HOT FUN IN THE SUMMERTIME / SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE (EPIC, 1969) The sweltering summer of 2023 is almost over, and all over the world folks are digging themselves out from under the epic disasters of the past months. Listening to this psych-soul ditty from 1969, one may be momentarily transported back to a cozier time of blotter acid and beach coolers. The carefree tone of the record, however, belies the fact that at the same time that he was jamming on this anthem, an ever-increasingly paranoid Sly Stone was starting to hole himself up in his mansion with bowls of cocaine and a drum machine - from which he would emerge 2 years later with THERE’S A RIOT GOIN’ ON - transmitting a wholly different vibe. And, also, let’s not forget the murderous Altamont concert of 1969 (documented in the Rolling Stone’s film GIMME SHELTER), along with the concurrent killings carried out by the Manson kids - and you realize that everywhere you looked there were emblems of a time when chaos reigned, symbolizing an era of psychic climate change in America. Well, nostalgic or not, music has powers to soothe and direct our minds to kinder, gentler regions. It gives us a moment to meditate and reflect - a time out before we have to brave the cacophony once again. Some say “nostalgia” is defined as a sickness - homesickness. We’re urged to be forward looking and adapt to whatever the future holds. But, it’s ok to take a moment to remember and savor the joys of summers past. Just don’t forget to wear your sunblock. SUNLIGHT by The Youngbloods (RCA, 1969) I’m a romantic; I admit it. I believe in true love, and the moments of ecstatic togetherness that enable one to transcend all the struggles and grief of life. And, this song reanimates this awakening each time I hear it: by the rolling chords off the nylon string guitar, eliciting the feeling of a fresh breeze of possibility; Jesse Colin Young’s falsetto voice (one of nature’s finest) projecting such hopeful innocence; and, the lyrics, which tenderly describe scenes of eternal bliss. I loved Jesse and The Youngbloods from the first time I put down the needle on Grizzly Bear (the first cut on the debut album). It was a bonus disc from the Columbia Record Club, and since that moment, the relationship with Jesse, Banana, and the boys, during the RCA years, was a meaningful one for me. After they went to Warners, and subsequently split up, the love affair was over. But, the remarkable Elephant Mountain, the last collection from RCA, produced by a young Charlie Daniels, delivered this song, along with Darkness, Darkness - in a collage of Sunlight and Shadow. Jesse said that this was the first song he wrote after moving to California, and I understand it. As a New Yorker relocating to the Golden State, I too was struck by the quality of the light which casts a spell that makes one unable to sense the passage of time, and the seasons. Years flew by, the mirror mocks me, but the romantic in me remains ever innocent. MILLION DOLLAR BASH by BOB DYLAN with THE BAND (From the Basement Tapes, Columbia, 1967) Ooh, Baby, Ooooh wee! Ooh, baby, oooooh wee! It’s that Million Dollar Bash. I hear that chorus and I’m smiling. It’s a celebration, a party. Dylan and the boys are off the hard road, and they’re just having fun in the Big Pink basement with the Revox tape recorder. There has been some interpretative gobble dee g**k about it being Dylan’s satirical payback to Andy Warhol and his pretentious Factory parties, with a salvo to Edie Sedgwick - the (“big dumb blonde) -, who dumped him, but really, that feels like a stretch. Those intimations might be there, but when Bob sings: “Well, I’m hittin’ it too hard, my stones won’t take- I get up in the morning but it’s too early to wake, First it’s hello, goodbye, then push and then crash, But we’re all gonna make it at that mIllion dollar bash! It feels to me like an expression of sweet release. An appreciation for the moment at hand. And, imagining where the heads of the bar band turned folk-rock players assembled in that bucolic place were at…. -, the men who, for me, comprised the greatest American band in rock history - in the chrysalis from which they were about to emerge to ignite a musical revolution - I can feel the spontaneous energy of joyous creation. Oooh baby, Oooh weeeee!
