Episode 263
I can’t really claim to use Spotify on a large scale. Why? The shop is the devil’s, it cheats me as a musician out of the last few breadcrumbs that might still be lying around on the pop music cat’s table for me, and the company’s employees are probably tormented with headbutts and stinging nettles by the company bosses every morning when they enter the company building . I have no evidence for the latter, but in this dog world there is
yes, now we can assume that everything is bad.
In December of every year, however, I use the streaming service and, on dreary days, listen to my annual playlist, which contains songs that made an impression in some way between January and November. I have to say that these are all old songs, which is because I have a disturbed relationship with the present – but also the present with me.
It would never occur to me to listen to these lists beforehand. But letting yourself be overwhelmed by the concentrated eclecticism of the respective compilation at the end of the year holds a considerable amount of pre-Christmas magic. For example, “Sangria Wine” by Jerry Jeff Walker is currently playing. A magnificent piece, if only because it contains the recipe for the drink of the title:
“Start with some apples and wine/ Blend in some brandy and some sugar’s fine/ Yeah, old friends always roll up on time/ That’s why you add sparkling Burgundy wine.” Cheers!
There’s a Pharrell Williams song with the same title, but it sucks because it doesn’t contain instructions for mixing a drink. The piece is followed by “All Or Nothing At All” by Jimmy Scott. If you were quick and were able to mix a sangria wine while listening to Jerry Jeff Walker’s song, you might feel inspired to dance around your apartment in the run-up to Christmas. Of course, this can also be done without alcohol and without seasonal decorations, but at the time of writing it is the run-up to Christmas and there was already something to drink, for dear life!
“All Or Nothing At All” was written in 1939 by Jack Lawrence and Arthur Altman, and the first published version of the piece was by Frank Sinatra. He is also included in my playlist: with his late piece “LA Is My Lady”, which appeared on the album of the same name in 1984, which was supervised by Quincy Jones. The song is either very good or very bad, I’m not sure right now. But it leaves a distant idea of what it would have sounded like if Frank Sinatra had made yacht rock.
David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen can be seen in the video for the song. I have to mix another sangria wine immediately. “Ice Cream Days” by Jennifer Hall is already playing. I put the piece on the list after I watched the film “Bright Lights, Big City” again this year, on whose soundtrack the piece is included. Jennifer Hall, also an actress, artist and journalist, seems to have made only one album, and there is only this one track on Spotify, which sounds a little like David Lynch was trying to produce a summer hit.
More texts from Eric Pfeil
Maybe I should switch from sangria wine to eggnog. After 27 tracks, something strange happens to my 2023 playlist: it only includes songs by Jimmy Buffett, who died this year. They’re not necessarily all good, but – what’s more important – they usually have great titles: “Last Mango In Paris”, for example, or “The Weather Is Here, Wish You Were Beautiful”, “Jamaica Mistaica” or “God Don’t Own A Car”.
I must have added all of the songs to the playlist to mark Bufett’s passing last September. Here comes the next one: “Banana Wind” – at Christmas time!
I have to admit: December is pretty easy to endure, with lots of Jimmy Buffett songs and sangria wine. I love Spotify!