So just like that we find ourselves in 2002, a new year full of opportunities and adventures, a year to set new resolutions on a clean slate.

As I was putting up my new calendar and planning out the coming months, I had this idea. What if the months of the year could have a soundtrack? What if each month, laden with its own holidays and sentimental significance, could be given its own song? If each month had its own song, we’d have 12 songs for an album known as “2002.” (I’ll leave the album-naming to those who can come up with catchy titles.)

So, I went through my personal CD and tape collection to dig up some of my personal favorites, calling to mind those hits that could encapsulate each month. Songs of love, songs of pain, songs of good times and reflection. I looked for different styles to represent the different moods we go through during the year, and after listening to a bunch of songs, I had my list.

Now, I realize a lot of you out there might be able to come up with totally different titles based on how you feel about certain months, so this is just one man’s attempt to capture the year with songs. I’d welcome any bonus tracks or substitutions.

So here goes....

JANUARY - “King of Pain”
by the Police

Cold, gray days. A nagging hangover from the holidays and all those visits with relatives you didn’t even know you had. It’s flu season and Christmas has left you with a credit card debt bigger than a Republican tax break. Seasonal Affective Disorder has you curled up in a junk food daze as you sulk in grumpy hibernation. Let’s be honest: January has all the pleasure of a leftover fruitcake. So it’s easy to relate to lead singer Sting, when he pines, “I have stood here before inside the pouring rain with the world turning circles running ‘round my brain. I guess I’m always hoping that you’ll end this reign but it’s my destiny to be the king of pain.” Pensive and introspective, Sting is the philosopher who observes and endures with a clever wit. If this song wasn’t written in the heart of winter, it surely speaks to the month named after Janus, the Roman god of doorways and portals where we must inevitably pass through on our journeys.

FEBRUARY - “We Are In Love”
by Harry Connick Jr.

Even if you don’t have a main squeeze, you’re bound to get a little romantic when you hear Connick crooning with all his old fashioned charm down on bended knee with a diamond ring in hand engaging us with a tune to win our hearts. I recommend this song and the whole CD of the same title as a perfect gift to put you in the mood. Sure there are plenty of heart-thumping songs to woo that special someone, but who can match Connick’s sincerity when he opens a song with, “I know you so well. I can tell by the sound of your voice that you’re really in love with me”? Probably not to be used as a pick-up line unless you have the kind of flare and voice Connick has, but that’s another story. February is all about rediscovering love, and this is just the kind of song that can put the flicker into a candlelight dinner.

MARCH - “Into the Mystic”
by Van Morrison

As the Irish give us one more reminder to drink and be merry for St. Patrick’s Day, I give you a song from one of Ireland’s most important exports: the timeless lyrics of Van Morrison. How many times have we heard “Brown-Eyed Girl” and just had to get up and dance? Why does his music make for such great songs on soundtracks? It’s that unmistakable voice and the wonderful lines that linger in your head. From “Into the Mystic,” we open with the words, “We were born before the wind....” An easy-going soul out on the sea is coming home so he can “rock your gypsy soul just like way back in the days of old.” So put on your green, make a toast, and let Van Morrison take you away.

APRIL - “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall”
by Bob Dylan

The old saying about April showers was just too tempting, and this song is full of symbolism and clever phrases I couldn’t pass up. T.S. Eliot deemed it “the cruelest month,” and this Dylan classic isn’t exactly a rosy-cheeked salute to spring, but who better to represent National Poetry Month than one of America’s greatest living poets? Free versing like Whitman, politically minded like Woody Guthrie, Dylan strums out colorful lines like, “I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it. I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it.” It’s a tune full of paradox and irony, simple and true. How many people does he speak for when he says, “I’ll know my song well before I start singing”? Dylan deserves his own chapter in the story of rock ‘n’ roll, and to be still going strong after decades of touring, you gotta salute the man for continuing to write the songs that speak to America’s soul.

MAY - “These Are the Days”
by 10,000 Maniacs

With winter behind us, there’s cause for celebration. The short-sleeved days are coming! Leaves are returning to the trees. All those gaping holes on the mountains are thick with green once more. Lead singer Natalie Merchant and her misnomer of a band have a way of making us feel Zestfully clean and ready to rush into fields of wildflowers, arms spread wide with the warm sun in our face. “These days you might feel a shaft of light make its way across your face,” Merchant sings, and we believe her. There’s a hope in this song that never seems to diminish no matter how many times you hear it.

