Songs that are about, or at least highlight, the END of summer

"All Summer Long" - Beach Boys

I haven't heard the Beach Boys' tune in years, but since it played over the end credits of AMERICAN GRAFFITI...just after a scene that depicted the tail end of the summer...and it's sort of a semi-sad song to begin with, that would not sound proper at a July bar-B-Q...well, there you go.

California Dreamin' - The Mamas & The Papas
Banshee Beat - Animal Collective
Someday The Waves - Iron And Wine
Golden - My Morning Jacket
It's Summertime - The Flaming Lips (don't let that title throw you off; it's definitely an August song)

Are there any school-themed end of summer tunes? Not nearly as rock-and-roll to head back to class as to bust out, but surely there's some equivalent to "School's Out" and "Oh Baby Doll"?

DeLillos: Neste Sommer
Thomas Ledin: Sommaren är kort

Jonathan Richman - "That Summer Feeling"

When even fourth grade starts looking good
Which you hated
And first grade's looking good too
Overrated
And you boys long for some little girl that you dated
Do you long for her or for the way you were?
That summer feeling is gonna haunt you the rest of your life

There's a local band playing at the seaside pavilion
And I got just enough cash to get us in
And as we're dancin Mary's wrapping her arms around me
And I can feel the sting of summer on my skin
In the midst of the music I tell her I love her
We both laugh cause we know it isn't true
Ah but Mary there's a summer drawing to an end tonight
And there's so much that I long to do to you
But in the morning I'm leaving, making my way back to Cleveland
So tonight I hope that I will do just fine
And I don't see how you could ever be anything but mine

"Summer's past, it's too late to cut the grass"

a personal fav as fall rolls in.

Anything by Hood (especially "The Leaves Grow Old And Fall And Die")

How about:

White Stripes - We're Going To Be Friends

Fall is here, hear the yell
Back to school, ring the bell
Brand new shoes, walking blues
Climb the fence, book and pens
I can tell that we are gonna be friends

the happenings ~ "see you in september"

mum ~ "will the summer make good for all of our sins?"

Oh, it's a long, long while from May to December
But the days grow short when you reach September
When the autumn weather turns the leaves to flame
One hasn't got time for the waiting game

Wait, this is about a "winter's day", right?

Really, "All Summer Long" and "Night Moves" put pretty much everything else on this thread to shame, I'd say. (Though "Boys of Summer" and "Hot Fun in the Summertime" might come close.)

frank sinatra ~ "when the wind was green"

elliott smith ~ "summer of sam"

It closes American Grafitti, and Simpson's "Summer of 4 ft 2" in tribute.

It's at least an IMPLIED end-of-summer song, written about (good) memories of summers past.

not sure who sings it but its annoying radio blurb....

"You say your summer has gone..."

Haha yeah, it's a stretch. I still associate that song with the end of summer, or early fall. Partly the harmonies, partly the title, definitely the nostalgic, memories-are-crystallizing vibe of it. And the flute solo.

The sun shines high above
The sounds of laughter
The birds swoop down upon
The crosses of old grey churches
We say that we're in love
While secretly wishing for rain
Sipping coke and playing games
September's here again
September's here again

Bobby Goldsboro: Summer (the first time).
"Was a hot afternoon -the last day of June- And the sun was a demon."

Very "end of summer" vibe on this record, in spite of the seasonal placing on the opening line. Particularly in the swooping strings after the "I saw the sunrise as a man" line. A great, great record, in fact.

One summer never ends
One summer never begins
It keeps me standing still
It takes all my will
And then suddenly
Last summer

Garth Brooks's "That Summer" (another one about being deflowered by an older woman) feels pretty verge-of-autumn as well, maybe because he keeps talking about wheatfields, and also because maybe all songs wistfully nostaglic for summer = late summer, except when they don't.

Cousteau: "The Last Good Day Of The Year"

Zebra - "Wait Til The Summer's Gone" (Fastway-style post-Zep pop-metal AOR from 1984)

actual title: "Wait UNTIL The Summer's Gone." (sorry)

I haven't heard Zebra since sitting on the school bus, driven by Otto, back in 1984. I really liked "Who's Behind the Door". Is there much more to them?

