X/Z Song Trader: "Summertime"

A Gen X Rocker Discusses Music With His Gen Z Daughter

About X/Z Song Trader: Steve is a music journalist, author and musician. Lucy is a diehard music fan and college student. They have always enjoyed a father/daughter bond over music. Each week one of them picks a song and they both share their perspectives. These are casual conversations based on musical connections. Opinions are their own. Keeping it positive.

Check out the whole X/Z Song Trader series.

---

Lucy’s Perspective 

The Sundays are a band that have kind of always circulated right outside my realm of musical knowledge.

Mainly because they have such a specific sound that is perfect for certain moments not necessarily found in my regular shuffle. Last year, though, some of my best friends started to play them a lot more frequently, even putting one of their most popular songs, “Here’s Where The Story Ends,” on my birthday mixtape.

I heard “Summertime” for the first time last summer, or at least truly gave it the time of day, in the car with those same buddies and I loved it.

It was in my regular rotation a bit throughout the summer and into this past fall, and then it kind of made its way out. That is until about March.

That’s when it started coming up on suggested Spotify playlists and I began listening to it all of the time. It was on every playlist I made, and came on during even the shortest car rides. It feels like such a classic-sounding, singable song that you don’t have to give much thought to it while you listen.

My favorite lyrics are honestly just the chorus of the song.

While a lot of the verses express a yearning desire to find love in some capacity, the chorus displays what the writer imagines to be the ‘ideal’ love. A dreamy, maybe unrealistic, perfect relationship.

And it's you and me in the summertime
We'll be hand in hand down in the park
With a squeeze and a sigh and that twinkle in your eye
And all the sunshine banishes the dark

I think this is a great song and I know that The Sundays are a band mom enjoys, so I am curious to know your history with them. Do you like their music? And most of all—no pressure—do YOU like this song?!

---

---

Steve’s Perspective

Any way you look at it, this is a timeless dream pop song.

You’re right to think your mom was more of a Sundays fan back then, but I remember really liking this single when it was released in 1997. I was already familiar with their early ‘90s hit “Here’s Where The Story Ends,” although my tastes probably skewed a little heavier during the onset of the grunge and pop punk era.

In between those two standout tracks by The Sundays, I fell pretty hard for other female-fronted alternative pop bands like Belly and Ivy. Combine those acts with all the great Brit pop I was consuming at the time by Blur, The Verve, and Supergrass, and this song starts to feel like connective tissue for my later musical tastes.

Talk about a perfect song for cruising the California coastline.

Even now, whenever “Summertime” starts to play it makes me want to take a drive up Pacific Coast Highway toward Malibu while the sun sets over the ocean. Which is funny since The Sundays are an English band singing about being “hand in hand down in the park,” but some songs just have the power to conjure universal feelings.

I’d put this track up there with a few of my other favorite “summer” songs such as “Summertime Blues” by Eddie Cochran, “All Summer Long” by The Beach Boys, “Summer Babe” by Pavement, “Cruel Summer” by Bananarama, “Suddenly Last Summer” by The Motels, and “It Must Be Summer” by Fountains of Wayne, among many others.

Lyrically, I agree that the choruses of “Summertime” are what immediately jump out at you to become an undeniable ear worm.

I investigated the verse lyric after reading your perspective and was surprised to see how detailed they are. Especially these lines leading into the first chorus:

Romantic Piscean seeks angel in disguise
Chinese speaking girlfriend, big brown eyes
Liverpudlian lady, sophisticated male
Hello partner, tell me love can't fail

I thought it might have been written based on newspaper singles ads, but I guess it’s about the band’s friends signing up for dating services.

And then there are these darker lines from the second verse:

Do some people wind up, with the one that they abhor
In a distant hell hole room, third world war
But all I see is films where a colorless despair
Meant angry young men with immaculate hair

All of which adds incredible depth to a song that has always seemed somewhat simple on the surface. Thanks for giving me new perspective on a song I already loved.

---

Join The Conversation In The Comments

---

Steve’s Next Song Choice

“Starfish And Coffee” by Prince

---