Greetings from Laurel Canyon!
Ah yes, I believe today is the Summer Solstice—not only the first day of Summer, but the longest day of the year as well. There is no question it feels like June gloom is lifting from the canyon and lazy days lie ahead.
As it was, last week brought technical issues to The Vinyl District and thus, as fate would have it, our episode from last week is set to air now on the Solstice. No matter, this week’s “dated” hour is inspired by the report of the torrential downpour on the New York Governor’s Ball attendees and reflecting back on stormy memories of Spring days long passed.
It was a warm June day and I was sitting atop a park bench, feet on the seat (as I often did), rolling a joint on a concrete chess table, lightly shaking out the many seeds that often accompanied weed in a frisbee—likely an orange CPI (if you were a “parkie,” you’d know the brand) when suddenly the sky got very dark. Very, very dark.
My instinct was to quickly gather up my stash and spilt. I was in a full Jesse Owens sprint when the impending darkness resulted in a gigantic crash. There was a huge roar of thunder, and then a crack of lighting.
Down came sheets of water as I bolted past the north side of the Met across 5th Avenue, dashing madly to Madison, lunging for the safely of an open door at a Baskin Robbins. Drenched, I turned around and I could see hail the size of golf balls bouncing off parked cars. In LA, we don’t get storms like that in June. (And I don’t even think we’ve seen weed with seeds in tons of years.)
Man, I sure do like the idea of getting in caught in the rain however. Growing up, I think they called called those storms “April showers” and they’re accompanied by a distinct smell afterward. I believe it to be a fairly East Coast phenomenon and although I rarely miss that smell here in the canyon, it’s just enough to draw out another hippie inspired hour of classic rock for this week’s Idelic episode.
This is certainly not the first or last Idelic Hour rain dance. (Definitely not the last.) Playing back these rainy songs, this set sounds so familiar it could be identical to last Spring’s hour dedicated to the same sounds.
Who knows? It’s a laid back hour and I believe it’s the first hours of official Summer. So, before the long lazy days begin, let’s get drenched!
The Idelic Hit of the Week:
Majical Cloudz – ChildhoodS End
