We turn to the last leaf on the wall calendar and consider aspects of December minus the holiday dominance at its end. There were a lot of metaphors relating to the month’s fleeting snow and especially its cold. Which was exactly what hit hereabouts recently. So a lot of songs about chill — and four that repeated the word cold twice in its title, as if one were not enough.
There were a few birthdays to note, for members of the Spaniels, Elastica and Foo Fighters. But there seemed more musicians of note who died on this day, including Junior Murvin, David Blue and Bobby Keys.
We succumbed to the promotional avalanche surrounding the box-office hit “Wicked” by playing songs that weren’t at all in the musical, but retained wicked themes in songs from Bob Dylan, Keith Richards and Rancid, among others. And we closed with songwriters Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg demonstrating their idea for a Munchkin medley.
The setlist follows:
Capital Radio December 2, 2024 1:10 – 4:28 p.m. www.cygnusradio.com
“Washington, D.C.,” The Magnetic Fields
“If We Make It Through December,” Dean and Britta and Sonic Boom
“December,” Teenage Fanclub
“December,” Chris Richards and the Subtractions
“December,” Collective Soul
“December,” The Green Apple Sea
“December Snow,” The Moody Blues
“See You in December,” The Minus 5 with M. Ward and Chuck Prophet
“Grey December,” Chet Baker
“December,” The Waterboys
“December,” Weezer
“Flowers in December,” Mazzy Star
“December Dark,” Matthew Sweet
“A Long December,” Counting Crows
“Cold December (In Your Heart),” Glen Campbell
“Cold Cold Heart,” Norah Jones
“In the Cold Cold Night,” The White Stripes
“I Felt the Chill Before the Winter Came,” Elvis Costello
“Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground,” Blind Willie Johnson
“Coffee Cold,” Galt McDermot
“Chilly Winds [Fink remix]” Nina Simone
“Cold Blooded,” Rick James
“Cold, Cold Ground [live],” Tom Waits
“So Cold in Ireland,” The Cranberries
“Looks Like a Cold, Cold Winter,” Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters
“Cold Wind,” Arcade Fire
“Cold Cold Winter,” The Pixies Three
“She’s So Cold ,” The Rolling Stones
“Baby It’s Cold Outside,” Little Hurricane
“Cold Day in the Sun,” Foo Fighters
“Annie,” Elastica
“I’m Like a Bird,” Nelly Furtado
“Goodnite, Sweetheart, Goodnite,” The Spaniels
“Police and Thieves,” Junior Murvin
“Venus,” Shocking Blue
“Outlaw Man,” David Blue
“Hony Tonk,” Bobby Keys
“Can’t You Hear Me Knocking,” The Rolling Stones
“Ways to Be Wicked,” Lone Justice
“Wicked Game,” Chris Isaak
“Wicked Messenger,” Bob Dylan
“As Wicked,” Rancid
“Is It Wicked Not to Care?” Belle & Sebastian
“The Sly, Slick and the Wicked” The Lost Generation
“Wicked Rain [live],” Los Lobos
“Wicked as it Seems,” Keith Richards
“Munchkinland Musical Sequence [demo],” Harold Arlen & Yip Harburg
Capital Radio returns Dec. 9 at 1 p.m. ET on www.cygnusradio.com. The show can also be heard via the cygnusradio.com app, available free at iTunes or GooglePlay. Older shows are available at Substack.com/@rogercatlin.
