We've Been Having Fun All Summer Long

Since we were heading out of town for a couple of relaxing days on the coast, I didn't have a chance to properly wrap up the little summer project that turned out to be bigger than I expected.  95 songs is a lot to write about, and it was probably obvious on some days that my inspiration was a bit lacking.  But I made it through, and there are enough songs left over that you may be seeing "Son of 95 Songs of Summer" next June.

I also want to give special thanks to Michael Alatorre, my fellow blogger from down south, who supported the series through posts on Facebook and Twitter, and probably doubled the number of people who viewed it as a result. 

And for the sake of completion, an overview of the "songs of summer," by decade:

60s: All Summer Long, Like a Rolling Stone,  Harper Valley PTA, Honky Tonk Women, Sugar, Sugar, In the Year 2525, My Cherie Amour, Hey Jude, Ode to Billie Joe, Hot Fun in the Summertime, Israelites, Heat Wave, White Bird.

70s: We're An American Band, Keep It Comin' Love, Sweet Home Alabama, Third Rate Romance, Can't Get Enough, Play That Funky Music, More Than A Feeling, Rockaway Beach, China Grove, Don't Stop, I'm Still in Love With You, I Shot the Sheriff, Ride Captain Ride, Ain't No Mountain High Enough, Margaritaville, Cruisin', Magic Man, Get Down Tonight, The Bitch is Back, Coconut, Why Can't We Be Friends?, Best of My Love, Lookin' Out My Back Door, Three Times a Lady, Brother Louie, You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine, I'm Not Lisa, Spill the Wine, Rikki Don't Lose That Number, The Night Chicago Died, Mainstreet, Bad, Bad Leroy Brown, Racing in the Street, My Sharona, Rock Your Baby, Radar Love, You're the One That I Want, Brandy, Alone Again (Naturally), How Long, Kiss and Say Goodbye, Surrender, One of These Nights, I'm Doin' Fine Now, Baker Street, In the Summertime, Ball of Confusion, Kodachrome, Whatcha Gonna Do?, So Very Hard to Go, Live and Let Die, Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress, Jet Airliner, I'm Not in Love.

80s: True to Life, Ramblin' On My Mind, Burning Down the House, She Drives Me Crazy, Games Without Frontiers, Mirror in the Bathroom, Let My Love Open the Door, Let's Go Crazy, Only the Lonely, Seven Year Ache, Cruel Summer, Jessie's Girl, Kiko and the Lavender Moon, What's Love Got to Do With It, Emotional Rescue, Urgent, Every Breath You Take.

90s: Too Darn Hot.

00s: I Gotta Feeling, The Rising, Summer Days, Harvey Haddix, Summerlong, Crazy.

10s: I Love It, Split Decision, Ready to Start.

If you wanted to make yourself a playlist, you could do a lot worse than this one.

And that, folks, is all she wrote.

95 Songs of Summer, #95 - "All Summer Long"

And that's all she wrote, folks.  Done a day early, and hard to believe that this started almost 3 months ago.

And yes, we have indeed been having fun all summer long.

The Beach Boys, "All Summer Long."

95 Songs of Summer, #94 - "True to Life" (1982)

I finished my last final at Berkeley in mid-June of 1982, on a Thursday afternoon.  I went back to my dorm room, and put Roxy Music's "Avalon" on the stereo.  I had absolutely no idea what I was going to do with my life or what my life would become, but finishing that last final resulted in a state of carefree bliss that has been matched few times since.  And even though it's been more than 30 years now, that feeling comes back when I listen to this song.

Roxy Music, "True to Life," from the summer of 1982.

95 Songs of Summer, #93 - "We're An American Band" (1973)

What Grand Funk Railroad accomplished around the time this album (same title as the single) came out was similar to what they refer to in the movie world as a "reboot."  To be honest, I'm not sure what the band was like before then - I never listened to their records when I was a kid, and by the time I might have been interested, there were plenty of other bands to take up my time.  But paired with Todd Rundgren as producer, GFR became closer to something that you might call a "hard rock power pop band." 

