Summer is Heavenly

Okay, brief rundown of all the traxxx on the recent mix- Summer Showerz: LoveLeigh Days.

Listen to a track from ze mix: "Spirit In The Sky", by Norm Greenbaum.

(if you want a higher quality sound, listen to the YouTuber below; below has weird, weird religious stuff in it though- creepy, but we want
summery,
not creepy. Above is literally a guy recording him playing it on his den's jukebox: it has a certain je ne sais quoi, oui?)


Hold your breath here we goooooooo
Summer Shower Jamz: LoveLeigh Days.

Summer Madness ~O~ Kool & the Gang
chilled out, nice way to start the mix. Sampled by Fresh Prince and DJ Jazzy Jeff, for "Summertime"; Jazzy will be at the Roots Picnic...

Reunion ~O~ Bobbie Gentry
Whoa now, an odd-ball, to get you intrigued about what your genius musical guide will pull next. A handclapped, bottle-smackin' little rhythm, a bit like 'Iko Iko'. First words, no joke: "Momma can I huh, Momma can I huh huh, can I Momma won't ya please let me Momma can I huh". About a family reunion: a little charmer, sweet funny little thing. Looks sumthin like this, but from deep down South




Maggie May ~O~ Rod Stewart
You know this.
DOWNLOAD Summer Showerz: LoveLeigh Days.

Summertime ~O~ Billy Stewart
Cover of sorts of a song from Gershwin's "Porgy & Bess". Evidently, during that show, they sing at among other times, during a craps game. Upbeat, lots of little darting guitars. Horns, man, horns. Tongue rolls, like so: 'dddddddddah!'.

Spirit In The Sky ~O~ Norman Greenbaum
aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh! If I were a DJ, like a pro who gets $, it would be an uncommon night out when I didn't play this. Right? My goodness, just listen to your ears! I'm killing you, just killing you, with this track right now. Big stomping drums. You could play this at 'A Flyers Hockey Game', and I bet they would win. A woman singing backup, in a falsetto.
Can women even sing falsetto? This one can!

Party Lights ~O~ Claudine Clark
Another Killer. Old rock/RnB. Girl is watching all her friends go to the party across the street, but Mom won't let her go! "There goes Jenny and Sue, and Bobby and Mary Lou, oh-oh-oh there goes my boyfriend too!" "Party lights, red and blue and green; everybody in the crowd is there, but you won't let me make the scene!" Real rapid fire snappy snare drums. Piano tinkling, and some peppy-ass horns make an appearance.

DOWNLOAD Summer Showerz: LoveLeigh Days.

In the Summertime ~O~ Mungo Jerry
A pic shall suffice:


If Not For You ~O~ Olivia Newton John
A pic shall suffice:


Summer Breeze ~O~ Isley Brothers
Told you about last time.

Two Tickets To Paradise ~O~ Eddie Money
"Oh, what?!?! Hit me again with that Eddie Money, Son!"
(That's you talking, after this song drops. You are driving, in a Camaro, f'real. Top off- on the car, you jokester...
"I'm gonna take you on a trip so far from here,
I've got two tickets in my pocket, now baby, we're gonna disappear.
We've waited so long, waited so long.

I've got two tickets to paradise,
Won't you pack your bags, we'll leave tonight,
I've got two tickets to paradise
[guitar solo- 32 bars]"

That's you singing it at karaoke, and really, it made our night.

I Fought The Law ~O~ Bobby Fuller Four
A pretty jaunty guitar in this song; really jaunty when you consider that the first lines are about 'breaking rocks in the hot sun'. We'll just bracket the rocks, okay, and focus on the sun, you feel me? A million famous people covered this song for a reason; that is, a reason beyond its sassy 'F-the-P' attitude- it is a funtime summertime spectacular.
I bet even cops like this song.

Summer ~O~ War
Return to Mellow. Almost all of War's stuff is proper for a summer mix; guys rocked a Texan melting pot thing; soul, Texana, sunbaked, relaxed. More horns, lazzzzzyyyy ones. "Summer: my time of year". Well-said, War, well-said.

DOWNLOAD Summer Showerz: LoveLeigh Days.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

aaaaand here is the creepy-video-version of Norm Greenbaum's "Spirit in the Sky".
I think someone kidnapped her daughter? And this someone may be the state of Missouri? And Jesus is angry about it? Or what?

Li'l Breezy- Summer on my Mind

Another selection offa that "Summer Showerz" mix.
This one is the Isley Brothers, who I have been ultragillin' as of late. Charlie and I are a two-man fan-club.



Oh yes, now that you mention it, this is a cover of Seals and Croft's "summer breeze", but this version is much better. Better, I say, than that yacht-rot version. Who would you trust to tell you about summer, these guys



or these chumps


(that's called a 'rhetorical question', because I already know the answer. Since I know all answers, does that make all questions rhetorical, when posed by me?
HA, tricked you: the above was also a rhetorical question BOOM)



The above is a representation of what this mix is like: all laid back 'vibez'. The Isely Brothers' song is a good li'l snapshot of the general feel of the mix as well.
Just a reminder, here is the tracklisting for this really stellar, star-studded mix.

