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Oh,
the weather is such an excuse. When the rain hits the window
in the morning, no one really wants to get much farther than
the edge of the bed. And when the summer sun lingers in the
sky into the evening, is anyone rushing indoors?
Statement one: “The autumn leaves have that certain scent;
it is inspiring and brings back such memories.”
Very little in statement one can be disputed. Statement two
offers an interesting angle: “The spring flower buds have
that certain scent; it is inspiring and brings back such memories.”
Statements three and four for winter and summer respectively
continue down the same path. So do the seasons push your emotions
along or is it the other way around?
Pop music has default seasons: Beach Boys to summer; Nick Drake
to autumn. Well in all honesty, that is the simple way to classify
music. The height of summer still carries the threat of cooler
days hidden in the mornings and evenings. And by the time one
realizes that autumn has set in, the weather already has changed
to winter chill. Consensus on this type of matter is difficult.
Music and its season are usually decided by the listener. My
Bloody Valentine always seemed to me a perfect accompaniment
for watching the snowfall, but I wouldn’t raise my voice
on the matter if taken to task.
Club 8’s fourth album, Spring Came, Rain Fell, sets
the tone with the title. The opening guitar note chimes of “We’re
Simple Minds” and Karolina’s cool vocals are like
those last remnants of winter: the day is warm but night a cold,
lonely time. Or sleeping with the window open in April. The
air is still too cool, but you force the seasons ahead by acting
like the next one has already begun. Give each song a nudge
and they push ahead. T-shirts in April and scarves in August.
If that’s the least I can do for the change in seasons,
I’ll oblige.
Seasons change and I am still the same, so she sings…
Two years ago springtime I had wanted to see Paris again. (Why
Paris of all the cities in the world, much less the one I actually
live in? That’s not the point here—where to even begin
on that topic!) One year on, spring again, and Paris was still
a daydream. And the weather warms up again this year and brings
Paris back to the mind. (Why not just go to Paris and be done
with it? If only it were that easy!) One year ago same time
of year Paris was still just a daydream. Again this year the
weather warms up and Paris is on the mind. Destinations and
memories are triggered by temperature. But are we going forward?
Or are we caught in a loop of warming and cooling?
We set ourselves free and now we’ll be forever wandering…
DH Lawrence wrote that everyone in autumn feels like a disembodied
spirit. Without the seasons time would just stretch out indefinitely.
Let yourself out of time and a moment just lingers--a moment
stripped of setting and place. Add a scent of spring and a cool
breeze to a moment to make a memory.
Statement: “The spring flower buds glow in that afternoon
light; it is inspiring and brings back such memories. I remember…
I remember… so many things that would take a book to fill…”
| Matthew
Hintz, April 2002 |
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