Pet Sounds
31 Songs Anyone Who Loves Horses Needs to Hear
Spanning Aretha Franklin to Kurt Vile, this playlist is good for anyone who wants to feel strong, exhilarated, and wild right now
Like birds, horses in art represent freedom and beauty. Unlike most birds, there’s also a terrifying unknowable magnitude to the horse. Whatever your stance on the ethics of humans’ long working relationship with horses, we can happily celebrate them in song form, from country to blues to electronica to whatever it is that Brian Eno is up to. Since a lot of us are staying at home to mitigate the growth of COVID-19, I’ve made this larger than usual, and aimed to keep its contents fairly unpredictable: a whopping big playlist for a whopping big animal.
1. “Iron Horse” — John Barry
Kicking us off at a canter is this lively instrumental by composer John Barry, best known for coming up with the James Bond Theme and providing the music for memorable Bond songs such as “Diamonds Are Forever,” “You Only Live Twice,” and “Goldfinger,” plus countless other film and television scores. This is early work from Barry, and it has a very Ennio Morricone sound to it — or perhaps vice versa, considering they both rose up at a similar time.
