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.

Whoa Dad: the Fathers Mixtape

The Vietnam War flick Apocalypse Now did more for Jim Morrison’s career than anything he did himself while he was still alive, bringing The Doors to a generation of teenagers too young to have known their seamier side in real-time, even if they remembered their Top 40 hits from always being on the radio. The oedipal pomp-rock opus that ended the film (“The End”) paved the way for more pop music daddy dissing in subsequent years.


But your dad won’t understand
That our love is true
And I can’t leave you here
So he...can hit on you
--24 HOURS TO VEGAS (1984)

Daddy likes men
--WE’RE A HAPPY FAMILY (1977)

Dear Daddy, I write you, in spite of years of silence
You cleaned up, found Jesus, things are good or so I hear
This bottle of Steven’s awakens ancient feelings
Like father, step-father, the son is drowning in the flood!
--SAY IT AINT SO (1994)

“The Mad Daddy” is the Cramps’ tribute to the Cleveland beatnik DJ and original horror movie host Pete “Mad Daddy” Myers, who debuted on WJW in Cleveland in 1958…Just like in the Notorious B.I.G.s “Big Poppa,” in Ella Mae Morse’s “Shoo Shoo Baby”, references to “papa” and “daddy” are clearly terms of sweetheart endearment. Or are they? The WWII soldier sayanara song never properly resolves this question…Spoonie Gee’s “The Godfather” serves the same purpose as Roxanne Shante’s “Big Mama” (see the Mothers Mixtape), at least in terms of boasting his parentage of rap. His paternal claims came earlier, in 1987, but eight years after the pioneer MC’s first record…

The Fathers Mixtape:

The Mad Daddy – The Cramps
Diddley Daddy – Bo Diddley
The End – The Doors
Shoo Shoo Baby – Ella Mae Morse
24 Hours to Vegas – The Huns (Iowa 1984)
Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag – James Brown
Daddy and Home – Jimmie Rodgers
Big Poppa – Notorious B.I.G.
Her Father Didn’t Like Me Anyway – Gerry Rafferty
We’re a Happy Family – Ramones
Son of Byford – Run DMC
Listen to Your Father – Feargal Sharkey
The Godfather – Spoonie Gee
Papa Was a Rolling Stone – The Temptations
Whoa Dad – The Trashmen
Gone Daddy Gone – Violent Femmes
Say it Aint So – Weezer