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Preface: February's usually a pretty drab month. January still has the excitement of the preceeding holiday season, and March typically carries the first signs of spring, but the only thing February has going for it is Valentine's Day, which could make things worse just as easily as it could make things better. I guess it's a good thing it's the shortest month of the year. This week we'll succumb to the wintertime blues - but remember, spring is waiting around that corner.
Monday (2/18/08): The Rolling Stones - Winter [Goats Head Soup, 1973]
Comments: From the album often unfairly excluded from what is considered the Stones' most prolific period, perhaps judged especially hard in the wake of Exile On Main St (a career highlight), here's a nice, mellow track about winter. "It's sure been a cold, cold winter."
Tuesday (2/19/08): The Doors - Wintertime Love [Waiting For The Sun, 1968]
Comments: To be honest, any time of the year is a good time for love, but winter is especially good for snuggling with a loved one and keeping warm and peaceful as the blustery weather rages outside. "Winter's so cold this year - and you are so warm, my wintertime love to be."
Wednesday (2/20/08): Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Winterlong (Live) [Live At The Fillmore East, 1970]
Comments: Every year I find myself waiting winterlong for the warm weather to return. In the meantime, not only is tonight a full moon, but there's also a total lunar eclipse! Check to see if and when it's visible where you live, and hope for clear skies! "I've waited for you winterlong. You seem to be where I belong."
Thursday (2/21/08): Black Sabbath - Snowblind [Vol 4, 1972]
Comments: Sure, it may be a metaphor for cocaine, but that doesn't mean that if you take it literally, it doesn't work as a perfect wintery song! It's not often that a band like Black Sabbath takes time to conjure up imagery of such whiteness. "Crystal world with winter flowers, turn my days to frozen hours."
Friday (2/22/08): Ted Nugent - Hibernation (Live) [Double Live Gonzo!, 1978]
Comment: Here's a monster live noise jam courtesy of 'The Nuge'. This guy doesn't play around; he's sonically intense. Hibernation doesn't seem like such a bad idea, to me. Some people might not like the idea of sleeping their lives away, but I love the feeling of getting up after a good, long rest. Imagine if you could just sleep right through the miserable weather of winter, and not have to leave your warm bed until the spring!
Saturday (2/23/08): Pink Floyd - Terminal Frost [A Momentary Lapse Of Reason, 1987]
Comments: You could say that a layer of terminal frost set in between David Gilmour and Roger Waters in the '80s, but Gilmour pulled the rest of the band together in the latter part of the decade to record A Momentary Lapse Of Reason. Though it's not one of their better albums, this instrumental is evidence that it wasn't a wasted effort, either.
Sunday (2/24/08): Bloomfield & Friends - Wintry Country Side (Live) [My Labors & More, 1969]
Comments: This long track starts off rather slow, with a gentle piano intro, but eventually picks up heat when Bloomfield's guitar licks the ice. Nick Gravenites, who was the main singer in Bloomfield's band at the Fillmore West concert this live track was recorded at, was disappointed that the best tracks were left off the live album, so he made a deal to devote half his solo album My Labors to the excellent outtakes from that concert. "The winter sun goes down early, baby - about half past five. And you got me stuck way out here in the wintry country side."