The songs of summer

Now that the thermometer has soared to the high 30’s and it has become difficult to live from day to day without air conditioning, why do you think those malls are full of people, the words that frequently enter one’s head are "Hot town, summer in the city, back of my neck getting dark and gritty….all around people looking half dead, walking on a sidewalk hotter than a match head…" I do not know if I got them right but those are lines from the lyrics of the song Summer in the City, which was composed by John Sebastian and popularized in 1966 by The Lovin’ Spoonful.

Although summer has always been a popular theme for pop music writers and there are lots of other summer songs, this one remains the definitive ode to the hottest of times, particularly the summer of the underprivileged urban dwellers who are unable to weather the heat in cooler climes. Think Baguio, Tagaytay, some beach resort or better yet, somewhere in another country. But once you hear that intense backbeat and that riff that gets the music moving, it become suddenly cool to be frying in the city.

The Lovin’ Spoonful is better known for mellow rock songs like Daydream, You Didn’t Have to be So Nice, Do You Believe in Magic and that theme from the TV series Welcome Back Kotter. It is also true that no other pop group that ever existed is as associated with summer today as the Beach Boys from the 60’s. Those guys do have lots of tunes that extol the virtues of the heat, the beach and having fun, fun, fun. Think California Girls, I Get Around, Fun, Fun, Fun, Good Vibrations, Kokomo and others. Still to this, day I can find no other song that best captures the sweltering wonders of a sun-baked city better than Summer in the City.

Of course, other people have their own favorites. Some might say that it is the languid, very sexy Summertime by George and Ira Gershwin from the opera Porgy and Bess. Romantics might choose the theme from the movie that starred Sandra Dee and Troy Donahue, A Summer Place. Those from the older generation have as their favorites, In the Good Old Summertime, which evokes Norman Rockwell images of turn of the century America, or Summer Love which was a big favorite hereabouts in the ’50s. As the years moved on we got Summer Wind, by Frank Sinatra, Summer Breeze, by Seals & Crofts, Summer Nights from the musical Grease and so many others.

There are also those whose titles do not mention the word summer, but are no less evocative of the joys of the hot season. Beyond the Sea, Wipe Out, Let’s Twist Again, Heat Wave, Rock the Boat, Dancing in the Streets, Under the Boardwalk, Vacation, Holiday, Isla Bonita, and many others. Particular favorites are Sealed with a Kiss and See You in September, which remain popular among local music buffs with memorable summers in their youth. I think of them as strange choices because they mention the end of summer in September, when students in the US of A return to school. Summer here ends in June but that has never bothered the Pinoy who made those tunes his "theme song" for some summer love affair.

Although the Philippines is a tropical country, much is still made of the hottest period of the year when school is out, when people observe Lent and go off on vacation. So I also tried to come up with a list of Filipino summer songs. Strange I couldn’t think of any save for that old tune Tayo Na Sa Antipolo, popular during a time when Antipolo was a resort town in the hills, the adaptation of the Bee Gees’ Charade titled Tag-araw and something titled Pag-ibig sa Tag-araw. There are no songs about Baguio maybe because the name of the city sounds the same as "bagyo," which means storm. Even the word "init" which means heat, is not mentioned in connection with summer but with sex or maybe I should say, love or passion. Think Init Sa Magdamag.

I also tried to find more "tag-araw" songs even those that do not mention "tag-araw" or "init" but I came up with only one, Pumapatak Na Naman ang Ulan by the Apo Hiking Society. Rain is not a summer thing in other places but not around here when summer vacation also brings on the rain and we start listening to rain songs. Besides this song is about doing nothing which is what a lot of people do while on vacation. As for rain songs, there are also lots of them, Rain, Yesterday I Heard the Rain but they belong to another piece.