Whatever you want to call it, this was a great, great single - just the right amount of noise, and the right amount of attitude, to appeal to a bunch of 7th grade boys who thought they were a lot cooler than they actually were.  Turn it up loud, annoy your parents...this incarnation of Grand Funk was perfect for that sort of thing.

Grank Funk Railroad, "We're An American Band," from the summer of 1973.

95 Songs of Summer, #92 - "Keep It Comin' Love" (1977)

I've always had a soft spot in my heart for KC and the Sunshine Band.  They were the epitome of a formula band, and that formula (disco, in case you hadn't noticed) was pretty narrow.  But they made the most of it, and had a great time in the process - running up a string of hit singles that lasted through much of the late 70s era when there was very little middle ground between loving and hating disco.

As for me, I've always subscribed to the theory that has been attributed at different times to Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, among others: there are two kinds of music, good music and the other kind. 

And besides - I own this song on a vinyl 45 (but that's not mine in the video below).  How many people can say that in this day and age?

KC and the Sunshine Band, "Keep It Comin' Love," from the summer of 1977.

95 Songs of Summer, #91 - "I Gotta Feeling" (2009)

If the Super Bowl halftime show counts, I've actually seen The Black Eyed Peas perform live.  Seeing it there, I thought it was fantastic - and was a bit surprised that the show got raked over the coals the way that it did.  I'm thinking that it's one of those "you had to be there" sort of things.

My familiarity with the songs that hit the top of the charts in this day and age...well, for the most part I have no familiarity with them, except to the extent that sons #1 and #2 would play them on their iPod.  But the appeal of The Black Eyed Peas is pretty damn universal, and I do know a great single when I hear one.  And this definitely passes the acid test of great singles, in that all you want to do when you hear it come on the radio is turn it up.

The Black Eyed Peas, "I Gotta Feeling," from the summer of 2009.

 

95 Songs of Summer, #90 - "Sweet Home Alabama" (1974)

Ladies and gentlemen, the song that introduced a southern band to the world - a band that in three short years would achieve iconic status, a status cemented by the tragic plane crash that took the life of leader Ronnie Van Zant and guitarist Steve Gaines.

And make no bones about it, Lynyrd Skynyrd was a great band - I wish I could say that I'd seen them live, but never had the opportunity...and then it was too late.  And yes, I know the remnants of the band still tour together under that name, but it isn't the same.  The real Lynyrd Skynyrd went down in that plane in the fall of 1977.

And while the verse about Neil Young - "a southern man don't need him around anyhow..." is justifiably famous, my favorite part of the song comes at the very beginning, with Ronnie's spoken "turn it up."

OK, I think I will.  Lynyrd Skynyrd, "Sweet Home Alabama," from the summer of 1974.

 

95 Songs of Summer, #89 - "Like A Rolling Stone" (1965)

I was only five years old when this song was released, so I can't lay claim to it having produced a lot of memorable summer memories.  But on the other hand, it is the single greatest song in the history of rock music, and it was released during the summer, so it only seems fair to recognize it here.  After all, Greil Marcus wrote an entire book about the making of the song.

I don't think I will ever get tired of "Like a Rolling Stone."  There is always something new to discover - in the interplay between guitars, in Al Kooper's organ, in Dylan's vocal - and so it will always sound as fresh and vibrant as it did on the day it was released.

Bob Dylan, "Like a Rolling Stone," from the summer of 1965.

95 Songs of Summer, #88 - "Third Rate Romance" (1975)

The most fun thing about AM radio may have been the way that songs could bubble up from nowhere, from artists you'd never heard of, and take over the airwaves for a few weeks.  And then they'd bubble back under, and you'd never hear from that artist again.

"Third Rate Romance" was a song like that.  And while the band's Wikipedia page says that they hate being identified as a "one hit wonder," you can't really argue with the fact that this was their biggest (and only) foray onto the Top 40 pop charts.  And that's more than a lot of other bands can lay claim to.

