Autumn is Your Last Chance

10 favorite songs for (and about) this time of year

Crusty eyes when I first awake… my cats sleepy sweetly but atypically close to each other… the sudden urge to make soup in my crockpot…

Yes, folks — fall has definitely descended upon Jagged Time Lapse HQ, even if the leaves on the surrounding trees are still resplendent in their full-on summer green. Which means that I wasn’t exactly premature in posting last week’s musings on The Kinks’ “Autumn Almanac”.

Now that I’m fully getting into the fall swing — I even busted out my Shaft-approved 1970s leather car coat Friday night for the first time since May — I’ve been thinking about other favorite songs of autumn. Here are ten that are really speaking to me this week…

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The Kinks — Autumn Almanac

Yes, I know I wrote about this same song just last week. But not including it here would put me at risk of someone who didn’t read that piece going, “Great list — but what about ‘Autumn Almanac’?” And anyway, the song’s so nice I think we can all stand to hear it at least twice. Here’s something cool that wasn’t included in my previous “Autumn Almanac” appreciation — Ray and the boys jovially miming along to the song on Top of the Pops. Dave Davies’ ruffles-and-12-string combo is worth the price of admission…

The Small Faces — Autumn Stone

As long as we’re in late-sixties UK territory, we have to make a stop at “The Autumn Stone”. A wistful meditation on love and the inexorable passage of time, it’s a rare and wonderful example of how sweet and vulnerable Steve Marriott could sound when he wasn’t overpowering or over-jollying up the proceedings with his megawatt pipes. Love that flute, too.

Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong — Autumn in New York

It’s hard to beat a stroll through my beloved Central Park at pretty much any time of year — especially when the leaves are turning, and even more especially when you’re strolling with a special someone. Ella and Louis, always a dynamite combination, really tap into that romantic Manhattan vibe with their 1957 recording of Vernon Duke’s standard; “It’s good to live it again,” indeed.

Neil Young — Harvest Moon

We had Neil Young’s Harvest Moon in daily in-store rotation at See Hear Records back when it was first released in late 1992. I remember the album caught some critical flak at the time for being an intentional throwback/sequel to 1972’s acoustic-oriented Harvest album on the heels of some of the best (and loudest) music he’d made in years. But I’ve actually always liked it better than Harvest, and it was the sort of record we could play in the store without Ken — the store’s owner, who didn’t like music but especially didn’t like loud music — getting grumpy about it. And 30-some years later, the title track still reduces my blood pressure and blisses me out every time I hear it.

Jason and the Scorchers — Harvest Moon

If you didn’t have a chance catch Nashville’s Jason and the Scorchers back in their early/mid-eighties prime, all I can say is that you have my deepest condolences. I was at the front of the stage for their raucous April 1985 show at Chicago’s Cabaret Metro, which remains forever ensconced among my Top 10 concerts of all time. Their mixture of country heartbreak, sweaty soulfulness and sheer rock power was so damn potent, it pretty much spoiled me for all the alt-country bands who came after them, with the possible exception of Uncle Tupelo. In any case, their song “Harvest Moon” sounds great in its original studio version on 1983’s Fervor EP, but treat yourself to a gander at this steaming live rendition from ‘85.

The Ventures — Lullaby of the Leaves

Originally a hit for George Olsen and His Music in 1932, this Tin Pan Alley received a nice “Walk, Don’t Run”-style treatment from instrumental deities The Ventures nearly 30 years later. Back in my record store days, I once had a dream that Robert Plant came in to do some shopping, and while this song was playing he pointed out some ethereal overtones and harmonies that I’d never heard before. I’ve never heard them since, either; but ever since that dream, I keep listening closely in hope that they’ll once again reveal themselves.

Keith Mansfield — Autumn Rambler

If you know me (or have heard some of the instrumental pieces I’ve written and recorded as The Corinthian Columns), you know that I’m a big, big fan of sixties and seventies library music, especially the British stuff recorded for KPM. The great composer Keith Mansfield is one of my favorites of this genre, and I love this free and easy mid-seventies instrumental of his, which is kind of like Herb Alpert meets Ennio Morricone’s loungier side. It also conjures up memories of living in England with my dad in 1974, and looking at the rain-dampened fall colors from the passenger side of our rented Mini.

Joe Dassin — L’été Indien

Joe Dassin was a really interesting cat whose music I’ve only become familiar with in the last few years. The son of director Jules Dassin, he was born in Brooklyn, spent his formative years in Europe, and studied anthropology at the University of Michigan; in 1964, he became the first French-language singer to sign with CBS Records, was enormously popular in France during the seventies, and died of a heart attack at the age of 41 while vacationing in Tahiti. “L’été Indien” (Indian summer) was his biggest hit, selling over 2 million copies worldwide in 1975. Based on the song “Africa” by Italian singer[songwriter Toto Cutugno, the song nonetheless has such an intrinsically French flavor that it makes me want to spend an idle afternoon drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes in an outdoor café while watching the local beauties glide by in their exquisite fall fashions and wearily mumbling “Quoi? Quoi?” to myself. Dassin also recorded an English version of this song, which is practically impossible to sit through; the romantic euphoniousness of Français is what’s required to really put the song’s wistful vibe across.

Captain America — Indian Summer

Speaking of Indian summers… Beat Happening’s 1988 “Indian Summer” has been recorded numerous times over the years by other acts — including R.E.M., Luna and Spectrum — and I have to confess that I enjoy every cover I’ve heard far more than the original, as I simply cannot stand Calvin Johnson’s voice. That said, it’s a fantastic song with a great two-chord groove, and I am especially fond of the version cut in 1992 by Captain America, the Scottish band led by Eugene Kelly (formerly of The Vaselines) who would soon be forced to change its name to Eugenius after the lawyers at Marvel Comics got all shirty about it.

Robyn Hitchcock — Autumn is Your Last Chance

Hitchock’s 1984 album I Often Dream of Trains is one of my favorite albums ever made, and its spare, haunted sound would fit perfectly with this time of year, even if it didn’t reach its emotional climax with this gorgeously evocative musing on loss, death and the bucolic beauty of fall. I find myself in absolute awe of this performance and recording every time I hear it.

So those are the current mainstays of my fall playlist. How about you? What have you got? Feel free to leave some of your fall favorites in the comments below!

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