Counting Crows: "A Long December". (Wintry mix, track 1)

I've comleted my "wintry mix" compilation - It doesn't have a name or artwork yet, but it will shortly. I will post each track individually with lyrics and commentary, and then when complete will post the entire mix, with a link to listen.

For some reason the mix came out rather sad and poignant, and I think "loss" has been on my mind. Maybe it's the seasonal moodiness but winter always sorta brings me back around to thoughts of where I am in life, where we are all, our future, mortality, and reminders of the years inexorably pushing by us. Thoughts of Christmas as a child, and now myself as a nearly-40 year old man, and those we've lost along the way.

So it's a bit of a sad collection in some ways but it just mirrors my reflections and memories of winter. Many of the songs I associate with particular winter memories, and others just always come into my head this time of year because of their feel, or subject matter, or lyrics.

Starting off, Counting Crows, "A Long December". This was me not long out of college, living in Virginia on my own for the first time, trying to make a living and meeting people while working for almost nothing at a music store. Music of course had always been the constant in my life, and that hadn't changed. This song always touched me - the mournful reflections of hospital rooms in winter, the struggle to "hold on to these moments as they pass" - to live your live and enjoy the present because it may all be gone tomorrow. A beautiful song and seemed an appropriate opening track.



A long December and there's reason to believe
Maybe this year will be better than the last
I can't remember the last thing that you said as you were leaven'
Now the days go by so fast

And it's one more day up in the canyons
And it's one more night in Hollywood
If you think that I could be forgiven...I wish you would

The smell of hospitals in winter
And the feeling that it's all a lot of oysters, but no pearls
All at once you look across a crowded room
To see the way that light attaches to a girl

And it's one more day up in the canyons
And it's one more night in Hollywood
If you think you might come to California...I think you should

Drove up to Hillside Manor sometime after two a.m.
And talked a little while about the year
I guess the winter makes you laugh a little slower,
Makes you talk a little lower about the things you could not show her

And it's been a long December and there's reason to believe
Maybe this year will be better than the last
I can't remember all the times I tried to tell myself
To hold on to these moments as they pass

And it's one more day up in the canyon
And it's one more night in Hollywood
It's been so long since I've seen the ocean... I guess I should