Wednesday, August 6, 2008

My sounds of summer

There was a time when my tastes in music were pretty narrow. If it was on a pop radio station, I wanted nothing to do with it. Most of the time, if it was anything people I knew had heard of, I wanted nothing to do with it. My music collection consisted of a ton of classic rock (Beatles, Led Zepplin, The Doors) and pretty much every Jam band you can think of as well as a few you've probably never heard of (Grateful Dead; Phish; String Cheese Incident; Madeski, Martin and Wood). Suffice it to say that I've broadened my horizons a bit of the years.
And while I'm listening to much more than that these days, there are times when all I crave is those old, familiar tunes.
To this day, it's not summer unless I'm driving along with the windows down, blasting Box of Rain as loud as it will go.
So anyway, we're into the last month of summer now so I figure we better enjoy it while we can. So, submitted for your approval, my suggestions for a really kick-ass summer play list:

Box of Rain - Grateful Dead
Chalkdust Torture- Phish
Melissa- Allman Brothers Band
Bobby McGhee- Janis Joplin
Cinnamon Girl- Niel Young
Jellyfish- String Cheese Incident
Jamillia- Disco Biscuits
Bubblehouse- Madeski, Martin and Wood
Sugar Magnolia- Grateful Dead
Ramblin' Man- Allman Brothers Band
Summertime- Janis Joplin
Torn and Frayed- The Rolling Stones
Ripple- Grateful Dead
Throwing Stones- Grateful Dead
Mouna Bowa- String Cheese Incident
She Belongs to Me- Bob Dylan
Plane Crash- Moe.
Into the Mystic- Van Morrison
Baba O'Riley- The Who
America- Simon and Garfunkel
Hatfield- Widespread Panic
Everybody Knows This is Nowhere- Niel Young
Joyful Sound- String Cheese Incident

Admittedly, not all of these are the best songs by these bands. Many of them are quite simply, fantastic songs. Others, for whatever reason, just give me a very carefree feeling that, to me, is the embodiment of summer. Enjoy :)

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