For isolation or walks in the park. Be alone, not lonely. With Randy Crawford, Judy Tzuke, ABBA, Roy Orbison, 10cc, Cyndi Lauper, Stevie Wonder and a lot of other greats ready to give you a warm cuddle of a song.
Confusing times.
One moment you are reading that the road to happiness is a dozen hugs a day (each lasting a full eight seconds) and that it’s good to touch, the next you’re told to keep your distance or risk hurting or even killing someone. How fragile we are.
Need some comfort? How about the musical equivalent of a warm hug with a close one or parent, or a sticky toffee pudding and hot custard, or a nice cup of tea and a biscuit. Okay then, these songs will do the trick. This is not a guilty pleasure playlist by the way, I hope it doesn’t come across that way. This group of songs floats comfortably some way above and beyond all that. There’s no Dean Friedman ‘Lucky Stars’ or anything like that here. I did have Christopher Cross’s ‘Sailing’ on there, but opted for The Commodores ‘Sail On’ instead. You can only have one sailing themed song on a lockdown playlist. We’re working on another Cruise Control Yacht Rock playlist soon anyhow, for when things get lifted (don’t worry, ‘Lifted’ won’t actually be on there). But, we do have The Carpenters and Nell Sedaka. I know those sail close to the wind but you can’t argue with the comfort factor.
Some of these songs are big gentle furry cuddly monsters - and many of them are songs that make a statement almost beyond career defining for the artists who perform them.
I saw Judy Tzuke at the Jazz Cafe in 1996. It was a lovely show, but after the first half dozen songs you could feel the anticipation start to build, even though the whole audience knew that she could not be expected to play ‘Stay With Me Till Dawn’ until the end of the set (which she did). And what a song it is for these times.
Many other bands have these talisman tracks and it was tempting to add Sit Down by James, or Elbow’s One Day Like This to this list, but I dunno, something told me not to go there. The thought did lead me to other hugely comforting offers by those bands however - both national treasures that they are. For Elbow, try the short, sweet and tender vignette Puncture Repair. For James, the ethereal and swirling Skindiving. Personally, I would find a long swim in cold, dark water very comforting during these strange days, though perhaps that’s not everyone’s idea of the comfort factor. However, you can lose yourself and float right down listening to this particular track. Try it.
I guess I was looking to hear a bit more saxophone and quite a few reassuring golden oldies as I put this together. That’s what brought Hazel O’Connor’s forgotten classic ‘Will You’ to mind. Macca has always done a good line in comforting songs too, in which he often hands out some rather good advice (‘Let ‘Em In’ obviously notwithstanding just at the present time). Waterfall is one of my favourites:
“Don’t go chasing polar bears, in the great unknown
Some big friendly polar bear might want to take you home”.
Don’t run after motor cars, please stay on the side
Someone’s glossy motor car might take you for a ride”.
In Macca’s voice such nonsense is somehow very deeply reassuring.
Of course, this being The Song Sommelier, we don’t always go for the obvious choices and so we hope you discover some new or forgotten works here. The great British institutions Kate Bush and Queen being cases in point. With ‘our Kate’ we could have gone Running Up That Hill or Cloudbusting but radio takes care of that several times each week, quite rightly. However, the last song from Kate’s classic Hounds Of Love album somehow stands all on it’s own, separate from the ‘hits’ of side 1 and the ‘Ninth Wave’ of side 2. It’s an absolutely beautiful song that was originally pressed upon me by my good friend and TSS curator Fenner Pearson. Thanks Fen!
Then for Queen, again we could have gone with You’re My Best Friend or Save Me, but let’s go with ‘In Only Seven Days’, a soft, inconsequential Freddie Mercury ballad from the Jazz album. I always feel that this could be the soundtrack to some late 70s romantic comedy. For Stevie Wonder, how about the B-side to Master Blaster, ‘Knocks Me Off My feet’? When it comes to comfort, one must now and then, embrace the sentimental unconditionally.
Maybe one or two of these songs are guilty pleasures after all. But E.L.O. ‘Telephone Line’, Randy Crawford ‘One Day I Fly Away’, ABBA ‘I Have A Dream’, Rose Royce ‘Wishing On A Star’. If guilty pleasures come packaged like this, then I agree with Babs and Barry, we have nothing to be guilty of. Hang in there everyone and bless all those helping to keep everything going.
Lockdown has been some experience. On the one hand, here I am with my girls. Being at home with three young daughters is, usually, a challenge. I have very limited fridge access and find it hard to make myself heard. But, in lockdown, things come at you from a different perspective. I can see them. I know they are here, home safe, when out there in the world, anything can happen. During ‘normal’ times, we leave the house and shut the door behind us each day and just assume everything will be okay again today. I can’t help feeling that when everything gets back to normal, things will never quite be the same. To enjoy tips on better listening at home, read our blog.