Halfway Between Night and Day

It's been thirteen years since I've been so close to a pole during the summer solstice, and it is fuckin' with my head. I'm an amateur somnonaut at the best of times, pathetically sensitive to sunlight, the lunar cycle, fluctuations in temperature, altitude, vehicular velocity, paranoia (real and imagined), and what was the last song I heard before heading to bed.

So that the sun is playing this fleeting game of peek-a-boo as it barely dips below the horizon for three hours a night has robbed me of any hope for a good night's sleep. I'm not a terribly heliophilic person at the best of times, but this is ridiculous. To set my psyche adroit, and at least acknowledge this astrological moment, I've concocted a mix that is split fairly evenly (as it should be, dammit!) between the light and the dark.

Needless to say, there are a innumerable songs about summer that aren't included - but a lot of those are, lightly put, hippie bullshit. (Chin up, lads, I loved the video for "Boy In the Bubble" too!) Blue Cheer's rendition of "Summertime Blues" would've been an obvious choice, but honestly, I just don't think it's very good. (Certainly not stood alongside the Who's earth-scorching version from their "Live At Leeds" album.) In retrospect, I should've included "Who Loves the Sun", but then we just heard VU last week. I also have a hysterical-yet-half-assed attempt of "Sunshine of Your Love" by Ella Fitzgerald, but again, there's no need to repeat performers. ("Hey, what about the Billy Nayer Show?" you ask. I'm sorry, are you being paid to think?) As always, click on the title to download.

Halftime In the Sunshine

1. Jane's Addiction - "Up the Beach" (00:00)
2. Darker My Love - "Summer Is Here" (02:56)
3. Sly & the Family Stone - "Hot Fun In the Summertime" (05:42)
4. Cody Chesnutt - "Daylight" (08:16)
5. The Fendermen - "Beach Party" (09:04)
6. Serge Gainsbourg - "Sous Le Soleil Exactement" (11:05)
7. The Billy Nayer Show - "Sunshine All the Time" (13:52)
8. John Fahey - "On the Beach Waikiki" (16:17)
9. Rye Coalition - "One Daughter Hotter Than a Thousand Suns" (19:12)
10. Need New Body - "Beach" (23:55)
11. Spectrum - "Waves Wash Over Me" (25:51)
12. Les Baxter - "Pyramid Of the Sun" (31:19)
13. NO - "NO Sun" (33:48)
14. Ashra Tempel - "Sunrain" (45:11)
15. SunnO))) - "Defeating: Earth's Gravity" (52:31)
16. Ellla Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong - "Summertime" (01:06:12)