The Roots of Powerpop
(Bomp BCD 4060) - 1996

Contains the song:
Every Summer Day (MP3)

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Every Summer Day (Joe Nolte, August 1976)

I wanna go back to when the world was free
When all my friends were just like me
Southern California 1963

Baby do you wanna take a ride with me
Down to the sand and the waves and the surf and the sea
The sun is out, the waves are breaking big
Baby baby say you'll take a ride with me

And we'll run
Under the summer sun
Ride the summer waves
Every summer day

I got a brand new car and I can take you around
To where the action is I'm gonna take you down
To Hermosa Beach 'cause the gang's all there
And I know that you can make it with your long blonde hair

Then tonight
We can make the scene
Down where the lights are bright
I think you know what I mean

New vibrations
Across the nation a new generation
We're feelin' the motion
A new education

Now I'm here – right where I wanna be
You know this kind of life is lookin' good to me
Dan't wanna grow up, I never wanna leave
Getting old is only gonna bring me misery

Let me stay
Right here with all my friends
The world is ours today
I hope it never ends

I'm gonna follow that sun
And I'm never gonna stop having fun
And nothing's ever gonna change my world
And I'm never gonna lose that girl
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This girl I knew (who shall be identified as "L" a little later) was a few years older than I, and had gone to see the Beach Boys play at the grand opening of Wallach's Music City in Torrance in late 1963. The Beach Boys at that time were poised to become the biggest group in the country, and 1964 looked promising.

Then the damn Beatles hit.

Now, for me and many others, the Beatles were a necessary diversion after the horror of the JFK assassination. All this girl could think about, however, was "Oh shit – this is gonna destroy the Beach Boys".
Which, relatively speaking, it did.

Judging by recent interviews, Brian is still stewing over it.

So I started with that, and used the "last summer" of '63 as a general allegory for the folly of thinking that youth will last forever. Some 20 years later I don't feel as if I've quite become an adult yet, but I'm quite sure it's coming.

Anyway, it's a tragedy, a very sad song in the guise of a simplistic summertime homage. We almost got Brian Wilson and Dean Torrence to sing backup vocals on the album version, but schedule conflicts got in the way. Pity.

—Joe Nolte
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