Ricki C. here: I thought Pencilstorm should acknowledge the Official Arrival of summer in some manner, so I took it upon myself to choose a song to honor the season. (Summer is my favorite time of year, followed closely by autumn & spring, but not by winter, which I largely despise, except when I get great Christmas presents.)
Any blog could trot out the Beach Boys or John Fogerty to welcome summer, but I've decided to go left-field with Jonathan Richman, whose 1983 release "That Summer Feeling" is one of my all-time favorite tunes. (And though I'm fairly certain I'm gonna run afoul of Mr. Wal Ozello here, I'm gonna state in print that I think Jonathan is one of the 20 Greatest Rock & Roll Vocalists Of All Time, certainly in terms of passion & originality if not RAWK! power & bombast.)
Crack open a cold one, lay back on your deck chair and enjoy. Welcome to summer.......
author's note: It's certainly not for the casual Jonathan Richman fan or for the faint of heart, but if you type "The Modern Lovers Live @ the Stonehenge Club, Ipswich, MA, 1971" into YouTube, there's just under 90 minutes of Jonathan's early-70's Boston band The Modern Lovers in full-blown art-damaged rock & roll splendor. Imagine The Velvet Underground fronted not by Lou Reed, John Cale or Nico, but by Jerry Mathers of "Leave It To Beaver" fame, and you kinda get the idea.
Classic.