bedtime

I fall asleep to a bedtime mix of music.  It makes me think of camp, all those nights, I fell asleep in my damp cabin, doubling two pairs of socks and sweats to keep warm beneath a down sleeping bag.  I hating having to pee in the middle of the night.  I was on a top bunk for starters, but it was freezing in Lenox, Massachusetts come nightfall.  So the bathroom was always cold, and there was always a scary moth that sort of just watched you pee.  You’d see it again in the morning, and that’s the only way you remember even having to have peed in the first place.  Otherwise, you wouldn’t have remembered anything past Air Supply’s, Even the Nights are Better.  I usually made it to when Dire Straits’ Romeo and Juliet piped on, but on some nights, I wouldn’t remember any of it.  When the tape finally stopped, the click of the Walkman stopping usually startled me out of sleep for a moment. 

Now, I fall asleep to sad love songs about unrequited love. Diamond rings handed over, days pass, nobody does it better, even though I have her, I want you.  Typical chick bedtime music about some guy who still loves the girl who moved out and still has his Michigan t-shirt, the one he wore in until the cotton thinned and became nearly elastic, like yeast with a sheen of wet dough.  The letters faded along with everything they had.  He wants it back now.  Everything.

None of my songs say that outright.  It’s there though.  Subtext.  In my head, lingering.  I feel more alive when I know the songs are there.  They’re like rain, on a gray road trip, past fields I’d never seen; yet it all seems familiar.  The smell of grass, the beads of rain on the window, wheels of hay, small roadside homes where I wonder if they fall asleep to music too.  I climb into bed and hear my past, Story Book Love, the kind from The Princess Bride.  I lay in bed, looking at my white ceiling, and I imagine I’m in the grass, looking at the stars.  Life is too short not to fall asleep with someone you love, even if that someone happens to only get piped in through your speakers.  It’s a start. 

Through my speakers:
Worn Me Down by Rachael Yamagata
I hope Tomorrow Is Like Today
by Guster
On Your Porch
by The Format
Trouble Sleeping by The Perishers
I Don’t Want To Be Your Friend by Cindy Lauper
I Will Not Forget You by Sarah McLauchlan
Love Disappears by Jeffrey Gaines
Say Yes by Elliott Smith
Wall In Your Heart by Shelby Lynne
Sleeping With The Lights On by Teitur
One Fine Day by Natalie Merchant

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COMMENTS:

  1. I used to fall asleep with The Beatles "Abbey Road" in the 8-Track. That's right, 8-Track. Step off. 8-Track was great because it would constantly loop around so you could continue listening to an album over-and-over again. Doesn't sound like much now, but in the 70's this was kick-ass. The only problem with falling asleep to that album, though, was "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" which ends colder than my relationships.

  2. I highly recommend the song "Someone New" by an awesome band called Eskobar featuring Heather Nova.

  3. What a beautiful line: "Life is too short not to fall asleep with someone you love, even if that someone happens to only get piped in through your speakers". In middle school, my poison of choice was, "Always" by Bon Jovi.

  4. Wow. Lenox, Massachusetts. I grew up going to Tanglewood concerts there. The only place I have ever heard the 1812 Overture performed with live canons and a full choral. Crazy.

  5. Mad World, Gary Jules w/ Michael Andrews
    Almost Blue, Elvis Costello
    Evidence of Autumn, Genesis
    Guilty, Randy Newman
    Real Emotional Girl, Randy Newman
    I've Seen That Movie, Too; Elton John

  6. Aaahh. Love music posts, as you know. I see The Perishers have made it on another list. I'll make sure you get another dose.

    Brian, Love that EJ song off GYBR. Rarely do you ever hear it. Mad World and Almost Blue are nice choices as well.

    NYNY, I'd make a list too, but you know how I can get carried away.

