WSPC'S SESSION NOTES FOR JULY 2014

FROM THE DJs STUDIO DESK:
"Music needs air..."
-Claire Colburn ("Elizabethtown")

When else but in the season of Summer are we able to allow the magic of music to sing upon the breezes taking those notes from us to wherever making its impact upon whomever in the unbeknownst distance? Whether you have your car windows open or the top is completely down, or whether you place speakers into your windows, Summer is a time to take whatever listening devices you have and send them out into the world for all to share and experience.

But beyond that, are there songs, artists or musicians that make you feel the season of Summer more than others? What do you listen to? What does Summer sound like to you?

 

As for me, I can instantly think back to the Summer of 1983 when ZZ Top's single "Gimmie All Your Loving" firmly felt like the end of 8th grade with the three months off from school seeming like miles upon miles of freedom and possibility ahead. Jumping ahead ten years, Urge Overkill's album "Saturation" (released June 8, 1993), featuring the propulsive "Sister Havana" also signified the heat and joy of the season.

And I honestly do not know what the Summers of my teen years would have sounded like without The Cars' synthetic masterpiece "Heartbeat City" (released March 13, 1984), as tracks like "Magic, "Looking For Love," "Hello Again" and the darkly sublime "Why Can't I Have You?" and "Drive" sent me home from the end of my Freshman year of high school.  

 

In the Summer of 1985, I listened to Sting's "The Dream Of The Blue Turtles" (released June 1, 1985) and Dire Straits' "Brothers In Arms" (released May 13, 1985) religiously...

...while the music of The Fixx, including the album "Walkabout" (released 1986), provided me with the soundtrack for my obsessive bike rides during that summer.

Summer gave me the music of Peter Gabriel, Yes, and most famously altered my life seismically once the season delivered Prince to me. By the time I was 18, as I was preparing to head to college, Fleetwood Mac, a childhood favorite, returned to me in earnest while Todd Rundgren was just beginning to make his introduction, seismically altering my life all over again.

In recent years, the music of Summer has transformed itself to include the earlier albums by The Steve Miller Band as well as the expansive music of Traffic, most specifically with their albums "John Barleycorn Must Die" (released July 1970) and "The Low Spark Of High-Heeled Boys" (released November 1971).

 

While the season of Summer always tends to steer me towards music that is decidedly more guitar driven and songs that tend to run longer, I always allow the music to guide me to wherever it feels that it needs for me to be.

So far this Summer I am surprised once again as I have fund myself gravitating towards the music of R.E.M., a band that I have listened to in some capacity since the very beginning but one that I have continually increased my appreciation and love for, especially as they have officially disbanded.  

What does this mean for Synesthesia this month? I am truly not sure and happily so. Like the R.E.M. albums that are currently calling to me, as if from the ether, whatever occurs on this blogsite will reach me and will hopefully reach you, inspiring you to please reach back and embrace as you all bask within these languid weeks before the leaves begin to fall again.

Let the music soar on the air and find its way to you and to me...and as always, remember to...

PLAY LOUD!!!!!!