By The Landlord
“Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul – and sings the tunes without the words – and never stops at all.” – Emily Dickinson
“Last year’s words belong to last year’s language. And next year’s words await another voice.” – TS Eliot
“If you are going through hell, keep going.” – Winston Churchill
“Come, gentlemen, I hope we shall drink down all unkindness.” – William Shakespeare
"Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true." – Alfred Lord Tennyson
Well, we’ve made it thus far. As 2020 spoons out its final dollops of misery, or perhaps otherwise, for me it’s a new year’s eve that initially ushers in all the usual feelings, cliches, hopes, dreams and resolutions, but also really does feel different. Every year, at least for the past four of various ups and downs, reaction and stupidity, tragedy and farce, there’s always been a sense that the next year will be better. Part of me feels this again, but there are also many other doubts and hopes and mixed feelings.
I think I’ve given up on predictions and resolutions, because life just continues to throw knuckle balls, not least currently getting over a dose of the dreaded Covid-19. The only certainties and priorities it seems are to help maintain your mental and physical health, and help others do the same. To build from the basics. To connect with people. To share. To stretch yourself. To always do your best. To cherish and protect nature. To be clear and happy with your choices. To commit. To be kind. To keep learning and be creative.
So whatever this final topic of the year boils down to is very much looking to capture any ideas, moods and feelings that surround the end of 2020 and what 2021 might bring. It will initially and most involve giving the finger to the former and a welcome thumbs up to the latter. After all, what choice do we have? Many previous topics have been floating up as contenders, such as positivity, hope and resilience, bravery, survival, and in particular songs about renewal, rebirth and starting over. The latter, incidentally, which first came up in 2016, currently stands as an all-time most visited topic and playlist at Song Bar, still high in the visited charts this month, after the most recent topics. I think that says a lot about the times we are in.
All of these parallel topics can be reviewed and enjoyed by searching at the Song Bar Index page, or of course at the marvellous Marconium. I also considered other words to focus this week’s music, such as defiant songs, or songs about perseverance or persistence, purging or curing, and they could all come into the frame, but the priority is about what seems right now to sum up how you feel as we march onwards into the new year.
But alongside all the fear, there’s also much to look forward to and hope for. With the end of surely the most stupid, incompetent and divisive US presidency in history, there are small shoots of hope that science, invention, innovation and some semblance of fact could potentially begin to overcome the disease of reactionary self-consuming division that has marked the last four years. The gradual rollout of a vaccine. The increase in renewal energy and how that could not only help save the planet, but also be profitable too – whatever it takes to get people motivated. A gradual, if painful, greater awareness of racial and gender inequality and to do something about it. The end of sniping about being in or out of Europe and however it turns out, the realisation that having friends and allies and sharing resources can only be a good thing. The hope that however many wrong turns people make, they can also, even very gradually, change.
Can science and fact finally triumph?
So as usual, we have a motley crew of the great and the good visiting the Bar, ordering drinks and offering all kinds of wit and wisdom, this week thinking about what a new year means to them. Fortunately, the mood is mostly positive. Wearing his big cat’s hat and a huge grin, here’s Dr Seuss offering up some advice:
"You’ll never get bored when you try something new. There’s really no limit to what you can do.
“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all,” adds author Dale Carnegie.
“Yes. You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream,” reckons CS Lewis.
“By perseverance the snail reached the ark,” adds Charles Spurgeon, sipping a slow, sloe gin.
“Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance,” proclaims, Samuel Johnson, thumbing the table with force.
"It is never too late to be what you might have been,” says George Eliot. How often she’s right when she visits our bar.
Green is the colour
"The best is yet to come,” trills Frank Sinatra, warming up at the piano.
"The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new,” says Socrates, the king of worldly wisdom.
“Strength shows not only in the ability to persist, but the ability to start over,” suggests F. Scott Fitzgerald, sipping champagne.
"If you're brave enough to say goodbye, life will reward you with a new hello,” greets Paul Coehlo.
So is there hope? “Yes. Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out,” reckons playwright and experienced campaigner of major political change, Vaclav Havel.
“Hope is the pillar that holds up the world. Hope is the dream of a waking man,” adds a sturdy Pliny the Elder.
Any resolutions then? “Well, says Cyril Cusack, “If you asked me for my New Year Resolution, it would be to find out who I am.”
So, all this leads up to some music. And while these topical introductions often include anything and everything but actual songs, just to round off the year I’m going to offer up a small playlist of numbers that capture my current mood, hopes and fears for the new year, dipping into he past and more recent works. Some of these may have been picked for past topics, but also some may not, so feel free to dive in and suggest any of these for yourself.
I’m kicking off with the most kick-ass of artists who 50 years ago had this to say to his nation. Who else but James Brown of course?
“Hey! Let's play it together
Let's be together
America
I mean you and you and you
Let's start another year...
Together
White or black, blue or green
Even a man I've never seen
Let's get together.”
Next up, with carrying the Christmas spirit into the new year, here’s a rare number by the great Bill Withers, The B-side of his single-only release Let Us Love from 1972. It’s a wondrously moving and truthful song. “From the friendship you show …”
Then, taking a darker tone, because let’s face it, there’s still plenty of that still around, here are Messrs Fuller, Barrow and Williams of the wonderfully evocative and alternative band Beak>, telling us to look to the future, with a number that you can buy on Bandcamp with proceeds to mental health charities.
Time now to think more specifically about the new year, and while it’s sentimental in tone, and he’s best known for a white Christmas, the quality of the voice can’t be denied. Let's savour this timeless number from 1942, with some perfect Bing Crosby sending “our hopes as high as a kite”.
“One minute to midnight
One minute to go
One minute to say good-bye
Before we say hello
Let's start the new year right
Twelve o'clock tonight
When they dim the light.”
In the same spirit, with a big more swing, next up is Charles Brown. But if that’s all a bit too cheesy, let’s also get a bit more down to earth with a tasty slice of Cake, whose version of this Gloria Gaynor disco classic is wonderfully take-no-shit suffer-no-fools sweary.
Next to soften the tone again, here’s an absolute exquisite number played by Bill Evans, and sung by Tony Bennett. I’ve never been a fan of the old crooner but this is a complete gem, sung with absolutely gentle, glorious perfection.
“When lonely feelings chill
The meadows of your mind
Just think if winter comes
Can spring be far behind?
Beneath the deepest snows
The secret of a rose
Is merely that it knows
You must believe in spring”
And to finish, who knows what 2021 might bring? Spring hopefully, but maybe also the zombie apocalypse. Hopefully the only kind of Zombies at large will be in the form of this number by the great British band. Will this be our year at last?
“The warmth of your love's
Like the warmth from the sun
And this will be our year
Took a long time to come.
Don't let go of my hand
Now darkness has gone
This will be our year
Took a long time to come.”
All of which leaves me to welcome in our final guru of the year, helping spin disks into 2021, and helping capturing the spirit of what we will face in future, and ever energetic and enthusiastic DJ Bear, aka PopOff! Place your songs in comments below in time or last orders on Monday at 11pm UK time, for playlists published next week.
Thank you to all of you for a 2020 that has been made bearable by thousands of wonderful song suggestions, convivial company, excellent ideas and brilliant banter. So Happy New Year everyone. Be brave, be upbeat, be optimistic. Love and best wishes, and keep on dancing.
Your friendly and welcoming Landlord.
A beautiful blue jay
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