Five Great Snow Songs
Winter means many things to a man with a plow, mostly the chance to make a lot of money exploiting the desperate situation many people are put in because they can't move snow on their own. Old people, young people with back braces, middle-aged people with "heart conditions," are just a few of society's victims once the ‘white gold' falls from the sky.
Songwriters apparently don't shovel their own snow or else make enough money writing songs to pay the evil plow man. So they take a decidedly more chipper approach to the oppressing conditions and even find romance and cheer to exploit. Here are five songs that just love that snow.
"Snow Come Down"--Lori Carson: Lori Carson was once a NYC songwriter who never shoveled her own sidewalk. Then she moved to the country and she learned. But this beautiful little weeper was written back before she knew the truth and had seen the light, so she enjoys watching the snow come down. She gets so excited she even starts cursing! Actually, she starts feeling insecure and contemplative and that's why she drops the ‘F-bomb.' But it sounds greats, in either case.
"Snowbird"--Anne Murray: Oh, gee, let me guess, Anne, are you from Canada? Just a lucky guess on my part. We wouldn't let people like you in our country, so soft, so mellow, so damn optimistic, so lite-FM. Every songbook I ever bought in the 1970s had this tune in it and there wasn't a chord organ around that didn't have somebody attempting it. I suppose it beat hearing yet another rendition of "Lady Of Spain," but then again...
"By-Tor And The Snow Dog"--Rush: Ahem, more Canadians. And these guys insisted on making their songs really long and laborious, requiring far more attention than your average attention deficit disorder kid could possibly deal with. Then again, I've seen kids with this supposed condition. They can't listen to their teachers. They can't listen to their parents. They can't sit still in a car. But they can play complex video games for hours without interruption, without even a sandwich. Hmmn, this means something.
"On With The Snow"--The Get-Up Kids: I admire these guys because the title of their song is a pun. You see, the line should go, "On with the SHOW," but being the clever entertainers that they are, they changed that. Just as my friend Jonny Bondage, an unsuccessful punk rock star, once tried to name his album Wife Of The Party, which if you knew who he was talking about, you'd know was completely true and therefore not just clever but profound. He has since left the country.
"Snow"--Jesse Winchester: Jesse Winchester had no choice. In order to dodge the Vietnam Draft he had to head to Canada and learn what snow was firsthand. And apparently he did. Because this song definitely has all the hallmarks of someone who understands the meaning of snow.
