Play That Song Again | All The Right Junk In All The Right Places—Your Top Five Songs of Summer

Posted in Blogs, Music

BY ERIK CHRISTENSEN
July 18, 2014

I moved to Whidbey Island in the summer of 1987. One of my first and most endearing memories of my 27 summers here is discovering what I’ve come to call the “summertime silhouette.” Want to try it? Get in your car in the early evening of a summer day and, as you drive south on Hwy. 20, check out how the sun dips behind the Olympic mountains to the west. As the sun disappears, the sky reddens and the razor-sharp relief of the Olympics comes in to view—dark, shadowy, a perfect outline, like a child’s shadow-box.

 

August sunset  (photo by Matt Wilcox)

August sunset (photo by Matt Wilcox)

More than barbeque, more than warm weather, more even than the Fort Casey pool, my enduring image of summer on Whidbey is driving in a car on Highway 20, listening to music and watching that sun sink behind those mountains.

It would be easy to make a summer playlist full of breezy, wonderful summer songs: The Beach Boys, Mungo Jerry, Jan and Dean, Jimmy Buffett, and all the rest. But I need some bittersweet with my summer songs, some wistfulness about the passage of time and the promises that summer brings. Musically, it’s that moment between dark and light, the sun slowly fading behind the mountains and giving one last thoughtful tableaux. So roll down that car window, enjoy the warm breeze, and look to the horizon. Here are the All-Time Top Five Songs of Summer:

Sunset moon  (photo by Matt Wilcox)

Sunset moon (photo by Matt Wilcox)

Number five: “Hot Fun in the Summertime” Sly and the Family Stone were the American ideal to me as I heard their songs blasting out of a plastic AM radio in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. A mix of black, white, male, female, rock, soul, funk, social commentary, and mindless dance music—it doesn’t get much better:

I cloud nine when I want to

Out of school, yeah

County fair in the country sun

And everything, it’s true, ooh, yeah

Sadly, like the American Dream, like the sun going behind the mountains, it couldn’t last—drugs, greed, excess, and bad decisions doomed this amazing group. But, we’re left with a few shining moments.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=4B5EtjNNf60

Number four: “Roadrunner” by the Greg Kihn Band. Originally written by the much-loved Bostonian Jonathan Richman, the Greg Kihn version is the PERFECT song to hear coming out of your car’s speakers. I can almost smell the Dick’s Deluxe hamburgers and feel the warm breeze in the dashboard lights:

Gonna drive past the Stop and Shop

With the radio on

I’m in love with the modern world

I’m in love with the modern girls

Massachusetts when it’s late at night

I got the radio on….

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSogGDsoxbw

Number three: “Summer’s Gone” by Buffalo Tom. Never a better metaphor used to capture the temporary dreams of summer—“write it in the sand, in the sand.” Bonus points for mentioning my own childhood baseball hero—no summer list is complete without baseball…

Where’ve my heroes gone today?

Mick and Keith and Willie Mays

Broken windows, trails outside

I can take you for a ride

Summer’s gone a summer song

You’ve wasted every day, every day

Summer’s gone, can’t wipe it off my hands

Write it in the sand, in the sand

In the sand

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vx-2DMJJDIo

Number two: “Fourth of July, Asbury Park” One of those funky, early-era Bruce Springsteen songs, released long before he became an Americana, flag-waving, fist-in-the-air icon. Powered by an accordion and tuba (on a rock and roll record! Praise Jesus, I miss the 1970s) this song is lonely, hopeful and filled with longing and sorrow. Bruce tackles the clichéd carnival boardwalk scene and injects it with honest feeling and emotion:

Oh, Sandy, the aurora is rising behind us

Those pier lights, our carnival life forever

Love me tonight

For I may never see you again

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88i0S7ikt18

And the number one, Top Five Song of Summer: “All About That Bass” by Meagan Trainor. That’s right, no nostalgia—the top song is from this very summer. Much like “Pumped Up Kicks” a few years ago, my daughter Hannah has hipped me to the undisputed, all-encompassing song of 2014. More defiant than bittersweet, it rails against stereotypes and pleads with girls to embrace a positive self-image:

If you got beauty, beauty, just raise ’em up


‘Cause every inch of you is perfect


From the bottom to the top

Pointed social commentary wrapped in an absolute saccharine, bubble gum pop song. Genius. Every element of a perfect summer song, never done better since the 1950s: double-hit on the snare drum, doo-wop backing vocals, go-go dancing. Go ahead and click on the link if you dare. You’ll be singing it for weeks. You will dance. You will smile. You will want to drive in a car and watch the summertime silhouette. You have been warned.

Enjoy your summer.

You know I won’t be no stick-figure, silicone Barbie doll

So, if that’s what’s you’re into


Then go ahead and move along

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PCkvCPvDXk

Erik Christensen teaches English at Oak Harbor High School, writes songs and poetry, and prefers a chocolate shake with his Dick’s Deluxe cheeseburger.

Erik plays with the Jacobs Road Band on Saturday, July 19 at the Oak Harbor Tavern, and the Evergreen State Fair in Monroe on Sunday, August 31; the Erik Christensen Band plays at Blooms Winery in Bayview from 3 to 5 p.m. on Sunday, August 10.

________________

 CLICK HERE to read more entertaining and informative WLM stories and blogs.

WLM stories and blogs are copyrighted and all rights are reserved. Linking is permitted. To request permission to use or reprint content from this site, email info@whidbeylifemagazine.org.

 

 

Leave a Reply