Long ago, summer actually means something.

It was really different from the rest of the year. There was no school. There were no responsibilities. And not having to be home until sundown meant a lot longer to wander aimlessly. Since I grew up in the woods, sundown wasn’t even always the curfew… and the warmer (but not too warm, since I grew up in the north) nights mean that the walk home would be decent enough.

It was a time to go to The Beach and see who else was there. A time for just hanging out.  Everything on TV was a rerun and the Internet wasn’t a thing that people had… so long, lazy days.

And then I graduated high school. Summer became something less special. And then I graduated college… and summer became just like every other part of the year.

A song that reminds you of summertime

You’d think it would be easy to nail down at least one song that definitively says “summer” for me. Well, it isn’t. There was nothing truly iconic, music-wise, in any of my summers that I can remember. There are songs that came up with the people I was among. There are songs that I wish my summers were like. There are songs that capture one specific aspect of one particular summer. But there’s nothing that really just represents “summer” in its totality.

So we’ll go with Crosby, Stills, Nach & Young’s Woodstock.

Because if there’s one thing every summer in my home town had, it was some hubbub over Woodstock.

See, back in 1969 that little concert happened right down the road and around the corner from my house. Like it or not (and, believe me, a lot of people did not), my home town was a classic rock town. At least for anyone who was under the age of 20 (and a few lingering hippies). That idea was still in full effect when I was wandering the streets with the Smallwood crew on those lazy summer days.

Now it wasn’t all Woodstock acts. No, not at all. It was also The Doors and some other stuff. And, by the 80s, the general attitude among the disenfranchised youth of my middle of nowhere town wasn’t quite as hippy dippy as the 60s always seemed to be (they really weren’t either, but that’s another story).

So, yeah, while this song doesn’t really capture much that’s iconic of my summers growing up (or any summer of mine), it does always make me think of August in the Town of Bethel.

Runners Up

• Soundgarden, Black Hole Sun – There was one summer, when my room was in a literal state of disrepair, that I was using the TV as an alarm clock. For some reason, MTV always played this song at the same time, every morning.
• Van Morrison, Brown Eyed Girl – This would be one of the other songs that reminds me of the Smallwood crew. Perhaps one or two people I had crushes on. Perhaps it just’s just the imagery of the streams and whatnot.
• Meatloaf, Life is a Lemon (and I Want my Money Back) – Yeah, there was this one summer I kept trying to spend time with a girl or two I had a thing for. That never really worked out the way I planned. More than a couple of times, as I turned on the radio before, during, or after a phone call filled with failed plans (and, no, it wasn’t just them blowing me off), this song would be on. Eventually I gave up and just started playing the CD. Sometimes, I’ll still trot out this song. (Some things never change.)

Again I’m faced with a plethora of choices, many of which have at least decent stories attached to them. (Because, really, that’s what this is all about, right? The stories the songs bring back into memory?) Also, there are a lot of songs with numbers in the title… even in my play list, right at the beginning (and I won’t even count the saved voice mails that somehow ended up in the playlist… I’m going to have to do something about that… it’s always odd when they rotate in with the random option in the car…)

Right! Onward!

A song you like with a number in the title

There aren’t a lot of songs that, when I first heard them, almost made me have to pull over and did make me have to track down what the heck they were and who performed them. (That was a lot more difficult before the web really caught on… we’re talking long before YouTube and Wikipedia and Google having everything, everywhere, all the time.)

The Wallflowers’ One Headlight was one of those songs.

It came on the radio while I was driving somewhere around RIT up in Rochester, NY, back in 1996. That was my third year in college. My third year away from my home town. My third year reveling in being surrounded by people who actually got me, who I had a lot in common with, who I could see going places with.

It’s no secret I never really felt like I fit in all that well in my home town. It’s not that I don’t appreciate it–it’s got a lot of history, some pretty good people, and a whole lot of potential–but there were very, very few people I ever really clicked with growing up there. (Good news is, I get along better with some of those people now than I ever did when we were growing up…) Getting away to college was the first time I really felt like I fit in and wasn’t just passing through, awkwardly.

As the first verse played I was taken right back to all my feelings of being an outsider in my home town. Feeling trapped. Feeling hopeless. Fighting to just get away.

And then the chorus kicked in:

Hey, come on try a little
Nothing is forever
There’s got to be something better than
In the middle
But me and Cinderella
We put it all together
We can drive it home
With one headlight

“There’s got be something better than in the middle” hit me hard. That striving for something more than just mediocrity, something more than boredom, something more than just existing. And then the bittersweet hopeful tag at the end: “We can drive it home with one headlight.” A true image of just barely being able to make it–but making it, none the less.

The last verse was just as emotional, bringing me back to lots of long nights just wondering “Why?” and “Why bother at all?”

Even today, the song still brings me back to that place.

And it lets me remember how far I’ve come. How far so many of us have come.

