Now that summer has finally arrived in London (and as Glastonbury has started, now the festival season is well on its way) the radio stations all seem to be playing summery songs – if you look in today’s independent and see John Walsh’s list of songs about summer, those talking about the things that make summer so exciting you’ll see they are all American. In fact he suggests the summer song is about sun, sea, surf, girls and cars and the Americans have always done that better than the British. The songs ….. ”Summer in the City”, “Surfin’ USA”, “The Boys of Summer”, “Dancing in the Street”, “Summer Breeze”, “Up On the Roof”, “Summertime Blues”, “Summer of ’69″, “Girls in Their Summer Clothes”, not forgetting of course “Summer nights” from Grease. He struggles to find many British songs that are able to capture the feeling of the summer in the same way – a few notable exceptions being “In the Summertime” by Mungo Jerry, “Sunny Afternoon” by The Kinks, “Lazy Sunday”, complete with birdsong and church bells, by the Small Faces and summer holiday by Cliff Richard. And of course the one we British love best of all “Oh I do like to be beside the seaside”. The kind of list John Walsh suggests is a part of it – teenagers and cars and surf, but there is also the kind of music that is evocative of summer – what makes you feel like it’s hot and summery – for example Mas Que Nada by Sergio Mendes. Much of this feeling will be cultural – for example the wonderful “Soul Limbo” by Booker T and the MGs which is also the theme tune to BBC cricket and of course reminds every Englishman of cricket and that is just the same as the summer. You can listen to lots of this music on Spotify for free if you are in the UK Tune into the UIC radio station next Tuesday 6th July and listen to “The UIC Summer top 10″!
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