Amazing Rhythm Aces, "Third Rate Romance," from the summer of 1975.

95 Songs of Summer, #87 - "Rambling On My Mind" (1980)

"Just One Night" is my favorite Eric Clapton album, and there are parts of it that I played so often back in the day that the vinyl is almost worn out.  I think Clapton is one of those artists who almost always comes across more effectively in front of an audience than he does in the studio, and even the songs he plays on this record from his late 70s "mellow period" are given a shot in the arm.

"Rambling On My Mind" gives the guitar God an opportunity to show that he's still got a few tricks up his sleeve.  I love the way the song starts out slow, and just builds up momentum until, on the last verse, even Clapton himself gets into the spirit of it with one of the best gravelly vocal moments he'd had for a long, long time.

Eric Clapton, "Rambling On My Mind," from the summer of 1980.

 

95 Songs of Summer, #86 - "Can't Get Enough" (1974)

I don't think of Bad Company that often, but when I do, I realize that they really weren't a bad band at all.  When their first album was released in the late summer of '74, I thought I was really cool for buying it, and even though it's not much more than classic meat-and-potatoes rock and roll, it still sounds good today.  And there's nothing wrong with meat and potatoes, when you get right down to it.

Along the course of its primary 8-year stint, the band added some flourishes to its sound - synthesizers, etc. - but that first album was stripped down rock 'n roll at its best - about as simple as it could get.  You had known quantities like Paul Rodgers and Simon Kirke from Free, and Mick Ralphs from Mott the Hoople, leading the way.  Kirke's drumming was so basic that he made someone like Max Weinberg sound like Ginger Baker, but he pounded the skins so hard you couldn't be blamed for thinking that he was trapped in a burning building, struggling to beat the door down and escape to freedom.

"Can't Get Enough" is a great radio song, and from the very first lyrics, the band's tone and approach was established:

Well I take whatever I want
And baby, I want you

OK, whatever works.  My guess is that took whatever they wanted quite often.

Bad Company, "Can't Get Enough," from the summer of 1974.

 

95 Songs of Summer, #85 - "Play That Funky Music" (1976)

Good luck finding someone who will admit to liking this song.

Good luck finding someone, whether they admit that they like it or not, who won't run out onto the dance floor the moment it comes on at the next wedding reception.  Especially if they've got a couple of drinks in them.

I'm not sure that more needs to be said.  It's probably a good candidate for my "transcendent badness" category - there are points in the song that are so awful that it's embarrassing, and yet it's so damn catchy that it's hard to resist.

Wild Cherry, "Play That Funky Music," from the summer of 1976.

95 Songs of Summer, #84 - "Harper Valley PTA" (1968)

It's probably unwise of me to admit that until I looked Jeannie C. Riley up on Wikipedia, I never realized that "Harper Valley P.T.A." was written by Tom T. Hall.  But it makes perfect sense, because I'm not sure I've ever heard a Hall song that wasn't clever and/or well-written.  I can't say that I'm entirely familiar with his catalog; aside from this one the song I'm most familiar with is "Mama Bake a Pie (Daddy Kill a Chicken)," as memorably covered by the Drive-By Truckers.

Though this was Jeannie C. Riley's biggest day in the sun, if you're going to have one huge hit it might as well be as good as "Harper Valley P.T.A."  It's one of those songs that, if you let it worm its way into your brain, you're going to have a hard time getting it out.  And in this case, that's not a bad thing.

Jeannie C. Riley, "Harper Valley P.T.A.," from the summer of 1968.

 

95 Songs of Summer, #83 - "Honky Tonk Women" (1969)

So just for the heck of it, let's do a little time-bend back to where we started this morning, the late summer of 1969.  And no, we're not talking about that Bryan Adams song - we're talking Rolling Stones, baby, and about as good as they ever got.  No less an authority than Greil Marcus wrote that the song "would make a great 20-minute track" on their new album, and he was absolutely right.  And even a 9-year old kid, having little to no idea what the singer was wailing about, knew that this song was the goods.  It really didn't, and really doesn't, get much better than this.

