Coming and going as summer begins

Summer arrives officially Friday evening, June 20. And just before the arrival of summer, we saw the passing of two greats in the world of music. First, Sly Stone left this world on June 9. Back in his day, the afros were huge, the hips were hugged and the bottoms were belled. If you were there, you know what I am talking about. We had access to a wide selection of music then, including his hard-driving sound, mixed-race group members, horns and funk. One of his appropriate songs at this point is "Hot Fun in the Summertime." His songs were part of the summer soundtrack. Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys passed away on June 11. He was a prolific songwriter and musician. His story is tangled and too much to try and tell in these few words. Suffice it to say most of their music encapsulated the summer beach scene without mentioning it much. They did have a song early in their career called "All Summer Long." I had never heard of it before. For 10 years, I lived 30 minutes from the Atlantic Ocean. It was so much fun to hop in the car and quickly drive down to see the waves and sand. I can still smell the salt, hear the waves and seagulls. Although I have so many fun memories over the years as a child and youth from the June-August days, summer is not my main vibe. That belongs to autumn. Oh, there are so many more summer songs. Knowing I may omit one of your favorites, here is a partial list from a 65-year-old: "Summertime Blues" (Eddie Cochran), "Lazy, Crazy, Hazy Days of Summer" (Nat King Cole), "In the Summertime" (Mungo Jerry), "Summer Breeze" (Seals and Crofts), "A Summer Song" (Chad and Jeremy), "Summer in the City (The Lovin' Spoonful), "Summer of '69" (Bryan Adams), "Cruel Summer" (Bananarama), "Summer Wind" (Frank Sinatra) and "Summertime" (Sam Cooke, among others). Here's a morose thought – starting Saturday, the days begin to get shorter, until December. It's strange that once summer begins, it begins to end. Actually, The Beach Boys did release another song about summer, on their last studio album released in 2012. It is a haunting tune titled "Summer's Gone." Well, summer is not gone, not this year, but Brian Wilson is and Sly Stone is. Summer has just begun. Here comes the heat. Tom Rupp is a Folsom resident and weekly Telegraph columnist. You can reach him at truppfolsom@yahoo.com.