(*It's all subjective, of course. I'm sure you can think of a better one.)
8. Rialto - Summer's Over
One post leads to another. That Tindersticks song couldn't help but remind me of this, Rialto's finest hour, from the post-Britpop wasteland that produced some gloriously under-appreciated pop songs. There's obviously a touch of Jarvis Cocker to Louis Eliot's songwriting, but also a big, sweeping Scott Walker melancholia, perfect for this wonderfully evocative track.
When I was a kid, we often didn't have a "summer" holiday. My parents weren't big on crowds (neither am I). We'd go away once in maybe late March or April, then again in early October. This explains why, in the photo below, I'm the only one on the beach at Reighton Gap (between Filey and Scarborough). I also think I had a pebble in my shoe.
Anyway, my experience of seaside towns was either in the pre-Summer season or after the end of the season, and so even then, in the late 70s and early 80s, these places felt like they were way past their prime. Faded Seaside Glamour... remind me of another song for another time.
Kamikaze seagull planesTrue melancholy can be a weirdly happy thing, I've always found. Sometimes it's nice to feel a wisftul sadness over something that's passed, that never really achieved its true potential, or that you'll never feel again. I look back on those non-summer holidays with great fondness, thinking of my parents when they were younger people (weirdly, only a few years older than I am now), wondering if they had the same hopes and fears I'm experiencing about aging, and the state of the world. Wow, this is getting deep. You only came here for a song. Better play it and bugger off...
Fighting over chip shop take-away remains
When you're walking on the cliffs
You can't help thinking of how far down the sea is
And what if it should give...
I didn't mean to bring you down
Summer's over, seaside town
She says we shouldn't have come so far
This seaside town, summer's over
That's Whitby, if I'm not mistaken?
ReplyDeleteYou're not.
ReplyDeleteThat was lovely, thank you, and right now would be my best Summer's Over song in the world ever too, not bad for my first listen! Always happy to hear other contenders, though, and you've got me thinking that way.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about the melancholy; the bittersweetness of fond moments being gone forever but that very fact alone meaning they're also pristinely preserved, never to be spoiled either.
Oh, finding myself getting deep now too!
Lovely post.
Nice way of looking at it. Thanks, C.
DeleteLovely
ReplyDeleteI'm now as happy as a seagull with a stolen chip!
That red spot on your beak... is that ketchup or blood?
DeleteSweet post Rol.
ReplyDeleteCheers, Swede.
DeleteTime is still all out of kilter what with you posting end of the summer songs! Very true though about being in places that have had their day as they have a melancholic aura about them. Not good at turned melancholy into a happy thing I'm afraid, just feel sad but fair do's to you if you can - Liked the song.
ReplyDeleteWe find happiness where we can these days...
Delete