Here is this week’s playlist – songs picked by a reader from hundreds of suggestions on last week’s callout. Thanks for taking part. Read more about how our weekly series works at the end of the piece.
This week’s blog takes the form of an end-of-term celebration of readers recommend in three parts. We have the playlist, we have a few explanatory notes on the reasons for choosing certain of the songs – and then we finish with a rousing Christmas carol.
It’ll never work of course, but I stubbornly persevered with the approach until it was too late to back out...
The A List
1. Trombone Shorty: Hurricane Season
2. Bonnie Raitt: Storm Warning
3. Pendulum: The Tempest
4. John Butler Trio: Gov Did Nothin’
5. Deep Purple: Stormbringer
6. Woody Guthrie: Great Dust Storm Disaster
7. AC/DC: Thunderstruck
8. The Spaniels: Stormy Weather
9. Max Lorenz sings Richard Wagner’s: Wintersturme
10. Little Axe: Storm is Rising
11. Lovindeer: Wild Gilbert
12. The Imagined Village: Cold Hailey Rainy Night
The explanatory notes
Christmas is of course a time for giving, and this week I would like to think that I have distributed a reasonably generous helping of rock music. There’s an argument that the genre sometimes gets overlooked on here, so there’s maybe a lesson in readers gordonimmel and Silgen double-teaming the Deep Purple Stormbringer recommendation with detailed historical explanatory footnotes. If this is your type of tune, then be advised that Pendulum’s The Tempest – as well as qualifying on the synonym stormfront – is about the heaviest number on the list.
I couldn’t leave out the Bonnie Raitt tune, partly for its use of metaphor but mainly for the strikingly heartfelt nomination from PatLux; and I couldn’t leave out the Spaniels’ take on a bona fide classic, purely because they’re called the Spaniels.
Wintersturme filled a chilly gap when it came to season-appropriate storms, and The Great Dust Storm Disaster catered for the opposite end of the temperature spectrum. In similar vein, the John Butler Trio’s Gov Did Nothing identifies the righteous anger at the response of the US authorities to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, while Lovindeer is, as alexito puts it: “a hilarious, defiant Jamaican smash hit released in the aftermath of Hurricane Gilbert in 1988”.
It’s a genuinely uplifting tune. Which, ironically, leads us to:
The Christmas Carol
I’ll say only this. There’s a doff of the Santa hat to anyone that manages to crack the meter in this at their first attempt.
Don’t fret ye Recommenders all, let nothing you dismay
The Christmas week hiatus plan, has now been put away*.
To seize the Yuletide spirit I’m endeavouring to play
Wi-ith band names by forcing them to rhyme
Some of the time,
And it’s Trombone Shorty leading out the line.From Bonnie Raitt to Pendulum, the nominations flowed
Which neatly laid foundations for the John Butler Tri-o.
But nothing with Deep Purple rhymed
So mid-line’s where they go
Scansion progress is difficult, you see:
Woody Guth-rie
Dare I end this verse with AC (slash) DC?Through upbeat stormy weather vibes, the Spaniels song prevailed
And pleased at getting A-listed, one bitch was Wagner tail.
With Little Axe’s help, a shortened Yule Log was avail-
able, is there a rhyme for Lovindeer?
Santa’s reindeer?
The Imagined Village, full of Christmas cheer.Ho, Ho and indeed Ho!
New theme: how to join in
*In a change to a previous announcement the next theme will be announced at 8pm (GMT) on Thursday 21 December.
Here is a reminder of some of the guidelines for readers recommend:
- If you have a good idea for a theme, or you would like to volunteer to compile a playlist from readers’ suggestions and write a blog about it, please email matthew.holmes@theguardian.com.
- There is a wealth of data on RR, including the songs that are “zedded”, at the new look Marconium. It also tells you the meaning of “zedded”, “donds” and other strange words used by RR regulars.
- Many RR regulars also congregate at the ’Spill blog.