Song List: Oppressive, Stifling Heat

[mandocrucian]

Forget about those jaunty upbeat summer ditties like "Heatwave" or "Summer In The City"; go straight to the highly cinematic ones which reek of cracked drying earth, steam coming off the swamps, temperatures so high it's hard to breath, flies buzzing over stinky roadkill......

Sonically, for me, it's slow snakey slide guitars, Strats run through a vibrolux.. Ry Cooder, or swamp rock ala Fogerty. (which, of course, is practically a million miles away from any mandolin delivery)

Really can't think of that many that fit both lyrically and sonically. (Hendrix's "Machine Gun" has has the sonic feel but not the lyrics)

John Fogerty - One Hundred and Ten In The Shade (Blue Moon Swamp)
Ray Charles - In The Heat Of The Night
Jimi Hendrix - House Burning Down (Electric Ladyland)
Arthur Brown - Fire
Doug Kershaw - Lou'siana Sun (Devil's Elbow)
Link Wray - Fire and Brimstone
Dr. John - Loup Garou (Remedies)

and you can always include ....
AC/DC - Highway To Hell (and give it a Cooder/Fogerty swamp treatment!)

(9:05 AM: And another that can be effectively sandwiched in for various topics....The Doors - The End)

NH

BTW.... is anyone familiar with Jace Everett? whose (2006) song "Bad Things" is used as the theme for the HBO vampire series True Blood? That's the best Chris Isaak type track I've heard in ages. I'm surprised that in itself hasn't gotten him booked for Austin City Limits.

[Jon Hall]

How about the Carter Family's "Keep On The Shady Side".

[re simmers]

"Light My Fire" by Jim Morrison.

Bob

[Jim Bevan]

Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire".

[pigpen]

Johnny Cash - Jackson - it's hotter than a pepper sprout

RL Burnside - Heat

Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight - preferably by Mississippi John Hurt

The Specials - Too Hot

To close, Tom Waits says it best in Strange Weather "over the whole world strangers talk only about the weather. It's the same, it's the same."

[tree]

Frank Zappa - The Torture Never Stops.

[tree]

Frank Zappa - The Torture Never Stops.

[JEStanek]

NH. I'm a True Blood fan and you are spot on about that Jace Everett Theme song. I also was very impressed when they included Sister Gertrude Morgan's I Got a New World In My View in season 2.

Two songs that I always think of for oppressive summer heat is The Cramps' Aloha From Hell, and Peter Gabriel's Rhythm of the Heat,

Sorry, No Mandolin content.
Jamie

[Tosh Marshall]

Walk On Hot Coals - Rory Gallagher
Fire & Water - Free
Hot As A Docker's Armpit - Budgie
This Wheel's On Fire - Bob Dylan

[mandroid]

'Burning down the house' .. The Talking Heads

[journeybear]

You want steamy? Try "Too Hot to Sleep" by Louise Mandrell. And feel the sizzle.

I suppose there's "Steam Heat," and "Tropical Heat Wave," and "Heat Wave," by either Martha And The Vandellas or Linda And The Ronstadts. The Today Show had a list of top summer songs a couple of weeks ago, and "Summer In The City" was number one. Don't think I'd do that, but it's always nice to see The Lovin' Spoonful get some props. There's also "Hot Fun In The Summertime" by Sly And The Family Stone, "Summer Breeze" by Seals & Crofts, and "Fire" by The Ohio Players. Didn't Jimmy Buffett have some topical songs about tropical issues? "Volcano" comes to mind ...

[Charles E.]

Here is the song that always comes to mind in weather like this.......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlMWW4R1ZBM

[bratsche]

And this is what comes to mind for me:



(That's really going back, 'specially since I haven't watched TV in over a decade...)

bratsche

[F-2 Dave]

"Cool Clear Water" by the Sons of the Pioneers
"A Horse with no name" by America

[Charles E.]

Niles, I was unfamiliar with 110 degrees in the shade. Great song...

[journeybear]

What the hey - might as well put some of these up, so we can torture ourselves with ease ...



Bratsche - I'll see your TV theme and raise you - the original from the movie is still the best. Brother Ray, Chief Gillespie, Mr. Tibbs, and the omnipresent, oppressive heat is practically a character ...



Fogerty's song really captures heat so stultifying it's hard to move. There are some other songs that conjure up summer, like "Ode To Billie Joe," but somehow not this kind of heat.



I still think Louise Mandrell does a great job of expressing heat. All but forgotten now, this was all over the radio back in the 80s. Sorry about the lame video content, it's the only clip I could find at youtube.

[Bertram Henze]

This music has haunted my youth as the anthem of cruel and unforgiving heat. Isn't it funny how we tend to project human character into nature one way and how we use nature as a prop for human character in the other...

[journeybear]

Isn't it funny how we tend to project human character into nature one way and how we use nature as a prop for human character in the other...

Yes, it is. Casting nature in its many forms in our image (Do dogs really grin? Do cats really stare disdainfully?) is called anthropomorphization, and it's a game the whole species can play - and does!

And so far, we are the only species that can coin and pronounce such a word, or has any interest in doing so ...

Wow - this is post #3333 for me? Sheesh!

[Ed Goist]

Midnight Oil - Beds Are Burning (a deep, political song that also effectively conveys the 'heat' of the desert)
Steve Jones - Fire and Gasoline (a flat-out, hot, hard rocker!)

[Mandobart]

Here's one of my favorites:

Here's one of my favorites: