You Are Feeling Sleepy
On Soporific Music & Whatever Gets You Through The Night
I may have mentioned this before but when I can’t sleep, am anxious or stressed, I have a single trick up my sleeve that always works.
I dial up Bob Dylan’s ‘I’ll Keep It With Mine’ (Bootleg Series Studio Outake 1966 version) and listen to it on repeat, right next to my ear - as in queue it up to play 20 times in a row and put my phone next to my pillow (I know, I know, I should have a better system but I don’t) - and something about it soothes me away to la la land.
I also used to listen to a lot of instrumental Jamaican dub for the same hypnotic reasons. The music creates a river to drift down and find a sleeping place.
In the early 90s I started working - on my eight track - on an instrumental album I planned to call Ambient As Fuck, a title that at that time seemed outrageous and hilarious but now sounds kind of like a generic Spotify playlist for grocery shopping or bathroom cleaning.
That said, I do like the concept of albums built around a theme. Albums with a purpose. Remember all those cool 60s albums like Music To Watch Girls By etc? When I say remember, I wasn’t born yet back then, but I remember seeing plenty of these cool covers around and thinking how cool they were.
So, anyway Sam Worrad, who I’ve been making music with for the past twenty years (!), has been sending me some little sketches of music that are so dreamy and lovely I am inspired that the next album we make should be Songs To Go To Sleep With - or better yet, maybe Voulez Vous Couchez Avec Moi Ce Soir? - and I’m wondering what y’all think of this plan? Am I crazy? Should we do it? Would anyone listen?
I’m going to try something different and open up what they call here on Substack ‘the chat’ for this one. For those unfamiliar (as I was), it’s an ongoing thread where we can all chat back and forth in our own time, like a group chat via text type thing. I want to hear all about sleepy time music/sounds/pink noise/white noise/airconditioner hum/total silence/muscle relaxation exercises/ weird apps/whatever gets you through the night.
You can of course still leave a comment here, and I would love for you to do so.
Here is a 6 hour playlist I made over many years of sleepy listening that I believe will put you sleep - if you give it a try please let me know how you go!
Lets Get Sleepy on Spotify
Lets Get Sleepy on Apple Music
Talk sleepy music to me!
Wishing you a restful weekend, I am having a well needed one myself.
Lo x
Thanks for the invitation to chat, Lo, which I won’t take up as I am hard to put to sleep with music with words!! Mine is all droney stuff on a meditation app, or shakuhachi flute. Anything more exciting keeps me listening and I don’t sleep! Nuts isn’t it. I’d love to hear any sleep covers you create - “pillow slips”?? And thanks for posting Andy, my god what a fabulous voice he had. Crossed that moon river in style, he did.
I think a discussion about music that helps you sleep is relevant, especially now - when there is a wider accessibility to music, and when we are laden with greater stresses and the omnipresence of digital media that often keeps us awake.
A few years back, someone posted a plea on a friend's FB page, requesting suggestions for music that people used to induce sleep. It was interesting to see that, like many things, it was quite individualistic.
This, coupled with your comment about music around a theme, reminded me of an album that kind of does both. Simon Bailey creates and coerces sound in beautiful ways. As well as releasing his own work, he has released several cover albums which enhance the musicality of the originals with beautiful subtleties. Most recently, he wrote his first soundtrack (which is built around the theme of the film) and is also calming enough to help the listener feel soporific.