As we approach the end of July the end of summer appears on the horizon and if, like me, you looked forward to a new school year starting, you feel a sense of anticipation (possibly leavened with some dread) as well as a sense that, well, summer just isn’t long enough to pack in all the things which make summer summer. Thus the end of July is a time of contrasts.

1977: The Floaters, “Float On”

“Float On” is smooth and groovy and oh, so seventies in both tune and lyrics. I probably heard this at some point in the past, but likely not when it came out, as the only radio stations which were played around our house at the time had taglines like “No punk, no funk, no junk,” which basically meant only (white) rock and country music.  This was the Floaters’ only hit song, which is unfortunate as they sing beautifully.

1982: Herb Alpert, “Route 101”

Ah, Herb Alpert. He and his band the Tijuana Brass were ubiquitous through the early parts of my life. I heard “Route 101” when it hit the charts, which would also have been about the time I started playing the trombone in junior high and listening to other artists like Chuck Mangione. I am a little irritated that I associate wonderful songs like this with distinctly unpleasant parts of my life like milking cows in the early morning, but at least down in the pit, covered in manure and either sweating or freezing, I had music like this to distract me.

1987: Danny Wilson, “Mary’s Prayer”

I definitely heard this song at some point, I just couldn’t say when and where. We couldn’t listen to music on the floor of the pickle factory, and it probably wouldn’t have gone over well with the inmates therein. Boy howdy, that was a terrible job.

1992: Rozalla, “Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good)”

I don’t know how I missed this one, back in the day. If I was more of a club-goer I would probably be more familiar with Rozalla, but then again this was the only one of her songs which made much of a splash in the US. She was much more popular in the UK and in her native Zimbabwe. I admit I am intrigued, and will definitely seek out more of her music.

1997: Warren G. featuring Ron Isley, “Smokin’ Me Out”

One of the best parts of this project is the way it is serving as a crash course/deep dive into R&B and Hiphop, two genres of music where I am woefully uninformed. I have heard of most of the artists in these lists (like Warren G.) but the songs, at the time (like “Smokin’ Me Out”), went right through me without leaving much of an impression. Which is unfortunate, because now that I am better about getting out of my own way, I really like the music.

There comes a certain point in any given summer when the excitement of “Hey! It’s summer!” wears off and every opportunity to do something fun comes with a slight note of “I’m kind of tired. Let’s not.” Or maybe it’s just me, here at the tail end of a two-week vacation which was so crammed full of peopling that I am in more need of a vacation now than I was two weeks ago. And two weeks ago I was in dire need of a vacation.

I have given up on trying to associate specific songs with specific times of the year other than in the purely nostalgic sense. Songs are written, recorded, collected, and released over weeks to months to years, and that often months or years in advance of when they appear on the radio (or streaming services). So other than the occasional song which is written for or about specific times of the year, the association between song and season is coincidental.

But that doesn’t stop them from carrying nostalgic weight.

1977: Cat Stevens, “Old Schoolyard”

I love love LOVE Cat Stevens, and have heard him enough over the years that, if I didn’t hear this song right about the time it came out, I surely heard “Old School Yard” at some point in my childhood. I just don’t remember exactly when. More recently, Stevens was part of the soundtrack of a long camping trip around Lake Huron a decade ago, and his music has been a constant in my life ever since.

1982: Eddie Money, “Think I’m In Love”

Yeah, Eddie Money was ubiquitous throughout the eighties, and “Think I’m In Love” was on heavy rotation throughout the decade, and still is, on classic rock stations. Definitely heard this one when it came out, and heard it a lot in the milking parlor in the mornings, and on the bus ride to and from Junior High.

1987: Dionne Warwick & Jeffrey Osborne, “Love Power”

“Love Power” doesn’t trigger any memories, deja vu or nostalgia, but I could listen to Dionne Warwick all day. It is likely that I missed this song in the midst of all of the harder rock which hit the charts during the summer between high school and college.

1992: Mr. Big, “Just Take My Heart”

Let’s just take a moment and listen to that amazing guitar. I have heard of Mr. Big, but I don’t remember this specific song. “Just Take My Heart” would have charted while I was looking for a new job to get me out of the third-shift assembly line hell I was stuck in after my fifth year of college. Actually I might have already found a new job at Jose Babushka’s, but I was not in a good frame of mind for the appreciation of power ballads at the time.

1997: Joe, “Don’t Wanna Be a Player”

I have no memory of “Don’t Wanna Be a Player,” but it is a lovely song.