Stephen King is a genius at, among many other things, finding a spot for great songs like this one in his novels.  And "Honky Tonk Women" plays a very small but very important role in "11/22/63," his most recent novel, about a man who goes back in time to prevent the assassination of President Kennedy.  Well, that man happens to be a Stones fan, and when you're a Stones fan, sometimes you just start singing the songs out loud, and you just might forget that you've gone back to a time when...well, they didn't know them Rollin' Stones, nosiree they did not.  And when you do something like that, well who knows what might happen.

The Rolling Stones, "Honky Tonk Women," from the summer of 1969.

95 Songs of Summer, #82 - "Burning Down the House" (1983)

Since I used a Lester Bangs quote in the last post where he mentioned the connection between Talking Heads and the Archies, let's fast forward 24 years to the summer of 1983, when - at least at my house -"Speaking in Tongues" was in heavy rotation.  It was the band's first record in almost three years, and their first since the debut without Brian Eno playing a major production role.  And while asking the band to match the utter brilliance of the first four albums (one of the most amazing stretches of consistent excellence in the history of rock music) was asking a lot, they managed to pull it off.  Apparently they weren't getting along all that well, but you would never know it from listening to this album.  And by this point, they were an amazing live band.  I caught them in concert in 1980 when they introduced the "amazing expanding band" concept, but during their 83-84 tour, they turned what was "merely great" into something that was truly historic - and which, thankfully for everyone, was committed to film by Jonathan Demme.  If you haven't seen "Stop Making Sense," you need to rectify that...immediately.

"Speaking in Tongues" is such a consistent album, that it's difficult to yank one song out of context - but since the album opener was the song that one could hear on FM radio that summer, it will do just fine.

Talking Heads, "Burning Down the House," from the summer of 1983.

 

95 Songs of Summer, #81 - "Sugar, Sugar" (1969)

"All right, go ahead, be snobs, just like you were in the Sixties.  But if you're gonna listen to Talking Heads, you might as well know that they cite bubblegum as one of their biggest influences and used to do the 1910 Fruitgum Co.'s "1,2,3 Red Light" onstage, just like Wilson Pickett had the good taste to cover "Sugar, Sugar," a rock and roll classic to which something like the Grateful Dead's "Dark Star" can't hold a handle."

- Lester Bangs, The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll

I freely admit it - I am one of those who loves "Sugar, Sugar." There is rarely a time when I don't put it on one of my running playlists, because it always seems to come on just when I need that little "pick me up" the most.

I was in the 4th grade when this song came out, around the time that "The Archies" was a staple of Saturday morning cartoons.  My friends and I thought the song was great, and to provide an example of the idiotic things that 4th graders can talk about sometimes, we used to debate/argue over which background vocals were being sung by Betty and which were being sung by Veronica.

I prefer to think that Veronica was the soulful sounding one.

The Archies, "Sugar, Sugar," from the summer of 1969.

 

95 Songs of Summer, #80 - "The Rising" (2002)

After what at the time seemed like a "breakup" but now seems more like a "hiatus" - albeit one that lasted over a decade - Bruce Springsteen reunited with the E Street Band in 1999-2000 for a triumphant 18-month tour.  Purists would probably argue the opposite, but it was as close to a "greatest hits" tour that Bruce and the band have ever had - there were a handful of new songs, especially at the tail end of the tour, and each night ended with "Land of Hope and Dreams," but that was about it.  For the most part you heard a set that, while changing from night to night, was based in large part on Bruce's best songs from his most prominent albums.

I was lucky enough to catch two shows on that tour - one in Oakland in October 1999, and the other in New York City in June 2000.  That was the occasion of my one and only trip to New York City, and it was quite a whirlwind - flying out on a red-eye from San Francisco on Thursday night, landing at Kennedy at 6 a.m. Friday morning, Metropolitan Museum of Art that morning, Carnegie Deli for dinner, and Bruce at Madison Square Garden that night.  Saturday was taken up by a walking tour of Greenwich Village, and a visit to the American Museum of Natural History in the afternoon.  And then, back to SF on the first flight out of Kennedy on Sunday morning.

