My Gen X Playlist: Walk Out To Winter – Aztec Camera

Let’s be honest. Southern Californians are wimps when it comes to cold weather. If it dips in the 60’s, we feel an ice age might be coming around the corner. To us, that’s cold. In the 50’s, that’s damn cold and a sign that the end of the world is near. But you can’t blame us, we just don’t get real cold weather over here.

My good friend is from back east. He came out to California for college and he’s been here ever since. We’ve turned him into a wimpy Californian that complains at sub-70 weather. He got caught in our vortex and can’t get out.

I once was invited to go ice fishing. It was recommended that I get special boots so my feet wouldn’t feel the cold radiate up from the ice. Where to buy them? I finally contacted someone in Canada. He was really excited for my first time ice fishing and was enthusiastically telling me about all of the various types of boots. Then he asked that one crucial question. Where are you going ice fishing? I replied, Mammoth Mountain, California. He started laughing hysterically.

So yes, we are a little wimpy with cold weather. With climate change, who knows what’s in store for us in the future. Maybe one day our winters will bring snow to Los Angeles. You think we can’t drive when it rains, imagine the chaos a few snow flakes will bring. Avoiding that pandemonium is enough incentive to fight global warming.

Aztec Camera released Walk Out To Winter in 1983. Yet another song about nuclear fall out.

The early 1980s was an uncertain time for everyone, as the Cold War seemed to ramp up in ways only seen since the early 1960s, putting the fear of mass destruction very firmly into focus… It was certainly a frightening time, with the threat of nuclear annihilation a very real possibility as the superpowers postured.

…what this song always suggested to me; the summer and fall of youth is over, and the winter of adulthood must begin, and in an era when things really were getting serious…winter here is just one of discontent, or one of the nuclear variety…

– the delete bin

During the 80’s, I was vaguely aware of the possibility of nuclear war. But in high school, I was too busy with my own teen interests and drama, marking the seasons of my youth. To me, Walk Out To Winter sounded like a nice stroll on a snow covered path. One thing this blog is teaching me is how utterly clueless I really was back then. I guess I gotta take the good with the bad.

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For a complete playlist, please click here.

For the Spotify playlist, please click here.

Walk out to winter, swear I'll be there
Chill will wake you, high and dry
You'll wonder why

We met in the summer and walked 'til the fall
And breathless we talked, it was tongues
Despite what they'll say, it wasn't youth, we'd hit the truth

Faces of Strummer that fell from your wall
And nothing was left where they hung
So sweet and bitter, they're what we found
So drink them down and

Walk out to winter, swear I'll be there
Chill will wake you, high and dry
You'll wonder why
Walk out to winter, swear I'll be there
Chance is buried just below the blinding snow

You burn in the breadline and ribbons and all
So walk to winter
You won't be late, you'll always wait
This generation, the walk to the wall
But I'm not angry, get your gear
Get out of here and

Walk out to winter, swear I'll be there
Chill will wake you, high and dry
You'll wonder why
Walk out to winter, swear I'll be there
Chance is buried just below the blinding snow

Walk out to winter, swear I'll be there
Chill will wake you, high and dry

Walk out to winter, swear I'll be there
You'll find
Snowblind
This is life
This is life