The week after the Fourth of July has always felt to me line the first *real* days of summer, where from here on out life is all working for the weekend. No more big plans, no more holidays (which is a blessing) and just getting into the groove of summer and enjoying it as best I could before September arrived and it was back to school. And, like so many other patterns which are imprinted in our early lives, this one persists well into middle age.

1977: Elvis Presley, “Way Down”

I…am certain that I have never heard this song before, which leaves me feeling conflicted. On the one hand, Elvis recorded A GREAT MANY songs and I am not an Elvis superfan. On the other hand, IT’S ELVIS! HOW COULD I HAVE NOT HEARD THIS SONG?

So perhaps I did at some point, though the immediate hit of nostalgia brought with it memories of the soundtrack to Grease, which I heard a lot of in third and fourth grade. Maybe there was some Elvis on rotation in there too.

Elvis died in August 1977, a little over a month after this song hit the charts.

1982: Haircut One Hundred, “Love Plus One”

This is definitely another song which only appeared in my life thanks to Pandora. I have no associations with this song which don’t involve sitting in front of a computer and writing code. That said, “Love Plus One” is a lot of fun.

1987: Cutting Crew, “One for the Mockingbird”

When “Mockingbird” charted I was working in a pickle factory for minimum wage ($3.35/hour) and hating every minute of it, as well as loathing most of my coworkers, who were not having any more fun than I was. I mostly listened to the oldies station on the drive to and from work, which in 1987 meant songs from the fifties and sixties, with the occasional early 1970s super-hit. I do not remember “Mockingbird” at all, though I had heard “I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight” which was blessed with a lot of air time. If I did hear “One for the Mockingbird” it was early on a Sunday morning while milking cows, which I was still doing even with a summer job, in an effort to save every penny for my first semester at Grand Valley.

1992: Elton John, “The One”

Though I have no specific memory of this song, (and not much of the associated album, also titled The One) I don’t see how I could have NOT heard “The One.” Wikipedia says this album was John’s first after completing drug and alcohol rehab, and certainly feels more introspective and down-to-earth than his previous studio album.

1997: Trisha Yearwood, “How Do I Live”

“How Do I Live” is beautiful, and it is certainly the only Trisha Yearwood song I have heard before, and I only heard this because of it being one of the high points in the otherwise completely mediocre Con Air. Which means I probably didn’t hear it until well after the movie was released to home video and I rented it from Blockbuster sometime in the early 2000s.

Ah, the space between the end of Spring and the first major event of Summer, Independence Day. At this point in the year the post-school routine has been established and the summer job (or just the job, post-college) is in full swing.

1977: Rod Stewart, “The Killing of Georgie (parts 1 and 2”)

Wow. I am certain I had not heard this song before putting this post together. And certainly not in the summer between second and third grade. It’s beautiful, and sad, and Stewart sings it perfectly.

1982: J. Geils Band, “Angel in Blue”

I have no specific memory of hearing “Angel in Blue”, but I feel a general nostalgia associated with the song, which brings back memories of possibly summer camp, such as it was back in the early 1980s. “Angel in Blue” was overshadowed by the J. Geils Band’s bigger hits like “Freeze Frame” and “Centerfold,” but it is just as good as the other songs, and Peter Wolf sells it beautifully.

1987: Fleetwood Mac, “Seven Wonders”

Yeah, this was the song of the sustained enervation of being done with the familiar and on the cusp of the great unfamiliar of college. Hanging out with the one or two remaining high school friends and wondering how I would maintain the unrequited crushes on the girls who remained in my hometown when I left for college. What an odd (in hindsight) thing to worry about! How can I ineffectually lust after someone who is a hundred miles away! Also, I could listen to Stevie Nicks sing all day.

1992: Guns N’ Roses, “November Rain”

I remember the huge splash this song (and the associated album) made when it hit. I have never liked Guns N’ Roses, and I have never appreciated Axl Rose (Slash is the true heart and soul of GN’R), so listening to “November Rain” made me want to eject the CD from the CD player and pop in the most recent release from They Might Be Giants, or whatever.

1997: Bruce Springsteen, “Secret Garden”

I might have heard this one, at the bookstore when the soundtrack to Jerry Maguire was receiving some play. I have no specific memory (and also no associated memories) of this specific song, but I loves me some Bruce Springsteen so I more than likely have heard it at some point. According to the internets, “Secret Garden” was not one of Springsteen’s most popular songs, which is unfortunate, as it is quite lovely.

