That Summer Feeling? (Redux)

Blogger deleted one of my mixtape posts. There was a copyright complaint. This is the first time I've been exposed to such a thing, and I assume it was because of the three MP3 files linked to the post. (They don't explain what the particular infraction was, just delete the whole post.)

I'm wary of posting portable versions of copyrighted works (i.e. MP3s). I've only posted stuff that is presumably in the public domain, or came from an obscure non-commercial source, or was out of print for decades because there's no market for it. I only post the odd tune, not whole albums. We'll see if any of my other posts get zapped; I wonder why only this one did.

I'm reposting it again, this time without the link to any portable musics.

Monday, December 01, 2008

That Summer Feeling?

The local radio station played a set of summery songs the other day, thumbing its nose at the season that’s in it, and in the meantime reminding me of a one-hit job that should be on the Summer mixtape. Len’s (or is it LEN’s?) charming nerdpop illuminated some year or other approximately a decade ago, or at least its one hit “Steal My Sunshine” romp did…At least two tracks here – “Parklife” and “Rockaway Beach” – are included because they put me in mind of a warm summer’s day without necessarily being explicit about it….But it is just the start of winter where I am, and so bracing workouts of “School’s Out” and “Surfing USA” seem just a bit silly right now…

The Undertones are here twice, because despite their dour appearance on the cover of their first LP, here was a band that actually sounded like summer, notwithstanding the one track that namechecks the season. Something about Feargal Sharkey’s high vibrato vocal and two bright rhythm guitars that evokes hot pavement, bright skies, and sweat…Jonathan Richman recorded "That Summer Feeling" at least twice, but here's a live version from a 1983 tape called The Penthouse Radio Show. It's been sitting in my attic for a very long time and needed to be heard again...

The Summer Mixtape

School’s Out – Alice Cooper

Surfing USA – Beach Boys

Parklife – Blur

Summer School – Bucky and the Premiers

Under the Boardwalk – The Drifters

Summertime Blues – Flying Lizards

That Summer Feeling (Live 1983) – Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers

BONUS TRACK: I’m a Jerk (Live 1983) – Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers

The Trip – Kim Fowley

Sunny Afternoon – The Kinks

Steal My Sunshine – Len

Summer in Siam – The Pogues

Rockaway Beach – Ramones

It’s Up to You – Shop Assistants

June Rhyme – The Stingrays (London)

Here Comes the Summer – The Undertones

Under the Boardwalk – The Undertones

Island in the Sun - Weezer

Here's a link to the original Summer mixtape tracklisting.

Together Forever: The Wedding Mixtape

I was ready to concede right away; I just didn’t have much of anything on topic for weddings. Of course I took this literally (I mean, look at what I’m doing with this project – if I’m not overly literal, who is?). There’s Pretty Thing, my favorite Bo Diddley recording, which I would play at any wedding in which I was put in charge of the music (as the bride walked down the aisle, of course)… Bryan Ferry talked about taking wedding vows in Let’s Stick Together… And of course there’s Chapel of Love by the Dixie Cups, which Jonathan Richman says he recorded in the 70s only because he heard that Iggy Pop liked the song…

Then I saw that BD’s list had some stuff that was not necessarily about the ceremony itself, just about being married. It occurred to me that extending the meaning could include quite a few more songs about husbands and wives, marriages, being together forever, etc. But a lot of those—like Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division, Someone Must’ve Nailed Us Together by Len Bright Combo, and Married With Children by Oasis—are more about unhappy marriages potentially splitting at the seams. As such, I could have possibly held them back for the Divorce theme, which is next on the list, and they might have fit in just as well. Others—including Wouldn’t It Be Nice by the Beach Boys and Semaphore Signals by Wreckless Eric—are simply dreams about the possibility of someday getting hitched. Meanwhile, the 70s funk classic leading off the mixtape is all about not getting married, and getting shacked up instead. Turns out to not be a bad tape at all, but I’m left feeling a little dissatisfied (and, it’s a little too short), so I will take the hit on this one.

The Wedding Mixtape

Shack Up – Banbarra
Wouldn’t It Be Nice – Beach Boys
Pretty Thing – Bo Diddley
Let’s Stick Together – Bryan Ferry
Peggy Sue Got Married – Buddy Holly
Chapel of Love – Dixie Cups
Melancholy Serenade (Honeymooners Theme) – Jackie Gleason Orchestra
Love Will Tear Us Apart – Joy Division
Someone Must’ve Nailed Us Together – Len Bright Combo
Married With Children – Oasis
Wedding Ring – The Stingrays
Semaphore Signals – Wreckless Eric

Here is a link to BD’s winning wedding tape.

No Xmas for John's Cache

And the Christmas lights, they blew up
Now the leccy's all gone dead
I look like a coal miner
And I've a pain inside my head
--A CHRISTMAS LULLABY (1996)

I’m not gonna dwell on the negative, but this theme is woeful. Both the theme itself and my attempt to make a tape. It’s like the baseball theme – there’s just so few songs on topic that are any good. Two of my favorite artists from the borough of Queens – Run DMC and the Ramones – both made very forgettable Christmas songs late in their careers, leaving a bad taste, so I’m not gonna bother with them. It’s ill-timed too, so let’s just get it over with, concede to BD, and move on.

Little Saint Nick – The Beach Boys
Christmas Greetings – The Beatles
Merry Christmas Baby – Chuck Berry
Little Drummer Boy – Bing Crosby and David Bowie
Santa Claus is Back in Town – Elvis Presley
No Xmas for John Quays – The Fall
Christmas Episode 1946 – Jack Benny Radio Program
Run Rudolph Run – Keith Richards
Fairytale of New York – The Pogues
A Christmas Lullaby – Shane MacGowan and the Popes
Santa Claus – The Sonics
Comanche (Link Wray's Christmas) – Wild Billy Childish & the Musicians of the British Empire
Jesus Christ – Woody Guthrie

Bob Dylan's victorious Xmixtape.