danajohnhill.org | Hard Times Come Again No More

Recently, I criticized a newspaper writer who observed that motion picture titles are longer than ever, which struck me as little more than a hasty,  unresearched generalization.  I noted at the time, however, that I, too, am wont to make hasty generalizations of my own, and I am about to make one.

The best songs are summer songs.  I can hardly count the number of great songs that are directly or indirectly about summer.  Many more, certainly, than are about any other season.  Obviously, Christmas has more than its fair share of great songs, and German Lieder are frequently about spring.  But summer has the best songs, the most nostalgic songs, the most evocative songs.  Today is the first day of summer, and beginning today, and proceeding through the summer, I will highlight some of my favorite examples of summer songs.

My first selection, as you might expect, is by Bruce Springsteen, whose catalog of summer-inspired songs is surpassed only by the Beach Boys.  The entire The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle, and Born to Run albums, for instance, depict incidents that could occur on one summer day.  “Racing in the Street”, from Darkness on the Edge of Town, is a sad summer song about a woman who has given up on living, and man desperately trying to hold on.  In summer, a man has a chance.

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The clip above is from a recording of the complete concert that I attended last September with my wife and father.  It’s a wonderful, if somewhat distant-sounding memento of an unforgettable day.

Filed under: Musings, Popular Music on June 21st, 2010