 

1977: The Carpenters, “All You Get From Love is a Love Song”

Flashes of nostalgia or deja vu of traveling to the Kalamazoo area with Dad to visit his sister at her house on a small lake where we noodled around in his canoe while fishing for bluegills and whatever else would bite. Evenings catching fireflies and cooking hotdogs on a grill, and hanging out in a VERY seventies house with shag carpet, wood panelling, overstuffed couches and leather recliners and the scent of cigarette and pipe smoke and the remnants of the fire in the fireplace.

1982: Rainbow, “Stone Cold”

Definitely heard this one right when it came out. And probably saw it on MTV as well. “Stone Cold” brought up memories of that particular feeling of standing in the milking parlor while the cows grumble and chew and shit while we cleaned their udders and teats and hooked up the milking apparatus. The MTV would have happened when we flew down to Louisiana to visit Dad, usually around the middle of July. Louisiana in July doesn’t sound so inviting now.

1987: Jody Watley, “Looking For a New Love”

1992: Kathy Troccoli, “Everything Changes”

1997: Michael Bolton, “Go the Distance”

The end of May seems to be a locus for love ballads and smooth jams. It also, for the years represented here, was a week of transition from school to summer break. Even into 1997, when I had been out of school for a few years, that pattern followed. I spent 18 years (and one semester in Russia in 1994) being educated, and as they were my formative years, there is an emotional resonance with the end of a school year which will likely carry through for the rest of my life. It is not as strong an emotional tie as that which makes itself felt in late August/early September. But even into my fifties I feel a specific nostalgia as Memorial Day approaches.

1977: Barbara Streisand, “My Heart Belongs to Me”

I couldn’t say when I first heard “My Heart Belongs to Me.” I definitely did at some point, if only be the logic that popular music in 1977 was a small pool, particularly in rural Michigan, with parents who weren’t into anything harder than Manhattan Transfer. I’ve never had any particular opinions about Streisand one way or another, so if this song is familiar, it is only through osmosis. Then again, I would have been seven years old, just shy of my eighth birthday and near the end of second grade when this song was released.

1982: Dionne Warwick and Johnny Mathis, “Friends in Love”

I have certainly heard “Friends in Love” at some point in the past. Warwick and Matthis have beautiful voices and they work well together. This week in 1982 I was near the end of seventh grade, probably looking forward to a summer of milking cows and stacking bales, and maybe a quick trip to visit my dad, wherever he was living that summer. I would have been preparing for the Memorial Day Parade when the junior high band was conscripted to play with the high school band at the Springport VFW hall, to the indifference of the adults and the jeers of our classmates. So no particular nostalgia attached to this one, but it is a beautiful song and I appreciate it more now at 52 that I did when I was 12.

1987: Restless Heart, “I’ll Still Be Loving You”

I do vaguely remember “I’ll still be loving you,” and almost certainly heard it when it was on the charts. Restless Heart is a country band and so I likely heard it played on one of the several country stations which were more prevalent in the 1980s in rural Michigan. The MTV/cable era diminished the size of the slice of the pie which country music enjoyed, but it so greatly expanded the size of the pie that that rising tide lifted every music genre, including country, and made the birth of alt-country possible a few years later. Regardless, this is a fine song, though it doesn’t speak to me, one way or another. I would have been prepping for graduation in this week in 1987, so likely wasn’t paying attention to what was on the radio.

1992: Jon Secada, “Just Another Day”

The end of my fifth year of college I was moving out of off-campus housing at GVSU and into my first “adult” apartment in Kentwood with three friends, and just starting my brief career at West Michigan’s favorite Polish-Mexican restaurant, while prepping for my capstone classes. Which is to say, it was an exciting time, and busy, and though I have heard “Just Another Day” I don’t know if I heard it when it charted, or at some point in the future. I like the song, and Secada has a fine voice, though it doesn’t really stand out from the myriad similar songs which were released in the early 1990s.

1997: Heavy D, “Big Daddy”

I remember seeing this video on MTV more than once, though that could have been years after the song was released. I would have been working at the bookstore with nothing of note happening in my life, likely in a groove of working, working out, partying, and listening to folk, folk rock, and Tom Waits. I like this song, though and it looks like everyone in the video is having fun. Heavy D died in 2011 of a pulmonary embolism. He was born two years before me, and I remember hearing of his death and realizing that people who were my age are dying of the kind of things I used to associate with “old people.” And that was over a decade ago. So it goes.