As I struggled to pick a topic that I found both topical and though-provoking I had the following thought: Does anyone write songs about August? The answer of course is yes, and as I poked around my personal music collection and allmusic.com – I put together this list of seven tunes to get you amped for the next calendar month on this Friday.
Leading off we’ve got Rilo Kiley, a band we apparently will never see again, and their tune August which leads off their first LP Take Offs and Landings. Oh of course they are not the only ones to simply title a song August, Love also did it on their 1964 album Four Sail. Moving to the far more obscure, let’s have a listen to A Not Very August Afternoon by Beacon Street Union – a psychedelic band from Boston that relesed two LP’s in 1968. Continuing on the psychedelic tip, The Jelly Bean Bandits’ self-titled 1967 debut includes Another August Revisited. You don’t need to write lyrics to talk about August as Brad Mehldau proves on August Ending from his 2006 album House On A Hill and Weather Report’s Second Day In August, a Joe Zawinul composition from the fusion ensemble’s sophomore effort – 1972’s I Sing The Body Electric. And finally we have HT favorites Umphrey’s McGee performing this impressive rendition of August from a recent show in Asbury Park. And if you really want some bonus geek material, how about some pro-shot video of an acoustic August from…wait for it: August of 2004.
