Talk:The Summer Breeze

A weak filler track

If anyone remembers this in its original incarnation, the song sounded like it was literally being improvised on the spot. It gave it a kind of one off listen charm, but if you were to ask your uber Giants fans, which rare song from the vaults needed redoing this wouldn't be high on the list. (Personally I'd like a copy of Kings of the Cave! Though I'd take a remake if Linnell stayed on accordion! What a song! I'd love a re-release of All MacGyver on It. A song I have long wished I owned a copy of!)

Probably written as a one off joke Summer Breeze reminds me of the throwaway fun of Wild Honey Pie and Bungalow Bill from the White Album by the Beatles. Both songs, to these ears, stand up to repeat listens because of their melodies and harmonies (I realise Wild Honey Pie is an acquired taste pardon the pun). This is where Summer Breeze falls down. Essentially two verses and outro, I was hoping that in the 21 years since it was first recorded that Flans would have got the verses to at least scan (they still don't). Likewise I was hoping he might have written some kind of chorus and maybe a middle eight. Again, a negative. The acoustic guitar has been replaced by a kind of muszak and it chugs horizontally along long outstaying it's welcome even at just over two minutes. I'm usually a sucker for story songs, but this isn't even interesting. So how bad is it? Well I prefer "Didn't Kill Me", but of course it's like "A Day in the Life" when compared to "Dogwalker".

I look forward to hearing the uber fans defend this one! A sign that the Giants are perhaps struggling to release 52 new songs! (Mr Tuck)

Spot on. Why not Kings of the Cave, indeed. Or Tumbleweed, or No Answer. Everyone wants to hear that one. Or Tiny Doctors, What Is Everyone Staring At (NOT Sleepwalkers!), Somebody's Body, We Just Go Nuts at Christmastime,... so many good old DAS stuff. And out of all those songs, they choose to re-record this one? And Rock Club? (I believe they mentioned that one on the tumblr, or maybe Twitter, some time ago.) I really don't understand that. Freakiosis (talk) 16:11, 16 June 2015 (EDT)

Honestly, I enjoy this song. I, however, enjoy the original as well; the lyrics are unmistakably TMBG and honestly pretty fun in their approach, whereas the melody is pretty good and I think the song benefits from this augmented arrangement they've given it. I'm excited for the other announced DAS remake, "Rock Club", too (although I liked the original of this song more than that one). And yeah, I agree that it would be cool to hear new version of many of those other DAS classics, particularly Linnell's "No Answer" and "What is Everyone Staring At?", but I think they've finally done this song justice and I'm quite happy about it. And I didn't particularly enjoy any of these post-Glean songs besides "ECNALUBMA". ~ april

"Summer Breeze" is by far one of my favorites of the 2015 Dial-a-Song project (song and video). It's classic TMBG with an arrangement that feels like a nice call back to their Apollo 18 sound. I agree that there are many other songs I would've put on the re-make list before this ("Hell Hotel", "Tumbleweed"), but I'm pleasantly surprised by the results of this track considering I never listened to the demo much. I thought the odds of this song ever resurfacing were about as likely as "Feel Good Sublet" being on an album. thevince 16 June 2015

Funny how tastes can be opposites. Bungalow Bill and Wild Honey Pie (and Piggies) grate on me & in the vinyl era I just gritted my teeth until they were over. I like this version of Summer Breeze. I get a kick out of the drums synced with the triangle, and the mock serious tone Flans adopts to relate the tale. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ --Nehushtan (talk) 01:00, 7 October 2019 (EDT)

I've always liked this song. The concept is pretty singular in the TMBG catalog (well I guess Purple Toupee also has a badly-handeled story): a hokey legend being recounted and given new layers of absurdity and (intentional) lameness with each line. It taps into that pulpy chain mail tradition. Which actually reminds me of Free Bird's Rebirth. Now I've only had a couple days with this new version, so I suppose I ought to let it breathe and give it a chance, but it seems to me right now that you can't do a better rendition of this song than the no-frills campfiery acoustic guitar. And the un-doubled vocals with less instrumentation to muddle the "storytelling". This more electronic arrangement does do a better job building that air of mystery for the horror tale, but I dunno, oh I'm probably just not used to it yet. But anyway I am glad to see this tune unforgotten by Flansburgh and given new life. ~ magbatz 00:41, 18 June 2015 (EDT)

Move?

I suggest this page be moved to "The Summer Breeze (Dial-a-Song Direct)" or something, featuring the definite article, since: 1. the 1994 version's name featured the article, 2. the YT video does, 3. it says so in the video title screen thing, and 4. they called it that on Twitter. Only dialasong.com names it Summer Breeze without the article. So, should it be moved? What do you think? --Freakiosis (talk) 18:58, 19 June 2015 (EDT)

If it does get moved, this should be "The Summer Breeze" and the other should be "The Summer Breeze (Demo)" or "(Dial-A-Song)". ~ april 01:41, 20 June 2015 (EDT)

In addition to the Dial-A-Song site, the drip.fm page and the title tag in the audio file itself both have the title without "The"; this was my basis for titling the page so. I considered the title tag to be a compelling source because if it were "wrong" then the owner of the file would have to change it themselves, which doesn't seem ideal, especially for a paid service, so I gave it the benefit of the doubt I guess —Friendbone (talk) 18:35, 29 June 2015 (EDT)

Title

This song has an interesting choice of title (I wouldn't have expected it to be called "Summer Breeze" by just listening to it). Maybe it was a reference to the Seals/Crofts song? --ColorOfInfinity (talk) 21:24, 10 July 2020 (EDT)