By Naguchi
It feels rather strange to be writing about cosiness when today’s temperature, in New Zealand, was 28C, and we were looking for places to be cool rather than snuggling up to keep warm. But it’s quite different right now in other parts of the world …
So where to begin with such a topic? Most of the songs nominated were as much about love as they were about cosiness. Perhaps this is the connection between them. Certainly snuggling up with a loved one is very cosy but at times just being at home, surrounded by familiar things is enough to bring on that hygge feeling,
Julie London’s version of You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To must surely make many people wish they were waiting there “just like paradise to come home to and love,” while Peter Hammill expresses similar sentiments in Beside the One You Love. Van Morrison also sings of romantic love in Have I Told You Lately, telling his loved one that she fills his heart with gladness and takes away the sadness. “That’s what you do,” he says, at once simple and profound. The French-Senegalese singer anaiis also sings of love, this time for her three-year-old son. In the glorious My World (Beyond) she marvels at the change he has brought to her life, how because of him she has “found the courage to love”.
Simple Ben has few needs. He wanders the roads singing the same song. All he wants from life is “sunshine through the autumn, sweet snow to the spring, corn by the water of an old mill stream”. Give him that and you’ve given him everything. Ben might be simple but this song, sung by Brian Cadd et al, asks us to consider whether the current global climate change might have been avoided if we had not come to rely so much on high-tech, high energy using equipment.
No such deep thoughts need bother us when we listen to I Am a Cider Drinker sung by British Sea Power (now called Sea Power). This is just a rollicking paean to the joys of drinking cider after a hard day’s work. There is still some cosiness to be found in the life of a hard-drinking man, as he says “It’s so comely in the kitchen, the smell of rabbit stew”. I won’t spoil the surprise of the other smells to be found in the farmhouse kitchen. You’ll have to listen to the song to find out what they are.
What could be more comfortable and cosy than a rocking chair? The 73-year-old protagonist in Rockin’ Chair by The Band has been at sea all his life and he can’t wait to get back to Old Virginny and that old rocking chair. Sadly, he runs into some problems on the voyage home.
I’m stumped by Un Metro Cuadrado by Vainica Doble. I’m not a Spanish speaker and I’ve found three wildly varying translations online. I’ve opted to go for the one that fits this week’s theme most closely. This speaks of a square metre of land enclosed by stone walls, with an apple tree growing to give shelter in summer. It is a place where you can lay on a patch of herbs (although you must hunch up slightly) with a book or a guitar and look up at the blue sky above. Sounds heavenly to me.
From summer to autumn. Autumn Serenade by John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman. Not so cosy this time but over the years he still feels “the glow that time cannot fade”, and their music makes me feel a glow as well.
And so to winter. Itzhak Perlman’s masterful performance of Vivaldi’s Winter (largo) makes me think of flames flickering. An orchestral performance isn’t usually thought of in terms of warmth or cosiness but I’d like to give that one a good hug. And, finally, I couldn’t wrap up this brief excursion into coziness, comfort and warmth without one schmaltzy song everyone knows. Who better to lead our final chorus than Dean Martin and Let it Snow.
An Oh-So-Comfy On The Ears A-List Playlist:
You’d Be So Nice to Come Home to – Julie London (Nilpferd)
Beside the One You Love – Peter Hammill (Tatanka Yotanka)
Have I Told You Lately – Van Morrison (magicman)
My World (beyond) - anaiis (DiscoMonster)
Simple Ben – Brian Cadd, Lior, Mike Rudd & Old Man River (Nicko)
I Am a Cider Drinker – British Sea Power (DiscoMonster)
Rockin’ Chair – The Band (treefrogdemon)
Un Metro Cuadrado – Vainica Doble (pejepeine)
Autumn Serenade - John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman (Nilpferd)
Winter (Largo movement) - Vivaldi (Itzhak Perlman) (BanazirGalbasi)
Let It Snow – Dean Martin (TarquinSpodd)
Beautiful Balmy Feelings B-List Playlist:
Clean Sheets – Lorraine Bowen (Tatanka Yotanka)
Lying Here With You - 10cc (Fred Erickson)
Comfortable – Patti Dahlstrom (Fred Erickson)
My Old Kentucky Home – Nelson Eddy (Tarquin Spodd)
Never Pine For the Old Love – Molly Drake (severin)
Tea For Two – Bing Crosby & Connie Boswell (Nicko)
David’s Last Summer – Pulp (happyclapper)
Warm Song – Cal Tjader (pejepeine)
Magpie’s Nest – Bonny Light Horsemen (tincanman)
… And enjoy the range …
These playlists were inspired by readers' song nominations in response to last week's topic: A fireside invitation: songs about cosiness, comfort and warmth. The next topic will launch on Thursday after 1pm UK time.
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