wide topic, please also supply a brief justification or explanation as to why any of your song suggestions might do the morning trick.
Should the first music of the day begin slowly, or fast, be a metaphorical shot of strong coffee or a slow, gentle sip of herbal tea? Are you a stay-in-bed dreamy thinker, a semi-recumbent Nick Drake or a slothful Syd Barrett, or more of a get-up-and-go James Brown? Perhaps your morning might begin at first light, quiet and prayer-like, and require something like the chant of monks, or the distant call of whales or birdsong? Might your morning mood suit gentle, subtle jazz, slowly building classical, thought-provoking story-telling folk, maybe a more bowel-moving throb-and-thrum of mellow, reggae bass?
Not my view this morning, unfortunately
Or maybe you need some get-on-with-it brass-blast funk or 60s garage rock, or do you seek the adrenalin-white, bright light of teeth-brushing pop and disco, or even, for a different mood, some horny Saturday sort of morning slow, sexy soul? Music for mornings for all occasions. Or something else altogether? Feel free to picture and present and project a variety of morning scenarios.
What music wakes up your face with a splash of cold water? What music helps get the mind and body together? While a bit of stretching is always beneficial, a cheesy pumping workout playlist might be a bit of a cliche, and frankly, is unlikely to come out in our establishment anyway, so perhaps what would be more subtle, nuanced and interesting is what songs help ease and exercise the mind into the day.
Where does your morning lead?
This could be the time to consider music to match morning mood, your surroundings, or the things you're doing. Then again, what music will improve or change your mood, take you to another place, and help you in the tasks in hand? Do you generally like to hear something familiar, or different? Something old, something new, something borrowed, or something blues?
Here at the Bar in a morning setting we’re not usually open to the punters – it’s a pub after all, but it’s a special occasion, so there’s a bizarre collection of random individuals turning up for their coffee, fresh cinnamon buns, fry-ups and more, choosing songs and the jukebox and chatting in a bleary- or bright-eyed way, arriving on their morning walk, run or some still even tumbling straight about of bed in their pajamas and dressing gowns through the magical wardrobes of time and space.
“An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day,” announces Henry David Thoreau, stick in hand, a stride and a ruddy face to match.
Beachcombing?
“In the morning I woke like a sloth in the fog,” meanwhile moans Leslie Connor, author of Waiting for Normal.
“But my dear lady, when you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive, to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love,” suggests Roman emperor, Marcus Aurelius, wondering if we have any grapes.
“Indeed,” adds Jonathan Swift, mischievously. “I never knew a man come to greatness or eminence who lay abed late in the morning.”
But even these high achievers can’t match the enthusiasm of our next two punters.
“Smile in the mirror. Do that every morning and you’ll start to see a big difference in your life!” proclaims Yoko Ono, with a big manic grin.
Even crazier and more colourful is the sight of Salvador Dali already high on a strong coffee. Or is that his own creative ego? “Each morning when I awake, I experience again a supreme pleasure – that of being Salvador Dali!”
As Dali has turned the volume up to 11 already, it’s time to tone things down a little for those of us feeling a bit rough. Mornings are meant for doing things, and setting the day in the right direction, but the great Mahatma Gandhi advises a a more considered approach at the start, and indeed end of each day. “Prayer is the key of the morning and the bolt of the evening,” he says, softly and soothingly.
Relaxing woodland early morning mist
Mornings are often a mixed picture, and author Donna Tartt is also here with her coffee, giving us a balance with a line from The Secret History. “It’s beautiful here, but morning light can make the most vulgar things tolerable.”
And this mixture of the beautiful and ugly is summed up rather nicely in this description from Edward Conlon’s book, Blue Blood:
“On Sunday mornings, as the dawn burned into day, swarms of gulls descended on the uncollected trash, hovering and dropping in the cold clear light.”
My mornings are a bit like fuelling up a knackered old steam train. After a night of vivid dreaming, my mind and body is very slow to start, but throw in enough food and drink and things gradually start to move with momentum. I’ve even started to do a Wordle each day, and have even got a few in only three guesses. But enough of such mind-stimulant procrastination, and about me. Let’s have some more morning perspectives from some great guest poets:
William Wordsworth, best known for his pastoral views, finds beauty in the early morning in London, in Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802:
This City now doth, like a garment, wear
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky;
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Unfortunately things have changed somewhat since the arrival of the Industrial Age and the modern rush hour, but there is still a brutal beauty to the city at dawn.
A morning scene that’s hard to contemplate again …
Shakespeare also addresses this time of the day, describing its radiant beauty in Sonnet 33, yet not all mornings go well, as things turn in this lovelorn poem of estrangement:
Full many a glorious morning have I seen
Flatter the mountain tops with sovereign eye,
Kissing with golden face the meadows green,
Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy;
Anon permit the basest clouds to ride
With ugly rack on his celestial face,
And from the forlorn world his visage hide,
Stealing unseen to west with this disgrace …
TS Eliot looks out first thing through the urban glass of his poem Morning At The Window, and describes more chaotic, noisy, raggle-taggle scenes as humanity struggles to get moving:
They are rattling breakfast plates in basement kitchens,
And along the trampled edges of the street
I am aware of the damp souls of housemaids
Sprouting despondently at area gates.
The brown waves of fog toss up to me
Twisted faces from the bottom of the street,
And tear from a passer-by with muddy skirts
An aimless smile that hovers in the air
And vanishes along the level of the roofs.
Philip Larkin’s Aubade describes waking up before dark, and witnessing the gradual uncovering of a room by the dawn, and everything associated:
I work all day, and get half-drunk at night.
Waking at four to soundless dark, I stare.
In time the curtain-edges will grow light.
Till then I see what’s really always there …
Slowly light strengthens, and the room takes shape.
It stands plain as a wardrobe, what we know,
Have always known, know that we can’t escape,
Yet can’t accept. One side will have to go.
Meanwhile telephones crouch, getting ready to ring
In locked-up offices, and all the uncaring
Intricate rented world begins to rouse.
The sky is white as clay, with no sun.
Work has to be done.
Postmen like doctors go from house to house.
Up with the cockere
While the crow of the cockerel or rooster is the classic dawn sound, for many the first sound heard in the day is the that of a hungry child. Sylvia Plath’s Morning Song profoundly describes the early morning mother’s experience of being woken by your baby, and while the first sounds are stark and resonant, it’s a good one to finish on, as they are also appropriately musical:
Love set you going like a fat gold watch.
The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry
Took its place among the elements …
All night your moth-breath
Flickers among the flat pink roses. I wake to listen:
A far sea moves in my ear.
One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral
In my Victorian nightgown.
Your mouth opens clean as a cat’s. The window square
Whitens and swallows its dull stars. And now you try
Your handful of notes;
The clear vowels rise like balloons.
So then, it’s time for you, dear Song Bar patrons, to throw forward your music to greet the morning. Curating the playlists for this, and springing with hope straight from last week’s topic with a momentum going into an upbeat double shift, is once again the doubly inspired DiscoMonster! Place your songs suggestions, including justifications, in comments below, in time for deadline on Monday at or before 11pm on Monday, for playlists published next week:
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