Hearing Paul Simon's '73 hit in the grocery store made me briefly forget that my favorite season was coming to an end. What song always says "summer" to you? An open thread...
This song is summer for sure! It took on extra meaning for me as the Mom of two boys in a touristy, beach town. We have a bustling community that expands in the summer when the boys of summer roll into town and my sons watch the girls gravitate that way!
“Summertime” always seemed ponderous and lugubrious to me. “Summer in the City”--edgy and hot. But “Sweet Summer Breeze” always makes me feel fine. But you know there’s no law against playing your summer fave during winter. The other option is O
"Band on the Run" always takes me back to our Chicago neighborhood beach, the hot sand, the very cold lake, "digging for water" with a toy shovel, and getting back into our Buick with its black vinyl, my mom helping me and a friend arrange towels under us to avoid it burning us. I loved that first thirty seconds of baking-hot car interior.
Cool to see OC MD here!I have lived on Cape Cod for 50 years but mostly grew up in MD. I worked summers in Ocean City way back in the early 60s and my parents ended up living up near the Fenwick line. My daughter and her family now live in Berlin MD, the hipster Mayberry😊. Still love wacky, tacky Ocean City and Assateague. My grand boys surf and fish all year round.
Three Little Birds by Bob Marley is that first really warm day in May at college when everyone dragged their pasty white skin out onto the quad to smoke and try to get "some base color." (and yeah, it was all pasty white kids groovin' to Bob). But it makes my heart happy and light any time I hear it and i might roll the car windows down even if it's cold
Love it! College memories of that first really warm day in May, hung over, sitting outside, half sick with allergies. And when it got too hot, ice cream in a waffle cone.
Summer is the 80s, and it's always been about Janet (Escapade), Prince (Raspberry Beret), Madonna (Holiday), The Go Gos (Our Lips Are Sealed), Bananarama (Cruel Summer) and a whole bunch of obscure Canadian bands that I grew up with. Gotta say that my traditional "summer opener" movie is "Desperately Seeking Susan", and my summer closer is "Dirty Dancing", and gainsay who dare. HEY: someone should make a playlist of all these songs in the comments!
@Alicia - Those "obscure" bands used to come to the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition (Thunder Bay's CNE) every summer to play - Tom Cochrane, Glass Tiger, Jeff Healy, Harlequin, Prism... (who am I forgetting?) It's like we got to see all these bands right up close *because* they were obscure. The big, big ones never did come - Bryan Adams and even Loverboy got pretty big pretty fast. But wow, as a Tom Cochrane fan, it sure was a cool time and place!
HOO BOY you've opened a big can of Canadianisms! Don't forget Kim Mitchell, Mae Moore, The Infidels, Lava Hay and all the Netwerk bands, 5440, and of course the mighty Spirit of The West. I never got to see Tom in his heyday, and I regret that. Saw Spirit 3X before Gord passed, and will always be grateful. PS I'm from V-Town.
Ah yes, Kim Mitchell! Saw him and Tom Cochrane at Port Arthur Stadium -- everyone crammed into the outfield. Later saw Cochrane and Spirit of the West in Niagara Falls on New Year's Eve. Hit -40 that night... lol Only saw 54-40 after they were big.
Speaking of Netwerk, although I wasn't a huge Sarah McLachlan fan, my sister and her now-husband are, and would see them every time they came to Crocks and Rolls (a bar Dave Bindini talks about extensively in his book because it was a stop for most bands criss-crossing the country). I saw Sloan and the Waltons there, among others -- this tiny 200(?)-person bar that was always packed past capacity.
Only in Canada... lol
Then there were the ones that got away. Missed Blue Rodeo at Hootenany on the Mountain in about 1989, though I've seen them since. Had comp tickets (I was editor at the student newspapers) to when some of the Barenaked Ladies came up to perform with Corky and the Juice Pigs, but couldn't make it. My biggest regret -- comp tickets to the Tragically Hip at the Lakehead University Cafeteria on what was one of the first concerts outside of southern Ontario. We had no idea who they were or who they would become.
(Wow, you're right -- that was a can of worms. And I didn't even hit them all... lol)
Ah - apparently he has several books! This one is called "On a Cold Road: Tales of Adventure in Canadian Rock" - great book with an insider's look.