  7. A bit old school, and a tad over the top, but what the heck, let's play:

    I Still Have That Other Girl [Elvis Costello with Burt Bacharach]; Til' You Come Back to Me (That's What I'm Gonna Do) [Aretha Franklin]; Daisy Jane [America]; In My Dreams [Crosby, Stills & Nash]; I Love Every Little Thing About You [Stevie Wonder]; Could [Brian McKnight]; Nightingales [Prefab Sprout]; Poetry Man [Phoebe Snow]; If I Keep My Heart Out of Sight [James Taylor]; The Heart of the Matter [Don Henley]; For Your Love [Stevie Wonder].

  8. In Boston college days, I'd fall asleep next to a lanky Australian while Peter Gabriel's "Shaking the Tree: 16 Golden Greats" gently poured out of my stereo. By the time 'Red Rain' came on, I was out.

  9. No one ever mentions Steely Dan on here…NO ONE! EVER! NEVER EVER NEVER EVER EVER!!! So I'm going to mention them.

    Deacon Blues – Steely Dan
    Any Major Dude – Steely Dan
    Brooklyn (Owes the Charmer) – Steely Dan
    Glamour Profession – Steely Dan
    Dirty Work – Steely Dan

  10. "Surrender" by the pride of Rockford, Illinois, Cheap Trick. And from north of the border, Bachman Turner Overdrive and "Let It Ride."

  11. Just reading, but how's about "Sail away with me" by David Gray? "Screaming Infidelities"-the acoustic version, by Dashboard Confessional. Or, and I know that this is kinda cliche, but, "come away with me" by Norah Jones. I still picture a 67 Cadillac on the highway between the towne in which I grew up(Spokane,Wa), driving twards there from where I live now(near Seattle,Wa), and just letting the wind run through my hair, watching the speedometer push 90, the mercury pushing 80, in the late afternoon. Since most of you are from the city who are reading this, there is nothing that smells like the Palouse in the late summer/early fall, when the wheat is almost cut, and the second cut of hay has been cut, and the smell is something out of a vision of tranquility, of simplicity, and really, of beauty. I just listen to this, and then I fall dead asleep.Good dreams……

  12. Dear Stephanie, Bedtime thoughts about you? I think you are beautiful inside and out? Sleep tight and have wonderful dreams!

  13. I love Teitur. Love him with all my soul. I keep forgetting to put him on my iPod, though, because the CD is so surely cozied into my bedside CD player/alarm clock. I didn't think anyone else had ever heard of him. Everyone should go out right now and buy his CD.

  14. If unrequited love songs are what you want, I strongly recommend two Richard Thompson songs — A Heart Needs a Home (live version on Small Town Romance album is the best, though his wife Linda sang a wonderful version that appears on "Watching the Dark"; and "Beat my Retreat" (also on Small Town Romance). Absolute classics of the genre. Also recommended are "Be My Thief" (Elvis Costello with Burt Bachrach) and "I Want You" (also by Costello) to go with the "Almost Blue" recommendation of another blogger, above.

  15. romeo and juliet by dire straits is on my goodnite playlist on itunes. love. it.

  16. I could listen to "One Fine Day" by Natalie Merchant on repeat for days, and probably have.

    My favorite wistful goodnight song would have to be "You Were Mine" by the Dixie Chicks. Even the video is haunting.

  17. Lucina Williams: anything from Sweet Old World
    and the two tunes "Passionate Kisses" and the ulitmate wistful love song "Side of the Road"
    Also another one that is both evocative and sad:
    Ennio Morricone "A Fistful of Dollars" from the Movie Classics compilation. David Lindley's version of "Bye Bye Love" from El Rayo-X. "Nature Boy" from the David Grisman Quintet's Dawg A Nova.
    Johnny Cash Live from San Quentin "Ring of Fire"
    Stop me, I've said too much already.

  18. Azure Ray's "The Drinks We Drank Last Night." The best lost-love-going-to-sleep song ever.

  19. Nice photos. Pretty lady. You have a javascript bug that is a little annoying but all in all ok.

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