Songs for the Summer Solstice
It's HOT Y'all. Damn Hot!
“It’s good to mark moments. It’s what humans do.
I always think about the sigh of relief the ancients must have felt every winter Solstice when the sun began moving back towards the warmer parts of the sky.
It’s no surprise, then, that almost ALL of our historic holidays have their origins in our ancestors’ worship of the Sun, Moon, and stars.
Christmas/New Year’s? Check! (Winter Solstice) Halloween/Thanksgiving/All Saints Day? Check (Autumnal Equinox). Easter? Check! (Vernal Equinox). I mean, say this for the early Christians, they knew how to culturally appropriate.
In that vein, I offer 7 of the world’s best songs about our Equinoxes and Solstices (Solsti?))
Winter Solstice - Tea Party. This lush guitar instrumental song gets me every time. In my humble estimation, the vibe is way too bright to be about the darkest night of Winter, but hey, I’m still gonna put it on here, even if they don’t subscribe to my vision of Winter.
“All Souls’ Night” - Loreena McKennitt. I have been in love with Loreena McKennit for nearly a quarter of a century. She is a stellar musician, and by most accounts, a lovely person. This song, about the wild abandon of the Solstice celebration, makes me want to renfair cosplay and join those figures dancing “round and around.”
“Ring Out Solstice Bells” - Jethro Tull.
It’s hard to love Jethro Tull in my house.
I’m truly alone on this musical journey, but the work of Ian Anderson and Martine Barre hit me at a formative moment, and I’ve never looked back. “Songs from the Wood” is a GDamn masterpiece, and “Cup of Wonder” and “Solstice Bells” have been on every playlist I’ve ever had since the invention of Playlists. I don’t know what collective unconscious memory Jethro Tull nudges in me… but it is what it is and I’ll always love it.
“Harvest Moon” - Neil Young.
A beautiful little song about the passage of time and the marking of a life under the moon closest to the Autumnal Equinox.
5. “December” - The Waterboys.
Who does anthemic better than U2?
Mike Scott, Anthony Thistlethwaite, and the Waterboys, that’s who. Though this song was beaten to death by critics when it was released in 1982, it’s always been one of my favorites. His nod to Christian mysticism always makes me think of all the aspirational Christmases that somehow always fall short.
And though we crucified him on a cross
And dragged his word from prayer to curse
He was able to go anywhere. He was almost one of us!
“I am the Resurrection” - The Stone Roses.
What the heck with these guys? Their eponymous debut album is a thing of transcendent beauty. The signature track, “She Bangs the Drum,” is a shoegaze ambient masterpiece, but the breakdown chugs like a ‘57 Chevy.
But this song. The last one of the album rings true as well, and the Gallagher brothers owe them a debt of gratitude. This album came out in ‘89, Oasis’s “Definitely Maybe” in ‘94.
“First Air of Autumn” - The Drive By Truckers.
I will always be grateful to Mr. Patterson Hood and especially Mike Cooley, the songwriters in this astonishing band (Jason Isbell used to play with them).
Here’s the story: my friends, knowing me, eschewed strippers and booze and instead took me to see these guys as my bachelor party. They tore us all up… and ripped the roof off the tiny club in Arlington, Virginia.
But Cooley routinely writes songs that break my heart. They capture the strain of Deep Southern sadness that infects anyone from the Gulf Coast states (Not Florida, y’all just crazy), with a dignity and pathos that leaves me breathless.
This has been a good one, but a tough one. I thought it’d be easier.
Maybe it’s the heat. I work up in my attic in my office, and it’s about a billion degrees up here right now.
As always, here’s a Spotify playlist: