The Ukulele Alphabet: Summer by Buffalo Tom

Letter S, Week 1
“Summer” by Buffalo Tom

Don’t let the name of this song fool you. Listen to it once and you’ll realize it’s all minor chords and longing. It’s a musical keening for this exact time of year, when you’re feeling the first whispers of fall chill, seeing a few leaves turn and coming to terms with the knowledge that summer has once again slipped away.

It brings to mind one of my favorite Jack Kerouac lines in Desolation Angels:

And for the first time I realize it’s really Autumn and another year is dead—And that faint not-painful nostalgia of Autumn like smoke in the evening air, and you know “O Well, O Well, O Well” —

So when we were in Maine for Labor Day weekend, it felt right to sing this among the water slides and swimming rafts that had been pulled out of the lake at a boys’ camp following the close of the season — dormant, hibernating, waiting for next summer.

Also, he might not like me sharing this story, but when Bill Janovitz sings about his childhood heroes “Mick and Keith and Willie Mays,” my baseball-obsessed husband just assumed he was talking about Mickey Mantle, Keith Hernandez, and Willie Mays.

I was like, Mick and Keith?!? From the Rolling Stones? Who Bill Janovitz has written two books about?

But don’t worry, Dan gets his due with a baseball song next week.

Listen to the original version of “Summer”:

What’s the Ukulele Alphabet?

Read all about my 2025 ukulele performance project (and its rules) here.

I want to A-B-SEEEE some more!

Watch all the performances in the Ukulele Alphabet project.