Runners Up

Again, a small sampling, in no particular order and with some saved for possible future use.

• Nena, 99 Luftballons/99 Red Balloons – I like both versions, but the German one just feels more “right”… it was always neat when it would show up on the radio.
• Metallica, One – Back in the day this was super intense… the build of the lyrics, the audio samples, and that guitar work was beautiful and disturbing when it was all put together. It was really one of the songs that brought home the horrors of war.
• Barenaked Ladies, One Week – This is another one of those college songs. Lots of memories there. But mostly, I love the quick complex lyric play.
• Dolly Parton, 9 to 5 – I love the movie and I love the song… and I’ve come to love the song more the more I’ve been out in the real world…

This took me far longer to figure out than I expected it to. That’s one of the hazards of not really being a music guy… a lot of songs come and go from memory quickly, only to come back up when something triggers a memory of them. Plus, like I said in the original post, I change my mind a lot about what music is “best” in a given situation.

Anyway, on with the first song of this 30-day thing…

A song you like with a color in the title

I grew up on classic rock and oldies. That was as much a function of my home town being nowhere near the “cutting edge” of culture by the time I came along as it is of the tastes of my parents. Mostly, back in the day, I was “stuck” with what was on the radio (mostly “adult contemporary” with a smattering of pop, and a dedicated oldies night) or what was in the record collection (which, thankfully, was a little more diverse, covering classical, musicals, and a bunch of other stuff).

Try as I might, I can’t quite remember where The Who’s Behind Blue Eyes came into the picture. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t until there was more of a classic rock station on the air in the late 80s/early 90s. Maybe it was in some retrospective on TV before that. Pretty sure the Who’s Next album wasn’t on the shelf.

The important thing is, by the time I was a teenager, I’d heard it and loved it.

There were times when I wished I could be the villain. When I felt put upon by circumstances beyond my control. When I just wanted to lash out and destroy things.

You know, normal teenager stuff.

And the lyrics of this song always helped assuage those urges.

Because right there was some character who felt the same way.

So I knew I wasn’t alone.

Plus the guitar part rocks. Hard. And that’s cathartic in and of itself.

https://youtu.be/BfuWXRZe9yA

Runners Up

So, yeah, there were a few other songs that I almost ran with for this one. Here they are in no particular order…

• Jefferson Airplane, White Rabbit – This is one of my favorite songs that was played down the street from my house back in 1969 (a few years before I was there). The imagery is great and the ever-increasing crescendo is just amazing, especially if you follow it with some other great songs of the era.
• New Order, Blue Monday – This is another one that came into my life long after it was “a thing” in other places. Definitely a staple of the goth clubs I’ve frequented since I moved down to the DC area more than a decade ago, so there are a lot of memories and times with friends tied up in that.
• The Rolling Stones, Paint it Black – Yeah, y’know all that standard teenager stuff I mentioned above? Same here. And, more recently, it’s part of a tradition a friend of mine does every few birthdays. (Yes, it involves a door and paint… it’s fun.)

I could go on… but I think I’ll be able to use a few of the other ones later in the month…

Right… bit dusty here. I’m going to try to get back into some sort of writing habit. So let’s start out easy…

Saw this “30 songs/song a day” prompt thing going around on Facebook. I don’t often do music-ish stuff, which doesn’t mean I don’t like music, it’s just not something I actively seek out. The music I do know has a lot of impact on my life. Kind of like a movie soundtrack.

So for all of June, I’ll go through the following list and talk a little about some of that music. Granted, my thoughts on what music goes where in the list likely changes on a daily basis… so, if you ask me any other time, I may answer differently.

1. A song you like with a color in the title.
2. A song you like with a number in the title.
3. A song that reminds you of summertime.
4. A song that reminds you of someone you’d rather forget.
5. A song that needs to be played loud.
6. A song that makes you want to dance.
7. A song to drive to.
8. A song about drugs or alcohol.
9. A song that makes you happy.
10. A song that makes you sad.
11. A song you never get tired of.
12. A song from your preteen years.
13. A song you like from the 70s.
14. A song you’d love to be played at your wedding.
15. A song you like that’s a cover by another artist.
16. A song that’s a classic favorite.
17. A song you’d sing a duet with someone at karaoke.
18. A song from the year you were born.
19. A song that makes you think about life.
20. A song that has many meanings to you.
21. A song you like with a person’s name in the title.
22. A song that moves you forward.
23. A song you think everybody should listen to.
24. A song by a band you wish were still together.
25. A song you like by an artist who is no longer living.
26. A song that makes you want to fall in love.
27. A song that breaks your heart.
28. A song by an artist whose voice you love.
29. A song you remember from your childhood.
30. A song that reminds you of yourself.

The real challenge, of course, is to not just keep using the same songs. (I could probably get away with just five… repeated in various places, various times…)

Feel free to play along.