For those of you who are braving the winter weather to travel over these next few weeks, you’re going to need some appropriate tunes to accompany you on your travels. So to assuage those winter blues, here are five songs to take along on the ride. However, be sure to keep watch for those hitchhiking ghosts; they never offer gas money.
“Winter Ghosts” by Jbm
At once modern and folksy, “Winter Ghosts” mourns the ghosts that reside all around us: the specters of choices not made and loves lost. And although this is one impressive tune, be warned: it’s so melodic that it’s practically a lullaby, albeit an otherworldly one. Translation: you probably shouldn’t listen to this on your next late-night drive unless you’re already well-caffeinated.
“Old Ghosts” by Jethro Tull
Though there are no overtures to the winter season, there is a decisive chill in this Jethro Tull classic from the 1979 album, Stormwatch. Cats are on the lookout for something evil, and the dogs are carrying on too. Children aren’t quite enjoying their light-hearted games, and the weather is taking a turn for the worst. All of this weirdness makes for a strikingly atmospheric tune. If any song on this list was ripped straight from a Poe short story, then it’s this one.
“Ghost of Winter” by Requiem For the Dead
Despite the metal-friendly band name and some really intense lyrics about–what else?–death, this tune is more pop punk than conventional heavy metal. As in, think Paramore or Fall Out Boy, not Judas Priest or Gwar. Off the band’s 2013 EP Memories, “Ghost of Winter” is an ideal song to help you power through those last few miles on a long, cold trip.
“Winter” by The Rolling Stones
Goats Head Soup, the Stones’ 1973 album that produced the perennial favorite “Angie”, also includes a somewhat lesser known tune that laments how the cold of the eponymous season seems to go on forever. While in no way supernatural, the wistful melody and lyrics of “Winter” maintain an ethereal quality as if the ghosts of a life not lived are at all times looking right over your shoulder. A creepy ode to an often creepy season.
“No Quarter” by Led Zeppelin
If you’ve been keeping up with these Weird Wanderer playlists over the last few months, you’ve probably already noticed I’m a huge fan of classic rock. The 1970s is my favorite era of music, and Led Zeppeiln is undoubtedly one of my favorite bands. And if I had to pick a single song from the band’s whole discography, it would be “No Quarter”. The early electronic sound effects are arguably a bit dated now, but that only adds to the sublime aura. A myriad of unsettling elements are here: snowstorms, howling dogs, doomed soldiers fighting a far-off war. Even the devil stops by for an appearance. But hey, that’s all in a day’s work for a band that used mythology and Tolkien on virtually every album. Weird to the max, and far more beautiful for it.
Happy haunting!