I forgot that there was also a documentary made about Crocks N Rolls, too. I never did see it (and still can't find it anywhere), but here's an interview with the director talking about it:
Every summer I was sent to my Aunt Ricky's house in Pittsburgh. In my mind, she was my "summer mother." In the summer of '75 Uncle Ed, her husband, got an 8-track stuck in his pick-up's deck. The tape was the Average White Band's joint "Cut the Cake," but my favorite song was "School Boy Crush." I was 12 years old when it came out, but every time I hear that track the summer of '75 comes back to me. Aunt Ricky & Uncle Ed are both dead, but somewhere in Pittsburgh I'm sure that 8-track is still stuck in the pick-up truck.
Sly/Family “Hot Fun in the Summertime.”
Ooh, yeah!
Love Boys of Summer by Don Henley.
I don’t like those darker days coming either Sari.
Take care.
This is the same song I was thinking of!
It’s a great song!
This song is summer for sure! It took on extra meaning for me as the Mom of two boys in a touristy, beach town. We have a bustling community that expands in the summer when the boys of summer roll into town and my sons watch the girls gravitate that way!
Me too.
Beach Boys!!
☀️☀️☀️🌈 🌊🏄♀️
Also Stevie Wonder- almost anything but especially Superstition
“Summertime” always seemed ponderous and lugubrious to me. “Summer in the City”--edgy and hot. But “Sweet Summer Breeze” always makes me feel fine. But you know there’s no law against playing your summer fave during winter. The other option is O
"Band on the Run" always takes me back to our Chicago neighborhood beach, the hot sand, the very cold lake, "digging for water" with a toy shovel, and getting back into our Buick with its black vinyl, my mom helping me and a friend arrange towels under us to avoid it burning us. I loved that first thirty seconds of baking-hot car interior.
Walking on Sunshine, Cruel Summer, Breakfast in America, Borderline, Prince’s Purple Rain album
Totally Purple Rain... how did I forget that!!!
Oooh oooh yes! I love dancing to that song on my steps outside!
Boys of Summer by Don Henley,
Like Cece has already added here.
Reminds me of the summer I spent working in Ocean City, MD and then heading back to college, tanned and tired, when Labor Day rolled around.
Margaritaville, may you RIP, Jimmy.
Oh, yes, RIP. :(
Cool to see OC MD here!I have lived on Cape Cod for 50 years but mostly grew up in MD. I worked summers in Ocean City way back in the early 60s and my parents ended up living up near the Fenwick line. My daughter and her family now live in Berlin MD, the hipster Mayberry😊. Still love wacky, tacky Ocean City and Assateague. My grand boys surf and fish all year round.
Love to see Maryland represented. Just got back from 2 days in Rehoboth and 2 days in Bethany.
Three Little Birds by Bob Marley is that first really warm day in May at college when everyone dragged their pasty white skin out onto the quad to smoke and try to get "some base color." (and yeah, it was all pasty white kids groovin' to Bob). But it makes my heart happy and light any time I hear it and i might roll the car windows down even if it's cold
Love it! College memories of that first really warm day in May, hung over, sitting outside, half sick with allergies. And when it got too hot, ice cream in a waffle cone.
I love that song! I also love Ziggy's "I love you too"
Summer is the 80s, and it's always been about Janet (Escapade), Prince (Raspberry Beret), Madonna (Holiday), The Go Gos (Our Lips Are Sealed), Bananarama (Cruel Summer) and a whole bunch of obscure Canadian bands that I grew up with. Gotta say that my traditional "summer opener" movie is "Desperately Seeking Susan", and my summer closer is "Dirty Dancing", and gainsay who dare. HEY: someone should make a playlist of all these songs in the comments!
Was my plan! Great minds...
@Alicia - Those "obscure" bands used to come to the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition (Thunder Bay's CNE) every summer to play - Tom Cochrane, Glass Tiger, Jeff Healy, Harlequin, Prism... (who am I forgetting?) It's like we got to see all these bands right up close *because* they were obscure. The big, big ones never did come - Bryan Adams and even Loverboy got pretty big pretty fast. But wow, as a Tom Cochrane fan, it sure was a cool time and place!