From Rolling Metal thread, earlier this week:

This morning I am listening to Zebra (two-LPs one one CD reissue of No Tellin Lies and 3.V, which I've never heard before though Martin Popoff insists that they're not quite as good as the self-titled debut LP which I bought a copy of for $1 a few months back but still haven't gotten around to putting on yet-- xhuxk, Saturday, June 9, 2007 4:35 PM (6 days ago) Bookmark Link

my favorite Zebra songs so far are "I Don't Like It", "Drive Me Crazy," and the curiously jazz-swung "I Don't Care," all on No Tellin' Lies. "About To Make The Time" on 3.V, on the other hand, sounds exactly like Styx. The singer, as others have pointed out, has a helium falsetto maybe almost worthy of the guy in Pavlov's Dog. His high notes in "Isn't That The Way" could nearly pass for Frankie Valli or Lou Christie, which may well be unprecedented in the hard rock realm. Basically, though, they're a Zeppy AOR band in the Fastway or Kingdom Come sense, and I'm liking them a whole lot. (When they were sharing CD-changer space with Swan Song sisters Lez Zeppelin yesterday, I kept getting
confused because songs would come up that sounded like Zeppelin but weren't otherwise familiar, and then I'd remember that Zebra were also in the mix.)

-- xhuxk, Sunday, June 10, 2007 7:21 PM (5 days ago) Bookmark Link

Zebra were a huge bar band in the New Jersey->Long Island metro area for years prior to their first record, which as I may recall, had a good version of the Beatles' "Slow Down" on it. Like Twisted Sister, like Rat Race Choir, the latter which never made it. I remember ignoring Zebra a lot at the Allentown Fairgrounds or other big LV venues. They did hit the same audience as Kingdom Come whose second album didn't sound nearly as much like Zep as the first which had the Kashmir cop on it. I actually still like the second KC LP.

-- Gorge, Sunday, June 10, 2007 7:58 PM (5 days ago) Bookmark Link

My favorite track on 3.V is "Better Not Call," I think -- new wave disco-metal powerpop, sweet!

Songs about waiting for summer to end: "It Might As Well Rain Until September" - Carole King & "Sealed With A Kiss" - Brian Hyland

summer by anna domino, especially the arthur baker remix!

Justin Timberlake - "Summer Love", obv.
Outkast - "13th Floor/Growing Old"

Who brought this thread back in June and why?

archer prewitt - summer's end

roxy music, "sunset"

actually, all of stranded for me. strictly speaking, not an end-of-summer record, but that's the only time i listen to it.

What a depressive thread to resurrect in JUNE!

;)

Summer just started last week, and I'm already feeling depressed. THX

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Songs that are about, or at least highlight, the END of summer 966

????

Curt1s, FYI: my posts are worth 950....

"The E Street Shuffle":

And as them sweet summer nights turn into summer dreams
Little Angel picks up Power and he slips on his jeans
And they move on out down to the scene
All the kids are there . . .

Frank Sinatra "The September of My Years" & "September Song"

Lazarus, awaken!

=(

Melt Show - Old 97s, about a summer romance.

"Will you sober up and let me down, when October comes around."

Lee Hazlewood - "My Autumn's Done Come"

friedemann's indian summer is a whole instrumental album about the end of summer. it's absolutely gorgeous.

Kid Rock - "All Summer Long"
Keith Urban - "'Til Summer Comes Around"

Man I was never really a big fan of Buffalo Tom but I just went back and listened to "Summer" which was on one of those old CMJ CDs I somehow still had and thats a pretty great tune. Such great vocal melodies.

Not much of a fan either, but that was a solid tune that one.

Anyone up in this bitch down with Al Stewart's Indian Summer?

Two years and no "Summer Soft"?

