Wednesday, May 27, 2009

A Long List of Summer Songs

Tonight, having realized that "Summer" doesn't officially start until the 21st of June...
Yet knowing that the TV season is over, Popcorn movies have already grossed a half a billion dollars, and caps/gowns/tuxes/crowns/bimbos in limos are all over the place...I'm calling it Summer...right now. Like it or not, OK. I just used a weed wacker in my yard and there's grass stains blotching my Pumas. That can ONLY happen in the summer.

So I'm compiling a list of my most memorable summer songs here tonight. These don't necessarily have to have the word "Summer" in the title...or in the lyrics. These are songs I put on mix tapes in the late 80s while the Junebugs crowded up tree branches in the yard outside my window....these are songs in my head while the winds of suburbia whipped my hair around as I snuck my dad's Pontiac Convertible out for a forbidden spin in my teens.....these are songs in an early MP3 songlist heating up my ears on a Hot August Night on the lower east side in 2001...these are songs on a cassette stretched out with tape hiss and sung out bliss on constant auto reverse in my walkman on the last day of 8th grade..... You get the idea.

Here Goes...

1) Land Ho!- The Doors - Morrison Hotel
2) Hissing Of Summer Lawns- Joni Mitchell- Hissing Of Summer Lawns
3) Sun King -The Beatles - Abbey Road
4) Fall On Me- REM - Life's Rich Pageant
5) Fourth Of July- Soundgarden- Superunknown
6) Get It Hot - AC/DC - Highway to Hell
7) Reminiscing- Little River Band
8) You Don't Have To Cry- CSN - Crosby, Stills and Nash
9) Rearviewmirror- Pearl Jam - Vs.
10) Hummingbird- Wilco - A Ghost is Born
11) Since You're Gone- The Cars - Shake it Up
12) Haitian Divorce- Steely Dan- Katy Lied
13) Wiser Time- Black Crowes- The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion
14) Tonight- Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard of Oz
15) In My Room- The Beach Boys
16) Swamp Music- Lynyrd Skynyrd- Second Helping
17) Down By The Seaside- Led Zeppelin- Physical Graffiti
18) The Full Bug- Van Halen - Diver Down
19) Back Of A Car- Big Star - Radio City
20) Blue Sky- The Allman Bros.- Eat A Peach
21) Sunday Sun- Beck - Sea Change
22) Sara- Fleetwood Mac - Tusk
23) Evil- Cactus
24) Love Removal Machine- The Cult - Electric
25) Hitch A Ride- Boston - Boston
26) I Am Yours- Derek And The Dominoes - Layla
27) Even The Losers- Tom Petty
28) Feel Good Hit Of The Summer- Queens Of The Stone Age - Rated R
29) My Michelle- Guns N' Roses - Appetite For Destruction
30) Eyes Of The World- Grateful Dead - Wake Of The Flood
31) King Of Pain -The Police - Synchronicity
32) Destination Diamonds- Diamond Nights - Popsicle
33) Summertime Rolls- Janes Addiction - Nothing's Shocking
34) You Give Me All I Need- The Scorpions- Blackout
35) Red Barchetta -Rush - Moving Pictures
36) Undercover Angel- Allan O' Day
37) Kiss- Prince
38) Supernaut- Black Sabbath - Sabotage
39) Tupelo Honey- Van Morrison - Tupelo Honey
40) Family Affair- Sly and The Family Stone

Ahhhh...memories....of dusty cassettes in a case next to me in a Mazda Truck,, a black maverick with a wide back seat, the sound of crickets from a rooftop, a NYC Blackout, the smell of kind bud in a Dead Show Parking Lot, watching the tubers from the back seat of a boat, hiking in Mount Tam(SF) with Pam, Playing Acoustic with my Band at the Park Ave. Fest, Riding the tractor with a Walkman on, The Festival Tent in Rochester, NY (RIP), a Summer Caverns Party(guess you had to be there), driving back home from Yakima, Wa to Rochester(every state had a theme song)......and on and on....

Do You Have A List? Or am I just writing this for my health?

Lets see those lists! LYMI, Seano

7 comments:

  1. Hey Seano,
    Just wanted to say THANKS for including Undercover Angel in you summer list. I'm glad my record was part of your good memories!
    Chordially,
    Alan O'Day

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  2. "Sunny Afternoon" by the Kinks is my favorite 'Summertime' song.
    and what about "Hot fun in the summertime" by Sly & the family stone, or "Summertime Blues"

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  3. There are songs for every season of my life, but I know exactly what you mean about Summer Songs. They take you to a time and a place....Me and Kathy driving past "hole in the wall" in Capo Beach on Coast Hwy with "Hold the Line" from Toto, driving to Palm Springs in a convertible in 103 degrees with the Eagles, "Hotel California". Falling in love with Ashley to "Easy" (Commodores) and "Your Love is Lifting Me Higher (Rita C) and then of course THE BEACH BOYS and Cheap Trick and Def Leopard....and ...there are so many memories!

    and one other song that I should not admit to...but "Elvira" by The Oak Ridge Boys...ask me sometime.

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  4. Alan O' Day, Thanks for checking my blog out. If this is really you, What happened to the boy in "Angie Baby"........?

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  5. Hiatian Divorce...one of my favorite Dan tunes. Its off my fave Dan CD The Royal Scam.

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  6. I remember road trips in the summer of 2002, driving from Elyria, OH to Chicago, IL to visit my then girlfriend. My car had no AC, the air was hot and sticky and I had Chroma Key's [i]Dead Air for Radios[/i] blasting out of the car stereo. That CD captured the mood of that summer for me.

    I took that road trip one last time in October 2002... that time it was one way. A few years later that girlfriend became a wife, and tomorrow she becomes the mother of our child....

    But whenever I hear [i]Dead Air for Radios[/i] or even the follow-up [i]You Go Now[/i] I'm taken back to those hot sticky road trips.

    Other summer CDs for me include Chicago 16-18, Joseph Williams [i]I Am Alive[/i], Def Leppard [i]High 'n' Dry[/i], and Toto [i]Kingdom of Desire[/i] (their last album before the untimely passing of drummer Jeff Porcaro).

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  7. This blog is amazing!!!! i love all kind of songs because I think the music is like energize that is transforming our lives. I usually like to go to the places whose people are happy and enjoy their music, I thin you must to visit
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    Is a fantastic experience.

    ReplyDelete