Summer Showerz: LoveLeigh Days

Summer Madness ~O~ Kool & the Gang
Reunion ~O~ Bobbie Gentry
Maggie May ~O~ Rod Stewart
Summertime ~O~ Billy Stewart
Spirit In The Sky ~O~ Norman Greenbaum
Party Lights ~O~ Claudine Clark
In the Summertime ~O~ Mungo Jerry
If Not For You ~O~ Olivia Newton John
Summer Breeze ~O~ Isley Brothers
Two Tickets To Paradise ~O~ Eddie Money
I Fought The Law ~O~ Bobby Fuller Four
Summer ~O~ War

Summer Showerz: LoveLeigh Days

Now, I stand by my comments above (about the waybetterness of IBs over S&C), but I will let you in on a li'l secret that undermines that claim:
Croft goes by the first name of DASH.
Jus' sayin'.
(although his real name is Darrell, so, you see, right???)

Sugar Beats: Sugar Hill Gang's much-sampled 'Apache'

Another great song, just ripe for summering. Get ready, btw, for sum summer stooping. Unless I get some emergency transfusions of cash, this will be a very "can't afford to go out drinking" summer. So you'll have to join me at mine (...or yours...) for "free beer". I call beer bought from the distributors, "free beer". It's so cheap, relative to bars, that you practically make money drinking it!. That's right, my economic plan: "Drink yourself to prosperity; Spend yourself sober."
(it's complicated)
But where'd all the money go, oh, where? Well, recently, it went to late heating bills (boring), and mo' wax, aka more vinyl (exciting).
Including this little gem....

Apache, by Sugar Hill Gang



Oh, this song. Oh, man oh me oh my. First, it uses a similar bong/drum break to The Incredible Bongo Band's Apache, which itself is sort of similar to The Shadows' Apache...
Dude, you think my Summer Prosperity Plan is complex? Check out the involved history of this song. Interesting, but impossible to sum up. Really, you should always be going to that blog, Soul Sides, because it is just the jam. Old Soul, great rap, dropping knowledge without being boring or snooty or pedantic, and always giving you links to the cuts.
It is as essential as this blog (well, more, actually, but still).

Right! Well, anyhow, in hip-hop and drum and bass
(my deepest musical love- 'drum and bass' aka 'jungle' aka 'DnB'- which none of my friends ever like that much. No 'junglist crew' for me! Not enough of my friends are rude bwoys, turns out)
many many songs have sampled drum breaks from various versions of Apache. Lots sampled the guitar line too. You'll see why- the bongos that this song opens with are solid all by themselves, let alone the other versions of that beat that are dropped throughout the track.
Now, if you are one of these young pups, you will recognize the song not from (nearly infinite) DnB and H-H songs, but from Switch's track. This song was huge from a summer or two back. We still can hear it, on that rare occasion that we Make Time.

Here's the original Switch track... (you gotta wait til 2:02 for the guitar line to drop! It's a dance track after all). Called "A Bit Patchy", as in, APatchy=Apache.



Here is an M.I.A. remix of Switch, introduced by Diplo, who M.I.A. used to date, but doesn't now, and mixed into the end of Kitsune track..... I told you this sampling stuff gets complicated!


(jump to about 1:15 on this one if you want to hear "A Bit Patchy" coming in clearly)

Summer Radness: Kool & The Gang (Keeping Kool When All's Gone Mad)

Download newest summer mix. Yeah!

Well, I've gone and done you another solid. Whipped up a precise blend of parts that together join up to make a Voltron-like colossus:
Summer 'Showerz': LoveLeigh Days



("showerz" refers the "singalong in the shower" nature of all the songs; "Leigh" refers to a friend who prompted me to finish this mix. THX!)

So, specifically summer, particularly shower jamz. Summer songs are feelgood, but perfect summer songs have to be melllllooooow too.
Not sure how feelgood mixes with ultramellow? Then listen to Kool & The Gang's "Summer Madness". You'll see.





Above is from the official Philadelphia Mural thingy, visible from the El tracks in West Philly. I see this on my way to work. More info, deets etc. (like how you could have gotten a tattoo designed by ESPO, the dude what did that mural).

Just like the summer. You are feeling nice in the summer, but you know, low-key like.
A perfect example of that perfect mellow feeling is perfectly evinced by the classically perfect first song, which is Youtubing above.

Summer Madness, by Kool & The Gang. This song was looped, 'slightly transformed' (like Voltron!), for Fresh Prince & DJ Jazzy Jeff's "Summertime".
So, now we've picked up on a recent theme, of great older songs outtfitted with a little rappin'-freshness. Oh yes, surely you recall my last post, on Biggie and his Other Brothers (The Isley Brothers), whom he sampled for "Big Poppa". I'll probably drop some more of those, about songs in different forms.
Note that The Isley Brothers are included on this mix too- a clear nod to Leigh, who praised them recently.

But anyhow, here is the track listing for the mix.
Download my newest mix: Summer Showerz: LoveLeigh Days.

Summer Madness ~O~ Kool & the Gang
Reunion ~O~ Bobbie Gentry
Maggie May ~O~ Rod Stewart
Summertime ~O~ Billy Stewart
Spirit In The Sky ~O~ Norman Greenbaum
Party Lights ~O~ Claudine Clark
In the Summertime ~O~ Mungo Jerry
If Not For You ~O~ Olivia Newton John
Summer Breeze ~O~ Isley Brothers
Two Tickets To Paradise ~O~ Eddie Money
I Fought The Law ~O~ Bobby Fuller Four
Summer ~O~ War

Please note that the symbol, lovingly crafted by myself, in betwixt track and band: looks like a sun, yeah?
ahahhahhahah I'm unstoppable hahahahahahahah