And she's goooooooooawawawawawawn
Yes she's goooooooooawawawawawawn
Summer's goooooooooawawawawawawn
And in
comes
aut
umn

"Come Monday," Jimmy Buffett (just heard this on the radio yesterday):

Headin' up to San Francisco
For the Labor Day week-end show
I've got my hush-puppies on
I guess I never was meant for glitter rock and
roll
And Honey I didn't know
That I'd be missin' you so

Chorus:
Come Monday, it'll be all right
Come Monday, I'll be holdin' you tight
I spent four lonely days in a brown L. A. haze
And I just want you back by my side

Yes, it's been quite a summer
Rent-a-cars and west-bound trains
And now you're off on vacation
Something you tried to explain
And Darlin' it's I love you so
That's the reason I just let you go

Thin White Rope, 'Thing', off Moonhead

The way the two of you were standing outside the door
I knew it was the end of your dream
And when you walked into the room without your girl
You didn't have to say a word to me

In the long lonesome summer many things will change
A lot of part time friends will move along
When good times have you smiling I know you're in there dying
Because it's just another good time gone

One of the times we got to work a little late
For drinking on a night too hot to sleep
You said you didn't mind going on this way
As long as it was good enough for me

They say the weather's changing, seasons are rearranging
Summer's never been this long before
Sometimes it makes me spin how things were so different then
But lately they aren't different anymore

"Dyin' All Young" by Chuck Prophet, which has the great lines:
He broke his mama's heart
Something pulled him like the tide
Up on the banks of Methodonia
Laid down and closed his eyes

3+ years without "Summer Nights" from Grease?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axjrEAvib5o

^1 of my fav songs of the last few yrs

How about Abba's "Our Last Summer"?

Cruzados, "Summer's Come, Summer's Gone" (from 1987)

Jonathan Richman - "That Summer Feeling"

When even fourth grade starts looking good
Which you hated
And first grade's looking good too
Overrated
And you boys long for some little girl that you dated
Do you long for her or for the way you were?
That summer feeling is gonna haunt you the rest of your life

― Mark (MarkR), Saturday, August 19, 2006 1:04 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this song is enormously moving to me btw

Fennesz - Endless Summer works for this thread, as does:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9buNckusos0

beach boys, "girl don't tell me," which looks at the beginning of this summer thru the lens of the end of last summer, and therefore is really about the end of last summer when it gets right down to it.

"Urge For Going" by Joni Mitchell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JV3DbemBDhU

Style Council - Long Hot Summer

Taylor Swift, "Tim McGraw"

Just a boy in a Chevy truck,
That had a tendency of gettin’ stuck,
On backroads at night
An’ I was right there beside him all summer long
An’ then the time we woke up to find that summer’d gone

Dusty Springfield - Summer Is Over
Carole King - I Didn't Have Any Summer Romance

christy cummins, "summer memories"

(i'm spending my evening following youtube links for something called "teensound girls," which seems to be an endless collection of second-rate late '50s and early '60s girl group pop with deliciously weird arrangements by people like christy cummins, courtney rain, clairette clement, bernadette carroll, claudia carithose and literally dozens of others who i know nothing or next-to-nothing about, and half of whose names appear to be misspelled on these clips, and i love that there was a singer named christy cummins, and it occurs to me that everyone i listed above and most of what i have listened to so far are artists whose first and/or last name begins with a C, even though i am just aimlessly following youtube links, and, well, this particular song is called "summer memories" so there you go.)

Fuzzy - Summer Is Gone

In Flames -- Darker Times (first line: "September is here again.")

Ash "Oh Yeah", but that's about the start of the summer

Yo La Tengo's "Summer," though I can't really tell if it's about the end of summer. The melancholy feel and line "'til the summer comes undone" make it seem like it is.

Loudon Wainwright III - "Summer's Almost Over"

On Some Faraway Beach, Eno?

According to Ken Emerson (in his Stephen Foster book Doo Dah), Thomas Moore's 19th Century "'Tis The Last Rose Of Summer" (a song I'm not sure I've ever heard) "may have been the first song ever to sell more than a million copies." (Sheet music, obviously.)