Whither Yellow?

This week's show will feature songs about the color yellow, as well as songs about yellow things. Unfortunately, no one has written a song (that I am aware of) about yellow burnies, yellow discipline, yellow coffee makers, or the Yellow Sea, but we'll have all other improbably yellow things. Trust me.

But why yellow? It hardly seems the season! Why such a springtime color as summer ends? Because I am not moved, sir, by the vagaries of seasonal fashion. I live in Austin, Texas, sir, where we are lucky to have two seasons: "summer" & "thank God it's not summer." The vegetative world is equally confused - the two trees in my backyard have been losing leaves all summer long.

No, I answer to a completely different muse. The Muse of the Moment. (Which was also, I believe, a totally rad metal song by 80's superstars Asia.) A Muse that has no problem with kneecapping me when I least expect it (which makes this Muse a little like my high school Algebra teacher). So.

I was indulging myself in the wonderful world of song-poems a few weeks back - & if you don't know what song-poems are, you may certainly find out at the American Song Poem Music Archives - although they apparently don't host mp3s there anymore - &, like with brilliant poetry & strange bumps on your skin, I always find something new & strange & wonderful when I revisit song-poems. This time, it was a weird recitation of yellow things called, aptly enough, "I Like Yellow Things."

(You can find the mp3 for this down the page here, if you want a preview before Friday.)

I was interested in all the yellow things the singer Bobbi Blake lists, & then thought, "What other songs are about yellow things?" In particular, I decided that, despite being able to round up a multitude of songs about lemons or the sun or traffic lights, I'd focus on the weirder, more poetical stuff - yellow as descriptive metaphor rather than a list of yellow stuff (like I did here yesterday).

So Friday, you'll hear songs about yellow brick roads (with different permutations), as well as yellow rainbows (what?), yellow guns (hunh?!), & maybe even yellow forests (eh?!?). I'll concede some obvious ones - the sun, taxis, the obligatory submarine - but mainly I am looking for the counterintuitive yellow. Hopefully I will succeed.

As always, you can email me with requests for yellow songs. (& no, I won't play that annoying Coldplay song, sorry). & even if you can't think of a yellow song, how about putting your pencap where your brain is & writing a haiku?

Is this over? Can I take a day without talking about the color yellow? Good.