Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Johnny Rojo's Fave Raves: Lovin' Spoonful, "Summer In The City"

Not only did I pick up an extra shift for tonight, my boss asked me to come in a few hours and bartend so that he can get out early. Consequently, this will be a short post.

I ran my daughter up to a friend's home this morning and this song, the Lovin' Spoonful's 1966 hit "Summer In The City," one of my very favorite summer songs, came up on my Ipod shuffle.




Looking up the song, I discovered that, much to my surprise, John Sebastian didn't write the song-- his younger brother Mark wrote it, along with Steve Boone, another member of the group. I love the sound effects-- the car horn is a Volkswagon. I remember reading that the group went out on the prowl to get the jackhammer, and were satisfied with the one they had as sounding "particularly flatulent." I love the wordplay in the song and the fact that it's one of the few pop hits to feature a zither.

5 comments:

Churlita said...

Perfect. I love this song. I might have to get it on my iTunes even. Thanks for the song reminder.

SkylersDad said...

Another great music memory sir, that is wonderful!

And I could have used a little more zither...

Erik Donald France said...

Agreed -- perfecto for this time of year. That and the Who doing "(Ain't No Cure for the) Summertime Blues" -- and Iggy as Porgy, "the livin's easy and the cotton's high" . . .

Johnny Rojo said...

Churlita-
You're welcome! I can remember hearing it on my dad's AM radio when it was a hit. 44 years later, it still sounds great.

SD-
"We'll be wearing gold-plated diapers..."

Erik-
I grew up listening to my mother's copy of Janis Joplin's best-of album, which included her version of "Summertime." Never knew until I was in my thirties that it was a show tune.

Love Billy Stewart's hit version of "Summertime" as well!

Pat Tillett said...

I remember the first time I heard this song. I was doing yardwork and had a radio on the porch blaring...