Sonic Staples #2: Jane's Addiction's "Summertime Rolls"
An ode to touching grass and taking ecstasy... not that I have any experience with either.
Sonic Staples is a collection of personal essays that explore my favorite songs and their impact on my life. They may err more on the side of autobiographical than musical, but I’m working on finding that balance. At least this one isn’t about an ex-boyfriend by any stretch of the imagination. This transformed into more of an album and band retrospective than just one song, but I think it’s all important to have in here, so please enjoy!!
Some bands are easier to enjoy in theory than in practice. Some bands are only likeable enough to pepper into conversation with hot record store clerks in hopes that you’ll impress them. Some bands have inescapably influenced popular culture for decades, but you just don’t vibe with their stuff.
For years, I felt this way about Jane’s Addiction. They were far from my favorite band, but they were my favorite concept. I liked a handful of their popular songs, but no deep cuts. Many of my top artists cited them as an inspiration, so I thought I should check them out more. I grazed on some of their other work, learned about their history, and spent a lot of time ogling at 1990s Dave Navarro photoshoots. No matter how much I tried to like them because it seemed compulsory, it just didn’t happen. They met all the requirements for something I’d be into, but I just wasn’t.
The summer before college began, I worked at the Goodwill in my city (roughly a quarter of each paycheck went back into their business because of my affinity for old paisley blouses). It’s important to note that, one, I had just gotten my driver’s license, and two, I have crippling anxiety about being late. I routinely arrived at work 15-30 minutes before my scheduled shift to account for any possible delay, and not once was it necessary. Some days I’d go in early and be a customer before I clocked in, looking for yet another old-lady style turtleneck. Others, I just sat in the parking lot and listened to music on the aux.
One June day, on the way to Goodwill, I was again forcing myself to be in a Jane’s Addiction mood. Instead of listening to “Stop” and “Jane Says” like I always did, I put on a full album of theirs for the first time. I plugged my phone into the aux cable at a red light, queued up Nothing’s Shocking, and let the opening bassline to “Up the Beach” transport me to work.
Nothing’s Shocking, released in 1988, was a big step up for Jane’s Addiction. Their 1987 debut was far from luxurious: an independently released live album, recorded at a Los Angeles concert for only $4,000. However scrappy, though, Jane’s had charisma. It caught the attention of Warner Brothers Records, who signed the band and offered them their choice of producer for their first major label release. They landed on Dave Jerden, of Rolling Stones and Talking Heads mixing-and-mastering fame. He was only beginning to transition into a producer role after years working as an engineer, so the band took a chance on him.
The album perplexed me at first, and some things about it still do. Nothing’s Shocking’s subject matter is flippant at times, and gravely serious at others with little transition between. “Ted, Just Admit It” borrows both its lyrical themes and spoken interview samples from serial killer Ted Bundy. “Standing in the Shower… Thinking” immediately follows, which is just a stream of consciousness strand of “shower thoughts” interspersed with complaints of how hot the water is. Each song on the record is a vignette of a world so different than the last, that it made it hard to identify general statements about the record as a whole.
But I can try!
To me, it screams “college radio”; this must have been true in the late 1980s, and it’s true now (anecdotally) because I play Jane’s all the time on my own radio shows. It’s different from the prevailing-but-stale glam “metal” of the ‘80s, and what most would consider rock from this era. It feels outsider-ish, but not in a dejected or depressing way— in a loudmouth, contrarian way. Jane’s Addiction knows how to party and have fun on a record, but they also know how and when to wind down. Which (finally) brings me to the main subject of today’s essay.
I pulled into the Goodwill parking lot and into my usual parking space on the side of the building. I still had 20 minutes before I had to clock in, and I was digging the first few songs of the album more than I’d expected. Maybe this is one of the bands where you need to listen to their albums front-to-back, I thought, making excuses for my prior indifference. “Standing in the Shower… Thinking” ended, and a more somber bass tone took over my stereo. “Summertime Rolls” had a similar opening to a few of the other songs so far, so I was a bit annoyed by their supposed “formula.”
Slow and smooth bass to start, then add in a drum beat, then a swooning guitar. How many times can you get away with that exact thing?
→ Fell into a sea of grass / And disappeared among the shady blades / The children all ran over me / Screaming, “Tag, you are the one.”
Perry Farrell enters on vocals before any other instruments, so I immediately stood corrected. He’s singing in his typical strained falsetto (that I usually found grating), but something’s a bit different. His voice is pure, full of childlike wonder. He wanders haphazardly over the unchanging bassline, singing about the beautiful nature surrounding him. It’s all very serene, innocent even.
Dave Navarro finally turns his amp on around the one minute-mark, and his swirling guitar melody ensnared me. This might be one of the most mesmerizing songs I’d ever heard.
Then I realize the song’s about ecstasy.
You heard it here first, the band is not just rolling around in the grass… If I was still 14, I’d probably get on my high horse about how you don’t need drugs to experience “regular human things” like feeling the dirt beneath your toes or watching the bees dance in the sky. To be honest, I still find it kind of douchey (a la TOOL), but I’ve matured enough to know there are ways to be artful about it. “Summertime Rolls” is one of those ways.
→ Me and my girlfriend / Don’t wear no shoes / Her nose is painted a pepper sunlight / She loves me / I mean, it’s serious / As serious can be
The love song dedicated to nature, drugs, and women appealed to me, despite only having access to one of those three things. After hearing the song, I felt there was nowhere I belonged except laying in a bed of grass in direct sunlight. My reality for the next 9 hours was a florescent-lit warehouse instead.
“Summertime Rolls” is the second-longest song on the album at six minutes, 16 seconds. By the last two minutes, it has built itself a symphony out of what started so minimalistic. There’s no new lyrics to offer, just harmonies layered so densely you can’t even pick out individual vocal lines. Everything topples over in pure bliss until you only hear the bass once again. There’s one final chorus, and that’s a wrap.
I forgot I was listening to a full album and immediately restarted the song after it ended. And again. And again. I was disappointed I couldn’t get a fourth full listen in before I had to put on my apron and walk into my shift. After I was at the cash register for a while, I realized my manager wasn’t working today (code for: I can wear airpods!). I popped in one of my earbuds and let “Summertime Rolls” serenade me for hours while I rang out customers and ran items from the fitting rooms back to their correct aisle. I was more than a little distracted that day. I was finally beginning to enjoy Jane’s Addiction beyond just the concept of them.
I finished Nothing’s Shocking later that night, wearing noise cancelling headphones because, admittedly, a 2010 Toyota Prius’ rattling radio is not the ideal experience. Nothing clicked as instantly with me as “Summertime Rolls,” but I grew to love every song by July. The next time I went to a record store, I picked up a copy on vinyl— I didn’t have to name drop Jane’s for cheap validation anymore; I actually liked them.
I’m of the opinion that you can interpret music any way you want. To me, the song isn’t about taking ecstasy and being naked in the woods. Every time I listen to it, “Summertime Rolls” reminds me to be an observer, from the flower petals at my feet to fingernails on my own hands. An obvious nod to the increased sensory input from drugs, each line of the song is a dissection of something small. However, I see it a little differently. People take beautiful things for granted because they’ve grown used to seeing them every day; a song as layered and deceivingly complex as this begs for your attention. It encourages you to slow down, close your eyes, and pick out what resonates with you. If you need a little assistance from your friend Molly to appreciate such mundanity, that’s fine. Either way, I’d be delighted if you joined me under the pepper sunlight.
Brilliant stuff, thanks a lot!
Last paragraph is so sweet :')