JUNE - “Summer Jam”
by Quad City DJs

“Yeah, what’s up? It’s that time in the big city. 98 hot degrees out there. Check it out: there’s a party goin’ on all day at the beach, so fellas you might wanna wash up the Chevy’s, drop the tops, and ladies, y’all put on them bathin’ suits ‘cause it’s gonna be a scorcher!” That’s the opener to the perfect cookout summer song from the brothers who brought you “C’mon ‘N’ Ride It (The Train).” It’s an invitation to the hottest summer party of the year with sizzling steaks on the grill and a cool body of water nearby. Good times with good friends while you work on the tan. Enjoy.

JULY - “Born in the U.S.A.”
by Bruce Springsteen

Patriotism swells this Fourth of July as the war continues in Afghanistan. (Osama’s still probably on the loose.) Sure, “America the Beautiful” and “God Bless the U.S.A.” have their place in the star-spangled annuls, but for my money, I’ll take Springsteen and his E Street Band rockin’ out with an anthem devoted to the blue collar veterans that make this country truly great. Originally inspired by a screenplay of the same title, “Born in the U.S.A.” came out of Springsteen’s work with some Vietnam vets. As the title track to an album that would make The Boss a household name, it’s a classic tune that cuts to the heart of a working man’s struggle, a man fighting for the promise of the American dream. The pounding drum and those synthesizer chords bang out a powerful refrain.

AUGUST - “Margaritaville”
by Jimmy Buffett

As summer wanes, regrets abound. Where did all the good times go? Why can’t there be one more month of summer vacation? I guess we were wasting away in that fantasy world Parrotheads have come to realize as “Margaritaville.” As a loyal fan of Jimmy, I’ve attended a dozen or so concerts over the past several years, and I’ve come to salute the timeless songs that will make Jimmy Buffett a patron saint for party animals everywhere. What other person on the planet could get hordes of senior citizens, middle-aged professionals and college kids wearing grass skirts, tropical shirts and parrot hats? Jimmy is Pan with a guitar, the Pied Piper of the Caribbean, Master of Margaritas. He reminds us of how tropical settings can be a state of mind. “Margaritaville” sums up that feeling at the end of the summer when you want the fun to continue but you know all things must pass.

SEPTEMBER - “Angel”
by Sarah McLachlan

As the one year anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks draws closer, we remind ourselves of how fragile life is and how resilient the human spirit can be. Americans still try to search for the right words to heal and draw strength, so perhaps a Canadian like McLachlan can deliver just the right touch with her graceful voice to remember a tragedy like none other on American soil. “May you find some comfort here,” she sings. Indeed.

OCTOBER - “Evil in Asheville”
by Scrappy Hamilton

Reflecting on my proximity to a city that gets its claim to fame for its high per capita of freaks, I pause to ponder over the holiday devoted to the wild and crazy — and the city that welcomes them. Asheville, I love your spirit and most definitely your music. So here’s a treat for the candy-seekers this fall — a hot little number from a jazzy/bluesy/ragtime Asheville band that could get a cemetery of zombies doing the jitterbug. Go see these guys live whenever possible. “Evil in Asheville” is a jumpy, tongue-in-cheek tune about a devilish vixen you can’t say no to. “Oh baby, you put the evil in Asheville. I love your malice and your ill will. ...Baby, you’re divine!”

NOVEMBER - “The Power”
by SNAP

“I’ve got the power!” That’s the battle cry in Washington and in state capitals around the country as mid-term elections heap on the hype and negative ads drop like bombs over an al-Qaida camp. We hear the rap refrain: “It’s gettin, it’s gettin, it’s gettin kinda hectic...” This is the theme song for political parties plotting their victories along with their enemies’ demise. “So peace — stay off my back or I will attack, and you don’t want that,” the lyrical Jesse James warns. It’s not pretty, but it is democracy. Well, maybe corporate-funded, carefully orchestrated sound byte fights to see which of the wealthiest of Americans maintains power. Step right up and get your ringside seat — and don’t forget to vote!

DECEMBER - “My Favorite Things”
by John Coltrane

I close with a Christmas song taken from Rodgers and Hammerstein and immortalized by the ever-smooth sax legend himself. You can have all the Holly Jolly ornaments and Jingle Bell Rock you want. I’ll take Coltrane any day. More than 40 years after its original recording, “My Favorite Things” still comes across as one of the most original interpretations of a holiday song ever produced. It begins as a simple instrumental and runs off on all these amazing tangents. Each time I hear it, I lose myself in that jazz landscape where time evaporates.

There you have it. Twelve months. Twelve songs. Twelve reasons to enjoy the new year.

(Beadle is a writer and teacher in Waynesville. He can be reached at mabeadle@hotmail.com.)