As the birds resume chirping, buds pop into view, and lawns start to get grow, here’s a playlist to get you strolling into spring.
“I Can Hear the Grass Grow,” The Move (1967). If grass grew as fast as this rocker moves, you’d never stop mowing. Roy Wood’s influential British band never hit it big in the U.S — though after Jeff Lynne joined, the band did morph into the way more popular Electric Light Orchestra — but this is one of the enduring nuggets of the pop-psychedelic era. The Move’s follow-up single, “Flowers in the Rain,” remains apt.
“Feed the Tree,” Belly (1993). This Rhode Island-based band led by Tanya Donnelly, formerly of Throwing Muses and The Breeders, had its biggest hit with a catchy ode of obscure meaning. On a farm, Donnelly later explained, the canopy of a single tree sticking up into the sky might shelter forever a family buried below. Hard to find a more appealing example of ’90s alt-rock.
“Umbrella,” Rihanna feat. Jay-Z (2007). Talk about shelter from April showers. When this single was released in the spring of 2007, so many listeners accepted Rihanna’s invitation to “stand under my um-ber-ella” that the song zoomed to №1.
“The Four Seasons: Spring,” Antonio Vivaldi (1725). Of the four violin concerti that make up the Venetian’s most celebrated work, you may be most familiar with this one, which opens the suite with a burst of sunshine. The spritely music was written to accompany a sonnet that begins, “Springtime is upon us/The birds celebrate her return with festive song.”
“Gardening at Night,” R.E.M. (1982). The title phrase/chorus may be the only lyrics you can decipher in this standout from R.E.M.’s debut EP, but it doesn’t matter. Michael Stipe, who eventually de-mumbled his delivery, had a gift for painting mysterious, evocative pictures over the chiming, driving music that his bandmates created. Three years later, R.E.M. offered more pastoral beauty with “Green Grow the Rushes” and suggested a follow-up nocturnal activity, “Nightswimming,” in 1993.
“Spring Is Here,” Nina Simone (1966). This melancholy 1938 Rodgers-Hart song has been covered by many, but we’ll go with Simone, whose soulful contralto encapsulates the sadness of someone out of tune with the season. “No desire, no ambition leads me/Maybe it’s because nobody needs me/Spring is here! Why doesn’t the breeze delight me?/Stars appear, why doesn’t the night invite me?’’
“Sometimes It Snows in April,” Prince (1986). Twenty years later, Prince provided more perspective on the season and life itself with this mournful ballad from his Parade album (and Under the Cherry Moon movie). After he died, this song, which hadn’t previously been a single, hit the charts in several countries.
“Let’s Go Rain,” Jeff Tweedy (2018). In this instant sing-along, Wilco’s frontman is cheering for another Noah’s Ark-level flood, like the one that “washed away a world of sin.” This might be an extreme solution to droughts, but his suggestion that we might live “on an ocean of guitars” has undeniable appeal.
“Grass,” XTC (1986). Skylarking was this British band’s career-highlight song cycle about life and nature. It includes Colin Moulding’s fond reminiscence about the good times he enjoyed on the lawn. “Over and over we flatten the clover,” indeed. XTC would take us to the “Garden of Earthly Delights” three years later.
“Symphony №6 — Pastoral,” Ludwig van Beethoven (1808). A blissful, spacious work, very different from the “Fifth” with its alarming four-note opening. Beethoven spent a lot of time roaming through the Vienna woods and has a trail up the Kahlenberg named after him. Each of the five movements conveys specific natural settings and moods starting with “Awakening of cheerful feelings on arrival in the countryside.” He died just 56 years old in the middle of a thunderstorm, perhaps from the lead-laced wine he liked to drink on his country outings.
“Wildflowers,” Tom Petty (1994). The yearning title track of what has become Petty’s most beloved album is the kind of folk song that sounds like it has always existed. This is Tom Petty at his warmest and most vulnerable.
“Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology),” Marvin Gaye (1971). Let’s end this with a plea to protect the environment that bursts into life during this season. The songs on Marvin Gaye’s landmark What’s Going On — named by Rolling Stone as the best ever album — flow into one another like streams into a river, and the segue into “Mercy Mercy Me” is nothing short of thrilling. Carry us away, Marvin.
Mark Caro co-authored the songwriting book Take It to the Bridge: Unlocking the Great Songs Inside You. Find him on Twitter @MarkCaro.