Hot Urban Season

 Song 730: This week the playlist features Summer in the City by The Lovin' Spoonful, written by John Sebastian, Mark Sebastian and Steve Boone, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. I think I made my first visit to NYC in the spring of 1966 when my ninth grade biology class did a field trip to the Bronx Zoo, and I really enjoyed that outing. This musical excursion appropriately arrived soon after summer vacation started, and growing up in a somewhat rural area, I had at that point never experienced the kind of boiling discomfort that the singer complains about in the tune, but I could imagine how it might feel. My family had previously acquired a transistor radio, and during warm weather spells, I relished hearing the current hits while engaging in outdoor activities. It didn't take long to learn this saunter's chorus notes and lines, and then I could sing along when I felt like doing so. I did not know then that a few years later, I would spend my young adult phase residing in a place where in the summer, when I went walking on the sidewalk, the concrete could feel hotter than a match head.

Scorching Urban Juvenile

 Song 729: This week the playlist recognizes Hot Child in the City by Nick Gilder, written by Nick Gilder and James McCulloch, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. When the warm weather season arrived in the Windy City area in 1978, I took some necessary steps and then started stretching out my thumb in a westward direction. It didn't take very long for me to get the rides that brought me to the East Bay in CA, where I would then reside for a decade. A few months after I reached my destination, Mr. Gilder got a lot of attention with this anthem about a fiery youngster, and understandably so. Back then, I did not notice the child prostitution implications of the piece's lyrics, but taking a closer look now, I did wonder about that angle, and then found out that Nick really did get his inspiration from an observance of that phenomenon. All too often, a female so young to be loose and on her own is, in reality, NOT on her own, and when she's runnin' wild and lookin' pretty, most observers don't know what her game is, and that when she goes downtown, that's not really her decision.

Quite Bright Affection

 Song 728: This week the playlist comes around to Sunshine of Your Love by Cream, written by Pete Brown, Jack Bruce and Eric Clapton, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. During the summer of 1967, I started hearing about a rocking Cream trio who had begun amazing audiences, and then, a few months later, as the cooler and darker season arrived in my upstate NY hometown, a shiny moving banger by those three came across the airwaves and grabbed my attention. Before that hit made the scene, I had questioned how just three rockers could make as strong and heavy a sound as the common quartets and quintets of that era did, but then I truly had a striking answer to my question - one that I really relished riding. Every time I got to hear this mover, it felt like I could see the light shinin' through on my old question mark and giving me a clue about where I could be going in the near future.

Dark Warm Weather Stretch

 Song 727: This week the playlist puts the spotlight on Black Day in July by Gordon Lightfoot, who also wrote the song, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. I don't think I even knew who Mr. GL was when the album that included this ballad came along during the winter months of my junior HS year in 1968, but a couple of years later, as I expanded my knowledge and collection of fellow singer/songwriter types, I soon got to know a bunch of Gordon's melodies and messages, and this one came across quite strongly. I had known some of the details when Motor City madness had touched the countryside, but by the time I had a copy of the 33 that included this gem, I understood a lot more about the abuse that the sons and daughters of the fathers who were carried to this land had had to endure and unfortunately still continue to face all too often. Why can't we live in peace? Probably because a small group of very wealthy puppeteers have a stronger grip as long as the hands of the have-nots keep falling out of reach.