Oh Canada!!
Indeed!
HOO BOY you've opened a big can of Canadianisms! Don't forget Kim Mitchell, Mae Moore, The Infidels, Lava Hay and all the Netwerk bands, 5440, and of course the mighty Spirit of The West. I never got to see Tom in his heyday, and I regret that. Saw Spirit 3X before Gord passed, and will always be grateful. PS I'm from V-Town.
Ah yes, Kim Mitchell! Saw him and Tom Cochrane at Port Arthur Stadium -- everyone crammed into the outfield. Later saw Cochrane and Spirit of the West in Niagara Falls on New Year's Eve. Hit -40 that night... lol Only saw 54-40 after they were big.
Speaking of Netwerk, although I wasn't a huge Sarah McLachlan fan, my sister and her now-husband are, and would see them every time they came to Crocks and Rolls (a bar Dave Bindini talks about extensively in his book because it was a stop for most bands criss-crossing the country). I saw Sloan and the Waltons there, among others -- this tiny 200(?)-person bar that was always packed past capacity.
Only in Canada... lol
Then there were the ones that got away. Missed Blue Rodeo at Hootenany on the Mountain in about 1989, though I've seen them since. Had comp tickets (I was editor at the student newspapers) to when some of the Barenaked Ladies came up to perform with Corky and the Juice Pigs, but couldn't make it. My biggest regret -- comp tickets to the Tragically Hip at the Lakehead University Cafeteria on what was one of the first concerts outside of southern Ontario. We had no idea who they were or who they would become.
(Wow, you're right -- that was a can of worms. And I didn't even hit them all... lol)
Very cool! Always a Sarah fan, always will be. What is the Dave Bindini book you mentioned?
Ah - apparently he has several books! This one is called "On a Cold Road: Tales of Adventure in Canadian Rock" - great book with an insider's look.
I forgot that there was also a documentary made about Crocks N Rolls, too. I never did see it (and still can't find it anywhere), but here's an interview with the director talking about it:
https://vimeo.com/457797402
A bunch of them just got inducted yesterday -- many I would have thought were already in! (I didn't even recognize Alan Frew...)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/walk-of-fame-rock-tv-canada-1.6982098
Yeah - I like Platinum Blonde more now than in the day. I seemed to shy away from anything that became *too* popular... lol
Oooh, Escapade yes 🙌🏻
The Lovin’ Spoonful, “Summer in the City” 1966
Bryan Adam's "Summer of '69"
Good one!
Up on the Roof- The Drifters or Laura Nyro version
Carolina In My Mind - James Taylor
Brown Eyed Girl- Van Morrison
Good Vibrations- Beach Boys
Sloop John B- Beach Boys
Loved Laura Nyro. Stoned Soul Picnic would work as a summer song.
Agree, but I favor the version by the Fifth Dimension.
You are absolutely right!
“Sailing, takes me away to where I've always heard it could be…” 🎶🎶
Christopher Cross always takes me away!
In the summer of 1980, I fell in love to that song. Yvette...I wonder where she is now.
Every summer I was sent to my Aunt Ricky's house in Pittsburgh. In my mind, she was my "summer mother." In the summer of '75 Uncle Ed, her husband, got an 8-track stuck in his pick-up's deck. The tape was the Average White Band's joint "Cut the Cake," but my favorite song was "School Boy Crush." I was 12 years old when it came out, but every time I hear that track the summer of '75 comes back to me. Aunt Ricky & Uncle Ed are both dead, but somewhere in Pittsburgh I'm sure that 8-track is still stuck in the pick-up truck.
The Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q23J0uMomDE
On Aunt Ricky: https://longreads.com/2020/10/14/summer-mother/
I knew you'd have a great response to this, Mike!
I have so many summer song stories blaring in my head. That Paul Simon track, along with "Me and Julio," are my joints too.
100%
I don’t know another person who liked Cut the Cake! Welcome to my club!
LOL...well, thank you...and a special club it is.
"Magic Man," because I would stay up all night in the summer with the radio on, because only the overnight DJ played it!