![]() ![]() Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection The lyrics describe sleeping bags and tape hiss and a beach house with “sweaty sheets and an ocean view.” Mac McCaughan sings, “I age backwards when I’m next to you/So erase this summer with me” as the guitars burn away. Written by Brian Wilson and Jan Berry, it promises there’s always something goin’, a party’s always growin’, and you’re sure to find short-term romantic bliss.Īrriving a year after these indie-rock heroes’ great 2010 comeback album, Majesty Shredding, this is a fist-pumping tune about getting psyched for summer that reflects on summers past. If you need any more convincing, check out the pool scene in Boogie Nights.Ī utopian vision of a city by the sea where the female-to-male population ratio is an awesome two to one, “Surf City” topped the charts for two weeks in July 1963. ![]() Image Credit: GAB Archive/Redferns/Getty ImagesĮven if Eric Burdon didn’t kick off with “I was once out strolling one very hot summer’s day,” everything about this 1970 gem screams the season - the bongos, the flute, the Latin-funk rhythms, and the woman that breezily enters to speak some Spanish. Eric Burden and War, ‘Spill the Wine’ (1970).The surfed-up guitar part and Fred Schneider’s brilliant Jacques Cousteau-gone-bonkers lyrics (“There goes a dog-fish, chased by a cat-fish, in flew a sea robin, watch out for that piranha, there goes a narwhal, here comes a bikini whale!”) made it a psychedelic beach rocker for the ages. The great Southern New Wave party band’s 1979 novelty hit was a wild, winking throwback to the innocent silliness of Sixties dance crazes. Image Credit: Fryderyk Gabowicz/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images Check out the open-air tropical aviary at the zoo, man. Singer Robert Lamm can’t remember exactly when he visited the park (“I think it was the Fourth of July”) but he had such a chill time he can’t wait to get back (“I’ve been waiting such a long time/For today”). The brass-powered soft-rockers pretty much perfect Seventies mellowness on this radio staple, a shout out to Central Park written while the band was recording in New York. Image Credit: Chris Walter/WireImage/Getty Lead singer Johnny Moore - who was taking his first lead vocal with the band after the heroin-related death of Rudy Lewis the day before the session - sings slyly about people walking the boardwalk who have no inkling of the illicit teenage action going on below their feet.Ĭombining the wistful essence of alt-country and the gummy-groove fun of hip-hop, Jeff Tweedy came up with the perfect song about rocking out in the landing in the summer, “playing KISS covers, beautiful and stoned.” The nostalgic ache is undeniable to anyone who associates rock music with getting wasted by a lake. Released in June 1964, “Under the Boardwalk” is one of the greatest teenage symphonies ever recorded, a string-bathed evocation of a secret hook-up down by the sea. The Drifters, ‘Under The Boardwalk’ (1964).A steady diet of double whiskeys with no ice doesn’t help either. The song’s relentless energy and shout-along Black Flag-style backing vocals (“Get hammered!”) tap timeless school’s-out mania, but a dark undercurrent makes it stick - “getting older makes it harder to remember,” he sings. “We’re gonna build something this summer,” Craig Finn sings over an all-ages moshpit riff, as he sings about what punk-rock kids in America do to beat the summertime blues - namely, drink toasts to Saint Joe Strummer on top of watertowers. Image Credit: Annabel Staff/Redferns/Getty The Hold Steady, ‘Constructive Summer’ (2008).“I am gettin’ so hot, I wanna take my clothes off.” Perfect for those days when the mercury hits the nineties and clothing becomes optional. Over one of the Neptunes’ signature beats, all rubbery head-nod and shoulder-shake, Nelly keeps it simple: “It’s getting hot in here/So take off all your clothes.” Background singer Dani Stevenson keeps her answer to the point. You know you’re in trouble, Richman croons, “When even fourth grade starts looking good (which you hated).” Pretty much every indie rock song about summer builds off this. On this simple, mournful song, the former Modern Lover strums a tribute to the summer moments that haunt you and taunt you as you get older. Jonathan Richman, ‘That Summer Feeling’ (1983). ![]()
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