Five Songs Of Summer


Castle Beach, with my daughter, 1990

One: The first sounds of summer are not song, exactly, but I can't ignore them. They are too entwined in this experience of life. My strongest sounds of summer are primordial: waves that wash slow over quartz pebbles and medium grain sand; chirrups of split tail birds; the breeze idling though a full-leafed tree. After this I think of beach chatter: what you hear when your eyes are closed in full sun, when the beach is busy, that blend of every human social vocal. There are human musical sounds that evoke summer things too, though, stuff you could put on a mix tape. There are:
Two: Kelly Marie. I Feel Love. Because disco works best in the heat, because this is the song I associate with going on the Waltzers at the travelling fair. Sequins, candyfloss, coloured light bulbs spinning. Walking in a wonky line with innocently sticky knees; everything smells of sugar, onions, cigarettes, fruity lip gloss. 
Three: Janice Joplin. Summertime. An obvious title, but I love it. The ease of a fine summer and the emotive gravel of voice. There's never been a time when it didn't work for me.
Four: Nina Simone. Feeling Good. August 2007. My friend Ian sang this while I was walking down the aisle of a former slate mine. Mr was waiting at the end of that aisle. (And when his nearly bride stepped up on the staging to stand by his side she whispered 'Don't look at me' because she didn't want to cry. So they giggled instead.)
Five: Kate Bush. The Red Shoes. I think this album was an autumn release, but the eponymous song was one I danced to frequently, in my kitchen of course, with a coffee pot close at hand, the year I was finishing my clever degree. Dancing plus coffee equals Ideas. And did I leave college to get myself a securely salaried job? Nope. The red shoes do not quit.


Castle Beach, date unknown.
I grew up here :-)


Comments

Geo. said…
Beautiful. You realize, don't you, the dragon began in the form of that forested outcropping at Castle Beach.
12 July 2014 at 00:45
The Armchair Squid said…
Beautiful post. I love the top photo, and your first entry. Music didn't arise out of a vacuum. The sounds of the seasons came first.
12 July 2014 at 03:02
Cherdo said…
The first appearance of Kate Bush on the bloghop! Awesome. Dancing plus coffee DOES produce ideas. :-)

Janis Joplin was in rare form when she did Summertime; I love that one, too.

Great post!
Cherdo
www.cherdoontheflipside.com
12 July 2014 at 03:21
Suze said…
Lisa, this was truly lovely. I immediately got a mental image of you walking down the aisle to Ian's crooning. Excellent selections.
12 July 2014 at 16:25
StratPlayerCJF said…
Sounds like your mix of summer sounds should also include a coffee pot percolatin'. :)

Beautiful list! And I find it wonderful how your gorgeous descriptions can evoke the songs (and sounds) in my head more effectively (and more intimately) then a linked YouTube video. That's what they call "good writin'!"
12 July 2014 at 18:21
Luanne G. Smith said…
I adore Kate Bush. And of course summer and the beach go together. I don't blame you for including the sounds of nature. Good call. :)
12 July 2014 at 19:59
Susan Flett Swiderski said…
What a wonderful post! As always, your words paint wonderful images, especially in your first entry. Beautiful! Great choices all the way around.
13 July 2014 at 05:13
Alex J. Cavanaugh said…
Beach waves - now that's a great choice. They can sound like music.
13 July 2014 at 13:58
Trisha said…
I am going to have to go and listen to all of these songs. But as it is, I really loved your descriptions. :)
14 July 2014 at 01:46
Stephanie Faris said…
Disco always takes me back to childhood, especially songs like I Feel Love. My mom worked for a record company and she'd bring home demo albums. Most of them were disco, so I spent a lot of time listening to disco in my bedroom on my record player when I was a tween.
16 July 2014 at 02:31
Lisa Southard said…
Thank you all for the fun of the blog hop and your always appreciated commentary- sorry for the group response I am having some hardware trouble that will hopefully be resolved in August- till then everything is running stubborn and slow (but at least it is running!)
Also getting The Novel closer to being presentable :-)
17 July 2014 at 23:01
Deniz Bevan said…
Oh! You're right about the sounds of summer. I can't believe I didn't think of that. Listening to the waves on the shore as I fell asleep at my grandmother's house every summer... Aww. I miss that.
19 July 2014 at 15:05
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Contact Pants Conundrum

Image
There is weather today, I do note it: take a few moments to reckon the size of a cloud (big) and the frequency of rain (sporadic.) Centre of my interest though is a stack of magazines. Not the fashion kind. This is martial arts research. I'm not even sure what it is I'm looking for, but intuition calls loud. A range of old adverts skew some amusement. Contact pants, for example. Pants are not trousers where I come from. They are underwear. Professional contact pants: improved smirk value. But why would a person be likely to purchase a grappling hook and a lock pick set? For specialists and hobbyists only, the blurb assures. Guidance on the pheromone spray that attracts women against their better judgement? I doubt it works any more proficiently than the mysterious potion that defines your muscles while you sleep. But, then: I wonder is some sprayed on this paper? What was my intuition thinking, making this ghastly shout… Tea break time. There's a lot of words...
Read more

Back From The Future Blog Party

Image
Another joint blog adventure- if you want to see who else said what the list of participants is here . The premise is this: 'You're up before dawn on a Saturday when the doorbell rings. You haven't brewed your coffee so you wonder if you imagined the sound. Plonking the half-filled carafe in the sink, you go to the front door and cautiously swing it open. No one there. As you cast your eyes to the ground, you see a parcel addressed to you ... from you. You scoop it up and haul it inside, sensing something legitimate despite the extreme oddness of the situation. Carefully, you pry it open. Inside is a shoebox -- sent from ten years in the future -- and it's filled with items you have sent yourself. What's in it?' Here's how I imagined it: Before dawn? Shadows outside, first forming. Sleep has gone, I don't know where. Coffee I can find. All the way from Machu Pichu, this fair-traded pack. Scissors are in the drawer, which ...
Read more

Whale Scales

Image
The wind is learning to whistle. It pipes through the rotary washing line while I’m putting extra pegs on the dog’s blanket. The clouds go up so high, this patch of earth seems shrunken. This scale of things in which I am barely a speck is comforting. The wind grows, from a whistle to a whale song. I followed my father along the seawall on a post stormy day and I was about six and the wind was lively but warmish. Wave spray was catching at my legs, the cheeky stuff. Gulls, more gulls than usual, spun overhead, back and forth to the odd shaped rock where my father stopped and waited for me to catch up. The air stank but it wasn’t like the sewage outflow. And there, when my eyes realised what they saw, I learnt the true magnitude of the ocean. A blubberous mountain of whale lay turned and smashed on the shore. And the scale of things opened up; I was barely a speck but I was a speck of this vast creation; and it struck a ceaseless awe in me. 
Read more