Baby, it’s cold outside so we’ve gathered together some pretty alternative tunes to warm the cockles of your ears during this snow business. Sorry Gary and Bressie, The Blizzards and Snow Patrol didn’t make the list
Drive The Cold Winter Away – Horslips
Based partially on an old Christmas carol of Elizabethan origins, the bold Horslips rejoin with flute, banjo and fiddle to keep the storm at bay on this beautiful piece. It will put you in mind of a blazing fire as the blizzard rages outside.
White Winter Hymnal – Fleet Foxes
Few bands sounds as awe-inspiringly gorgeous as Seattle’s Fleet Foxes and here they celebrate the still beauty to be found in the depths of winter like no other.
Fifteen Feet of Pure White Snow – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Not the cheeriest of snow tunes this (for extra bleakness, the piano here always reminds us of something from Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield) but here is wintry old Nick submerged under the mother of all snowdrifts as he wonders where the hell everybody else has got to. Warren Ellis’ violin always sounded brittle and icy and here it is even more chilling. Nick finally cries out that he’s got icicles hanging from his knees. Worse, he can’t even find anything worth stealing under fifteen feet of pure snow.
California Dreamin – The Mamas and the Papas
Who hasn’t slid down a pathway or a road and thought about throwing the whole sorry lot in and moving to Barbados to take up making coral necklaces for a living while sipping rum from a conch? If the Spring blues (yes, it is Spring) are getting you down, turn this on and drift into a reverie about your holliers.
Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow – Frank Zappa
Wise, wise words from Mr Zappa. He pictures himself as a bit of a Nanook of the north as the temperature hits 100 degrees below zero and the sleight hurtles through the vast tundra. But watch out for them darn huskies and their unreliable bowels!
Soft as Snow (But Warm Inside) – My Bloody Valentine
Clever this – not only do this hugely influential London/Dublin act summon up maximum chill on this cut from 1988 but frontman Kevin Shields also sounds like he has a head cold as he sings a possibly naughty lyric about the best way to keep warm during a big freeze.
The Snow That Melts The Soonest – Horslips
We end where we started with another song by the mighty Horslips. These lads clearly had a thing for winter. Maybe it was the price of keeping Dublin bedsits warm during the seventies oil crisis or, more likely, it was because cold weather is always a time to gather around a blazing fire for a good old sing-song. Based on an English folk song from the early 19th century, Charles O’Connor sings and plays violin on this utter gem.
RTE.ie
