Come she will.

April, that is.

And with her comes a bit of new music for the jukebox over in the dark, dusty corner.

As always, the whole thing begins with Vince Guaraldi's The Great Pumpkin Waltz, the official theme song of the Skull & Pumpkin.

It will always end, I think, with the official incidental music of the S&P, the Anger-Higbie Quintet's Pumpkintime.

Now for the new tunes.

Maybe not exactly new, at least for the second song on the player. I have offered Waltz For A Witch before; being a rarely heard track from Maury Laws' remarkable score from Mad Monster Party (1967), it's perfect Hallowe'en pub fare any time of year. But for Easter, it has an actual connection -- Maury used this piece again in the Hallowe'en segment of the 1971 Rankin Bass special Here Comes Peter Cottontail. I win.

Next up, a nod to my own religious and musical leanings. I know we do not discuss religion in here, but allow this pubkeep to simply say Easter is a memorable and moving holiday for a fallen Catholic... A Beautiful City is one of my favorite Stephen Schwartz songs from the 1973 film version of his marvelous Broadway musical Godspell. It makes me think of new beginnings, bright skies, and happy times. You'll like it. By the way, the lead vocalist, the Jesus character, is Victor Garber -- he who portrayed Thomas Andrews, the designer/builder of the Titanic in the iconic 1997 film.

Then, we get a little alternative... the late, incredibly great Nick Drake's mellow River Man. I did have it here before because it is an Autumn song, but it's also a Springtime song in the sense that new beginnings can cause a kind of wondrous uncertainty about the future, and about one's past beliefs coming into new question. Add the 'lilac time' lyric and you know I will return it to the playlist for Spring.

We are staying with the aforementioned Stephen Schwartz's great first act closer from his musical hit Wicked, Defying Gravity. It is endings, beginnings, an affirmation of drive and a sloughing off of emotional ice. Plus it's just too good to drop just yet. Rock on, Elphaba.


But then we are appending that song with the Overture from the film that started it all, The Wizard of Oz. If the main theme of a movie dealing with a Midwestern tornado isn't April-appropriate for a pub originating from my neck of the woods, well... it's there, deal with it.

And then, a song choice obviated by the title of this very post. Simon & Garfunkel's April, Come She Will was one of the more innocent and wistful songs from their breakthrough 1966 album, Sounds Of Silence.

I think most Hallowe'en People agree that Spring is the opposite of Fall. It ends up that way on the calendar, sure. But for many of us, Spring is kind of annoying on a superficial level -- oh, we love the warmer weather, the longer sunlit hours after a seemingly timeless Winter -- but even Christmas can't hold a candle to Easter's bunnies, chickies, flowers and pastels for rubbing against the grain of a dyed-in-the-wool Hallowe'en fanatic.

Yet Spring, and its cornerstone holiday Easter, are a welcome time, and when one realizes it's just the B Side of Autumn, it takes on a certain hopeful brilliance.

Besides... you can still make Easter creepy and kooky...

(source)

There will be ample evidence of that notion in a few days... but until then, as Miranda quipped, and is now the official April slogan of the S&P:

DUMDUMSHREKPEEPS!