Guest post by Nathan Arizona
How can we appreciate the sunshine and relaxing breezes of summer with all this constant MAGA stuff distracting us? Well, in this space we do it with songs.
The title of the Pearlfishers’ “We’re Gonna Save the Summer” tells us what we have to do. Like so many summer songs, this one owes a debt to the Beach Boys, especially Brian Wilson — songs like “Make it Through the Summer” by the Autumn Defense and “We Need a Little Summer” by Jeff Larson and Jeffrey Foskett. Or something by the Explorers Club or Linus of Hollywood.
The Pearlfishers are basically singer-songwriter David Scott. The band emerged in 1980s in Scotland, where they, Teenage Fanclub and BMX Bandits helped create a small but flourishing power-pop scene. The Pearlfishers have been making albums ever since, earning the respect of critics and die-hard fans though not the kind of huge audience that makes a band a household name. “We’re Gonna Save the Summer” is from 1999.
Like most Brian Wilson acolytes, Scott doesn’t try to hide his debt. He cites Wilson’s “ability take complex musical ideas and make them seem simple, accessible and human.”
“We’re Gonna Save the Summer” sounds summery, the title sounds summery, but only some of the lyrics do. The sunshine part comes after some gloomy Scottish rain, but that’s when they needed summer most! Scott calls the song’s arrangement “very dense. There are about eight guitars all doing various things, vibraphone doubling up some guitars and some glockenspiel.”
Summertime romance could help distract from those pesky republicans, but summer love can end before you know it. The singer in the Autumn Defense’s “Make It Through the Summer” worries that “three long months are going so fast.” Autumn Defense was formed by John Stirratt, who had been in Wilco and Uncle Tupelo. This song was released in 2001.
Jeffrey Foskett is the artist here with the most direct connection to the summer-music founders. He has often recorded and performed with the latter-day Beach Boys and Brian Wilson. There’s a good chance the high notes you hear in recent Beach Boys music are Foskett’s. Jeff Larson is Foskett’s longtime collaborator. Both have made well-regarded solo albums in addition to pairing up for the 2018 album “Elua Aloha,” which this song is from.
If anybody would understand how much “We Need a Little Summer,” a close associate of the Beach Boys would. He wouldn’t need MAGA to remind him.