There was no new album released prior to or during what was billed as the "Reunion Tour," and truth be told, I began to wonder whether there was ever going to be one - at least, one with the E Street Band.

As we all know now, there was - "The Rising," the first true Bruce + E Street Album since "Born in the USA" 18 years prior.  And it was an outstanding album, one focused in large part on the events of 9/11 and its aftermath.  Some songs, such as "Empty Sky," "Into the Fire" and "You're Missing," dealt directly with the issue, which others were more of a thematic link.

For me, the best song on the album will always be the title track.  It's one of Bruce's greatest anthems, and for me, always a sign that there is hope amidst the rubble.

Bruce Springsteen, "The Rising," from the summer of 2002.

 

95 Songs of Summer, #79 - "Summer Days" (2001)

One of the things that I never get tired of writing about is the remarkable Bob Dylan comeback that began in the early 1990s and reached fruition with "Time Out of Mind," an album so great that "masterpiece" doesn't really do it justice.  The comeback really began with a couple of acoustic albums consisting entirely of old folk songs, as if Dylan realized after years of scattered inspiration that turning back the clock was the best way to recapture whatever it was that he had lost. 

But whatever he did, it worked.  "Time Out of Mind" was released in 1997, and it was another four years before word came out about another new Dylan release.  There was part of me that wanted to snap it up immediately, but there was another part that was a bit scared, because I wondered whether he could even come close to achieving what he'd done with the previous album.

The album was released on September 11, 2001.  Needless to say, few people were talking about the new Dylan album in the days and weeks that followed.  I can't remember exactly when I bought it, but I know that it was at least a month.  It was almost as if 9/11 became an excuse not to buy the record - which makes no sense whatsoever, but what exactly did make sense at that time?

When I finally took the plunge, I quickly realized that I needn't have worried.  In fact, "Love and Theft" was the second in a glorious stretch of three consecutive Dylan masterpieces that would leave fans never doubting again.

Bob Dylan, "Summer Days," from the (late) summer of 2001.

 

95 Songs of Summer, #78 - "More Than A Feeling" (1976)

To this day, I think that Boston's debut album is one of the great debut albums in rock history - a fully realized masterpiece that the band would never match again in the course of its on again, off again, fairly short career.  But even though the creativity of Tom Scholz may have burst like a supernova, what a burst it was - layers upon layers of guitars (and no synthesizers, as the album cover proudly exclaimed) that sounded as if there were an entire orchestra hidden somewhere in the grooves of those songs.

The album was a hit for so long that I easily could have mined songs from one of two summers - 1976, when the album was released, or the following summer, when its songs were still in heavy rotation on the radio.  And I even had a little "Boston ritual" going on in the winter and spring of '77 - I was in a bowling league on Friday afternoons, and every Friday when we wrapped up I would plunk a quarter into the juke box and play "Smokin."  Man, I loved that song.

But I also loved this one, a song that I would argue is as majestic in its own way as something like Otis Redding's "I've Been Loving You Too Long."  It's hard to imagine how much inner ear damage this song has caused in the 35 years of its existence.  I'm sure that most people would say it was well worth it.

Boston, "More Than a Feeling," from the summer of 1976.

95 Songs of Summer, #77 - "Rockaway Beach" (1977)

I'd hate to have to choose just one, but if someone put a gun to my head and asked me to pick my favorite Ramones song, it would probably be this one.  Then again, it could also be "Sheena is a Punk Rocker," or "I Wanna Be Sedated."

But "Rockaway Beach" seems to fit best with the summer theme.  I remember reading somewhere, but I can't swear that it's true, that Rockaway Beach is the only beach in America where you have to ride the subway to get there.  In any event, it's a classic song, good enough that I used it as the opener of my "7-song perfect playlist" which made me a radio star for all of 26 minutes earlier this summer.

The Ramones, "Rockaway Beach," from the summer of 1977.