Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Tuesday Tuneage
The Troggs - "Summertime"
1975

Why reinvent yourself when you can keep doing the same great thing over and over? I'm thinking AC/DC, you may be thinking of the Ramones.

I used to hear "Summertime" on Q-98 out of Fargo. It's acoustic guitar, drums, BASS BASS BASS on lead, and typical Troggsian leer. I assumed it was from their glory days of the mid-sixties, but it's from '75 - meaning these orginal metallic murkers unleashed this morsel of sheer brilliant punk shortly before "punk" appeared.

I like the summertime
When the girls wear their dresses so low
You can see the sun on their t-t-t-t-t-t-tan skin

Clever? Not very, but then look at the titles of Troggs' tracks four through eight on The Best of The Troggs (Fontana/Chronicles release, 1994): "I Want You", "I Can't Control Myself", "Gonna Make You", "Anyway That You Want Me", "Give It To Me." These guys weren't exactly the most playful of wordsmiths to start with.

You know when the Stones sang "I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes / I have to turn my head until my darkness goes"? This is the flipside of that sentiment. Makes me think of June, when I was walking the four blocks home from the bus stop on a Friday afternoon. First block I spot a hot strawberry blonde walking up to her duplex. Sun dress plus wedge heels. She was carrying a bottle of Jim Beam so big that it needed a handle. Such sights get a confirmed warm-weather downer like me to start softly singing:

I like the summertime, when the girls wear their dresses so ...