Cold, Cold Rain (Playlist)

I've spent several years on the radio, sometimes weekly, sometimes periodically, sometimes twice a week. It was often freeform radio, but there were about four years where I was on a slot that played only soul and funk. One of the more enjoyable ways to create music programming for either format would be to arrange the tracks around a theme. I stopped being on the radio when I left for the Pacific Northwest in 2017. I've done some guest spots since then, but mainly I enjoy having my weeks entirely free. I used to spend 20 hours a week preparing for what I'd play on the radio. I miss it sometimes, but I'm glad to have opened up my schedule a bit.

Another thing I like about being free from the shackles of a weekly spot on a noncommercial radio station, is that I can spend time to embrace more popular music. I'm not especially keen on commercial music, but there are some great artists who happened to get their due, and I neglected them on the radio for many years. I continue to make playlists like this regardless of who will see them. This playlist began three years ago. I like the idea of the rain as a metaphor. While they say "It's always 5'O'clock somewhere, I like to think that it's raining somewhere at all times, and that gives me a strange reassurance.

When it's raining locally, I think I have a subconscious reassurance, that whatever we are going through, it's a reckoning for all of us, and that reckoning can't last forever (I decided not to put a reference to The Crow Soundtrack here). While I don't necessarily miss the floods and humidity of the midwest, I do miss the roaring thunder, and the skin-rippling winds. In a way, I look at sad music similarly. While I think people attach emotions to a certain melody, punctuated by poignant lyrics (one hopes), some people need different levels of dopamine to really comprehend it. To me, there is an awakening in progress whilst listening to sad music. One could say that negative feelings might be subconscious reinforcement. I wouldn't argue with that, but I think that when Elvis sang I'm Gonna Sit Right Down (And Cry Over You) to an upbeat rhythm, it was meant to shake off the vulnerability that is given off by the lyrics.

It's my theory that successful singers don't end up that way simply by making people feel bad with their lyrics. I also think that while it could be said that people will dance to anything, connecting to the music combined with the lyrics can have a sort of cathartic effect. This is why I regard sad songs by The Cure, Prince, or any number of other artists, to be positive in nature. I have a friend who listened to The Cure while they were in the hospital getting surgery, and it was because they found it comforting. In a way, it can be a celebration of the wide range of emotions we feel as humans, and what connects us, even as we often hate each other. The negativity in the lyrics could be a balancing factor that is necessary in all of nature.

...Or maybe I'm overthinking it. Either way, with this in mind, I didn't make a playlist to really bum people out. I guess it will work differently on different people, but there are some great examples of overall sound design here, not to mention great melodies. I have a deep connection and a story for many of these tracks, and there are others I just recently discovered. I've made plenty of mix tapes before the internet, and I consider it an art form. Here is an example of a thoughtful mix tape I might make, minus the possibility of tape erosion and poorly handwritten track lists. Enjoy!