The Sounds Of Summer- Day 18 of 95- “The Other Side Of Summer”- Elvis Costello. How about an anti-summer song? The opening track from Costello’s 1991 album “Mighty Like A Rose” -“The Other Side Of Summer” if you listen to just to the music sounds like a sunny and bright and positive summer tune- but when you listen to the lyrics- it is another biting Costello song. Elvis said in an interview about this song “obviously designed to be as much like a Californian summer record as possible, but you listen to what’s going on in the song and it’s contradictory of that. It’s like playing and writing what people do sometimes rather crudely with samplers.”
While I am quick to defend my Beatles- Elvis is correct in his line concerning John Lennon “(Was it a millionaire who said “imagine no possessions”? }- as EC said on Lennon ” The Other Side of Summer” is not a slap at John Lennon. John Lennon wrote some wonderful songs, but “Imagine“, which has been so sanctified, was one of his worst. He didn’t think it all the way through.”
The title along sold me- “The Other Side Of Summer”- as I wrote at the start of this series I am not a fan of summer. It sounds like a great idea in February but when it’s here- I hate hot- humid weather, I am not a fan of the sun and I really hate some of the violent summer weather- like yesterday coming home from a day visiting family- to a horrendous rain which had water running into our basement. No thanks. Bring me spring, fall or winter weather. Summer is overrated and I don’t like fireworks, parades or fairs. If I lived 5 minutes from the beach I wouldn’t go. Get off my yard while you’re at it! Grrrrrr.
slicethelife 
Bought this album the week it was released – it’s not often I can say that! Like the album a lot despite it not being EC’s finest
It was a let down for me at the time but over the years I have grown to like it more and more- agree though it’s not his finest work.
I was such a fan of EC at the time I marked it generously. Like you I’ve grown to like it more over time
Brilliant song and great video. Never saw EC with long hair. Used to seeing his pompadour. I didn’t realize you hated summer that much. Sorry to hear you got water in the basement. One of the gardens on the lake lost half of her yard to high water this year. She had stands up with pictures of what her yard looked like before. It was sort of funny to think we wanted to look at the 8x10s she had on choir stands she borrowed from the church — no lie! — but I felt sorry for her also as you could tell how much it affected her.
I see The White House got water in their basement also. Luckily I have all my books and albums in plastic totes- nothing ruined… a lot of rain all over in the past couple years it seems…
Like Jim said, all of that extra water from the icebergs has to go somewhere…
p.s. glad your books and music are ok.
I learned from last summer when I lost a lot of stuff…
That’s the pits. Sorry it happened to you.
Thanks- but it could have been a lot worse.
“the sunshine bores the daylights out of me”