Welcome to the latest newsletter where we search for the perfect Squire summer playlist!
We were honoured a couple of weeks ago when AGMP who host the London Mods Mayday declared Get Smart was a great summer album - and a timeless classic!
It had never occurred to us that the record could be associated with a particular season and it got us thinking, can we put together a Squire summer playlist? Are there songs that connect directly to summer, or summer holidays and the sunshine?
Of course, our minds go straight to Sugarplum ‘Blue Summer Days’ CD which wears the summer on its sleeve! The title speaks directly about the long never ending sense of summers gone by, and the nostalgia of forgotten holidays and the tension between being surrounded by all the distractions, freedom and fun that summer wishes on us, and all the frustrations, responsibilities and limitations of real life, work, school and authority that holds us in place! If you can recall the lyric of Eddie Cochran ‘Summertime Blues (also covered by The Who!), then you know the script!
But even before the Blue Summer Days album, there has always been a colour to the Squire sound palette that spoke of optimism and dreams of escape, that was in contrast to the dark and grungy punk sounds that surrounded the 1979 mod revival and so often categorises the era.
So let us look for a few Squire songs that speak of summer, and see if we can build a playlist that defines the golden months of hoped for eternal sunshine!
If there’s a song that spells out the impatience of waiting for summer to start it must be ‘I Don’t Get Satisfaction!’. The lyric ‘I couldn't stay awake today, Too busy dreaming I was far away, Wishing I was going on a holiday...’ Is our own Summertime Blues! It’s a song that condenses the frustration of living life upside down; I cant get to sleep at night, and I cant stay awake in the day!
This restless energy continues with 'Saturday Shopping', also from the same LP. The song captures that weekend frustration of being stuck doing mundane errands when you'd rather be anywhere else: 'I'd rather be anywhere else than in a town with a bag and a purse.' The plea 'If I had my own mind I'd rather stay behind / I need a drink so let's find / A pub where I can unwind / And fade away' perfectly anticipates the frustration of wanting to start the holidays already!
Moving on from anticipation, to action, perhaps the most obvious summer anthem is on one of the most recent releases the Get Ready To Go LP! This album is a veritable treasure trove of summer fun, and ‘Lets Have Fun!’ evokes the idea of heading to the beach to create our own adolescent adventures!
The opening line spells it out! - ‘It won’t be long ’till summers gone - let’s have some fun!’
The next song on the album is ‘City Breakdown’ and similarly tells the story of getting out of the city, leaving behind the urban grind, and heading for the countryside to enjoy the peace and tranquility of a pastoral pause! The line ‘I’m gonna sit by a river, Watch the little fishies swim by!’ evokes the timelessness of the scene, Busy doing nothing, lost in the summer haze.
The emotional heart of any summer playlist should include some romantic reference, and Squire has captured both sides of the seasonal love story, where we find evidence of long lost summer emotions, on some rare B- sides!
’Don’t Cry To Me’ captures the start of a summer romance ,where being together is the only destination in mind, ‘If there's somewhere else that you would rather go. Then I'll tell you girl that's all I need to know’ Hopeful, wide eyed and totally immersed in the moment!
Whereas the mood has abruptly shifted in ‘Over You’ which perhaps documents the same relationship unravelling, derailed amongst the whispers, suspicion and drama of a moment of truth! Doomed before it started!- ‘I went down to the park, I didn't notice it was dark, trying to make up my mind...Over You’ A golden haze has given way to second guessing!
If Get Smart is chosen as the summer album, the track ‘Its To Bad’ best captures the nostalgia of a childhood summer when the long school holidays dissolved into a never ending cavalcade of adventure and exploration ‘Do you remember all the games that we played? And all our friends would be there.’
Perhaps we can also include ’In A World Of My Own’ in the summer selection, ‘Nobody knows where to find me, Nobody else knows the way’ reminds you of those lost moments when you catch yourself growing up.
Indeed much of Get Smart evokes the the sound of summer, if not referenced directly, through its very production. Put a 12-string guitar near any song and already you are in the California sun! Indeed California is such a big influence on the Squire sound, and half of Get Smart was mixed at Ocean Way studios, on Sunset Blvd!
Even the sleeve colours of Get Smart, and also Get Ready To Go, remind you of the summer explosion, with their vivid bursts of yellow!
Can we find a song from September Gurls? Perhaps September is already lamenting the end of summer, the turn of the season, the soft closing of a golden chapter —the warmth still in the air, but the nights are drawing in. There’s a quiet melancholy in the albums melodies, as if the songs are already bracing for autumn.
But there is a song!
And we can find it on the Sugarplum album as well! Hence we can enjoy a final fling - a double helping, two scoops!, of the exuberance and excitement of flat out fun at the fairground with the line ‘Its a wonderland with you, we’re riding on a merry go round for two’. And its the exuberance of the Sugarplum version that we refer to!
‘Summer All Year Long’ which questions whether the perfect summer can ever end, with the closing lines, ‘Summer’s been long this year, Caught in the mood like the dust in the air, Its too hot to move not a care on your mind, And summer’s all year long - This time’
Thats the kind of summer we like! And I hope the Squire summer soundtrack shines like the sun on your face!