Friday, July 11, 2014

Songs of Summer

http://armchairsquid.blogspot.com/
My top 5 songs of summer, brought to you by The Armchair Squid, Cygnus, and Suze. If there's one thing I love talking about, it's music, I just don't spend a lot of time talking about it here. My real world friends get enough of that.

1. Summertime - Big Brother and the Holding Company
The George Gershwin classic made amazing by Janice Joplin. The beginning has such a lazy hazy summer sound to it. And the guitar solo is great! As a former farm hand who listen to this song every summer on repeat, it really just brings back memories of kneeling in a field in the middle of July. Also, when I had no job I would stay at home playing Fallout 3 on XBox and listen to this album. This song goes surprisingly well with shooting radiation zombies in the face in slo-mo.

2. Clint Eastwood - Gorillaz
The summer I lived in a tent, fought cows, raced storms, and rode 50 miles over mountains  after I punched my boss in the face, I memorized all the words to this song so I could sing along. It was my greatest accomplishment that summer

3. Where the Devil Don't Stay - Drive By Truckers
A few summers back, some friends and I went to a festival. This festival was our recreation of Fear and Loathing, minus the destruction of several muscle cars and it was in Maine. Other than that, there was drugs. Still, the Drive By Truckers played, and it was one of the great memories I have of the event. You see, on the first day, no one cared where we brought our beer, so we got used to loading in our backpacks and bringing it to the main stage. On the second day, security was more strict, so we couldn't bring it into that area. No matter, it was an open air concert, so we sat outside the entrance drinking beer and listening to the Truckers. People then walked over and kept giving us confiscated beer. I can't remember if they played this song, but I certainly listened to it a lot that summer.

4. Stormy Weather - Lena Horne
During hurricane season, you can be assured I will post this on Facebook. If not me, than one of my friends will. It's a nice jazzy song to mix up all this rock and roll.

5. En Fuego - Los Festingos
https://soundcloud.com/sam-bledsoe/en-fuego
Is this a shameless plug for a friends band? Yes, it is. Did they let me sing group vocals on their new album and let me be the cover of it? Right again! This was inspired by the hot streak we got back in the summer of 2011, and it's just fun. Silly, goofy fun. It chronicles the sadness and despair felt by a man who suddenly finds themselves on fire.

I have so many other songs with other memories attached to them. Here are the runner-ups:
Ventilator Blues - Rolling Stones. Same Festival as above. This just described how I felt the Monday following.
Jack on Fire - Blanche. Cover of an old Gun Club song. This one rocks. There is one F-bomb that everyone I play this to comments on.
Kyle's Song - moe. I am sad I haven't been to a moedown in a few years. I'm poor and have no car. I just grabbed this because Kyle is the friend who introduced me to MOE.
Feel Good Hit of the Summer - Queens of the Stone Age. If I was in a trolling mood, this would have made it. "Nicotine, valium, vicodin, marijuana, ecstasy and alcohol. K-K-K-K-Cocaine!"
I'm looking forward to reading everyone else's summer songs. Hope you enjoyed these or heard new songs or whatever. Happy Friday.

11 comments:

  1. Wow, Lena Horne! You win for classiest summer song, hands down. Who doesn't love Lena?

    You have accomplished what so many disgruntled employees only fantasized about - you actually punched your boss? That is a story I want to hear, with every tiny detail included, plus post punch gloating assessment.

    Great list and blog!
    Cherdo
    www.cherdoontheflipside.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lena Horne was a true National Treasure Samuel. A sweet list of new songs for me to enjoy. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow. Interesting mix. I'm no rap-fan for the most part, but have always liked the mix of alternative rock (and the art-work) on Gorillaz stuff. I definitely would have voted to work the moe.song into the top five, but do like the inclusion of Lena Horne. Nice!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Fighting cows? Was your boss a cow and that's why you punched him?

    Ohhh, okay, I get it now---I was thinking, "I didn't now Clint Eastwood sang". Other way around. Hey, I know that song. Good summer song.

    One of the most fun concerts ever was when an old high school chum just so happened to be the manager of the beer stand & he kept me and my girlfriend supplied with jumbo beers the whole show.

    ReplyDelete
  5. This is an odd but awesome list. I love Stormy Weather, even if it doesn't make me think of summer. I've never heard of Where the Devil Don't Stay, but it's always good to try new things. Nice, throwing in Gorillaz! Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  6. All of these songs are new for me, Samuel! Listenin' to 'Where the Devil Don't Stay' as I comment. Inn-er-esting ...

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wow...you've had some summer adventures!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Never heard of the Drive By Truckers but that is an awesome band name. When I was little we used to wrestle my friends' goat but I've never fought a cow. Happy summertimes :-)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Very cool putting Lena into the mix. What a voice! All the rest of the stuff was new to me, but I like the sound of the Drive By Truckers. (What a name!) That Gorillaz one threw me for a loop. I thought that was the name of the song, and Clint Eastwood was the singer. (He did used to do a little singing, you know.) But no, not even close! Anyhow, a fun mix of songs. And stories. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Ooh, you promoted a band you're connected to, too! So did I :-) Off to check out Los Festingos...

    ReplyDelete