“Summer Wind”
The Desert Rose Band
Written by Steve Hill and Chris Hillman
Radio & Records
#1 (1 week)
October 14, 1988
In the nineties, I heard about the sophomore slump more than I witnessed it. Some of my earliest “sophomore sets” were No Fences, Don’t Rock the Jukebox, Hearts in Armor, and Alibis.
But after the leadoff singles from the second Highway 101 and T. Graham Brown sets, this Desert Rose Band single firmly establishes a pattern. “Summer Wind” is less interesting and developed than any of the hits from their first set.
The idea here is underbaked, suggesting that things come and go with a summer wind that is sometimes cold and sometimes warm. The concept itself is the perfect setup for a country song, but it’s tricky to pull off. “I Don’t Call Him Daddy” was sentimental without being maudlin, like Dottie West’s painfully sappy “Six Weeks Every Summer (Christmas Every Other Year.)” The Desert Rose Band goes to the other extreme, never setting the emotional stakes up clearly enough for the listeners to buy in.
I had to read the lyrics to get that this is a summer dad singing to his daughter as they’re parting ways for another ten months. Great setup but poor execution. They’ve got one more No. 1 single on deck from Running, and we’ll cover it when we get to 1989.
“Summer Wind” gets a C.
Every No. 1 Single of the Eighties
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I always wondered if I was alone in finding “Summer Wind” to be the weakest of the major hits from the Desert Rose Band’s catalog. The song’s title is unfortunately telling of its airy breeziness. The group manages to once again capture the California country-rock sound of their previous hits but far less compellingly on this track. Without question though, the lyrics drag this song down the most. Nothing in the cryptic opening verse prepares the listener for the song being about a father and daughter relationship, so by the time they finally get around to describing it in the second verse, I lost any sense of investment in the story. The lead vocalist’s emotional investment was tangible in the delivery of “He’s Back and I’m Blue” but nowhere to be found here. The song is adequate enough that I don’t skip it when I listen to my Desert Rose Band’s Greatest Hits CD, but whoever decided this should be the lead single from their sophomore album served the group poorly. It made it to #1 but it felt like it slowed their momentum moving forward.
Grade: C
Thanks to this feature I’ve really gotten into The Desert Rose Band. This is my least favorite of their big hits.
Even if The ’80s did offer the sophomore slumps Kevin identified, the pattern was broken by Randy Travis’ “Always and Forever”, Dwight Yoakam’s “Hillbilly Deluxe”, and Ricky Van Shelton’s “Loving Proof” which ultimately is really proof of absolutely nothing…
What is probably more significant and telling is that after all these years I never once stopped to consider what this summer wind was all about in the lyrics to this Desert Rose Band hit.
For me the ringing guitars and golden harmonies were enough to carry the day.
I guess this is a case of style over substance.
As an adult from Minnesota, I was content to still gladly drink the exotic California Kool-Aid I first tasted as a kid.
Now I just hear this hit as the equivalent of flavoured sugar water!