Listen up: Summer, MP3
A new addition to my “One Long Year” song cycle. (You can see the overview of the project here: https://musicblog.gregscheer.com/one-long-year/.) I’ll be up front with you and say that I’m not completely convinced by this one. I felt like I needed something a bit up tempo to break up all the introspective, slow songs. But it’s a bear to craft good upbeat songs, isn’t it? They’re very easy to write, but catchy quickly becomes cloying and high energy becomes hokey. I tried to keep this simple and summery to reflect the time of year and the light style most summer songs take, but underneath that the song is really about regrets. Like I said, I’m not entirely convinced that the song works. I figure the beauty of FAWM is that I can write quickly and intuitively and then edit or cut later. I’ll take any advice you have for me.
When was the last time any of us got any sleep at all?
Bonfire glow and a keg of beer
Is it any wonder things got a little weird?Wake at noon and it all comes back
The smell of suntan lotion and the sweet taste of regret
We’ve all got our secrets, we’ve all made mistakes
Still, I’ve got a feeling there’s going to be hell to pay
CHORUS
Everyone’s hoping for an endless summer
I’m just hoping for a place to land
‘cause I’m as high as a kite
And I think I might have just cut my string
There’s a fine line between freedom
And free floating in the wind
And I’m wondering if I can ever make it back again
Am I the only one who wishes summer would end?
2. It’s been one hot summer, and one long year
After a lonely spring with more rain than a heart could bear
It’s been too much work and too little play
And so much pressure that it had to come out some way
The sun bakes into on my salty skin
like it’s writing a page in the book of my life’s sin
Invisible ink but it won’t wash off
How do I manage to betray everyone I love?
CHORUS
CHORUS 2
If I survive this sweltering summer
Make it through another fall
I’ll wait out the winter
And joke that I’ve been through hell.
But it’s no joke. The way I’m headed
I’ll be a broken, empty man.
Drift away like the summer sand.
Am I the only one who wishes summer would end?