Wednesday 14 April 2010

The Sounds of Summer



I always hear that phrase in musical form. Our local AM radio station needed a new call sign back in the dark ages. When I was eighteen, the owner offered me twenty bucks to record the snippet along with some dude I don't remember.

The studio was in the basement of The Arts Music Store in a local strip mall. I got to sit in a glassed-in booth and sing into a microphone bigger than my face. We did the same piece over and over again, and harmonized with the playback until we sounded like a choir. Then I got to sing, "The sounds of summer," all by myself.

They never aired it and I didn't get my twenty dollars, but the experience was fun.

Now that those lazy hazy days are around the corner, real summer sounds are imminent. Here are some of my favourites:

The crack of a wooden bat against a baseball
The call of a redwing blackbird
The zzzzzzzoip of a tent flap
The high pitched hum of a mosquito
The rumble of distant thunder
Waves lapping and hissing on sand
The dip of a canoe paddle in a lake
The call of a loon (My favourite sound of all!)
Lawnmowers in chorus across the neighbourhood
Steak sizzling on the barbecue
The tinkling music of an ice cream truck
The snick of a cap off a beer bottle


... and the aaaahhhhh as you settle back in a lawn chair.

What are your summer sounds?