Welcome to my new feature here at MuzzleofBees.com. The summer season means the world to me. The majority of my best memories involve the months of June, July, and August, and most of these memories have certain songs or albums that can be placed right alongside in my memory bank. Therefore, I thought it would be fun to ask other bloggers to pick a song that reminded them of summer and tell a story about it. First up is Conor from San Diego Serenade, who is also one of the creators of National High Five Day, and the infamous RBI Baseball video. Conor is also a friend of a friend, but I am definitely looking forward to the time when we can hang out in San Diego sometime. I hope you enjoy the initial installment of this feature, and please join me in thanking Conor for his contribution.

Summer Songs – San Diego Serenade – Bob Dylan – Highway 61 Revisited

Picking a Summer Song is a difficult task. Though songs such as Missy Elliot “One Minute Man,” Counting Crows “Mrs. Potters Lullaby” and Yellowman’s “Mr. Chin” have all played pivotal roles in my summers, I feel like the one summer song memory that will continue to be recalled fondly as the summers pile up will be Highway 61 Revisted by Bob Dylan. One summer day in between Junior and Senior year of high school, that would be 1998, me and about 5 friends piled into a red Ford Taurus and drove into DC to go see Citizen Kane at the Uptown, the “Fancy” one screen theater. When my friend dropped us off outside the theater, he backed up over my foot with the car, pinning it under the wheel. That’s the only part of the movie I remember.

Leaving, we of course got lost and took a completely different way home. Bear in mind that this red Ford Taurus had no right to be transporting as many people as it was, forcing the youngest person in the car to ride in the back, beneath a blanket due to the paranoia of the driver who had earlier ran over my foot. This alternative route home coincidentally brought us right past a Jehovah’s Witness church, where due to the pleasant late afternoon DC weather, the congregation had congregated outside for a wedding reception.

So of course our tires screech, because we just remembered that for no apparent reason, we have a huge latex devil mask underneath the drivers side seat. My friend Andrew puts it on and leaps out of the car, yelling for all of the church goers to hear “JEHOVAH! I LOVE JEHOVAH! JEHOOOOOVAAAAA!” They are of course stunned, but in our minds they are quickly making tracks to our car to pull us out and start bearing witness to the beating of our lives, by them, outside their church. We scream “Go! Go!” The Driver screams “Get in the car!” God knows what the kid in the back was thinking. Andrew jumps in the car, the tires peel out, he slams the door, and somebody has the god damn good sense to hit play on track seven of Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisted.

I don’t know how many high speed chases you’ve ever been in. But the slide whistle that starts this glorious Dylan jam is the only way to begin one. Not just limited to getaways though, is Highway 61. Any sort of mischevious summer event, be it a TP-ing, fleeing the scene of a fake ID alcohol purchase or the start of any serious road trip is perfectly suited to be kicked off by Highway 61. That day as we fled the no doubt confused Jehovah’s Witnesses, I had no idea that this Bob Dylan that my dad listened to could make songs like this. But that night I stole the CD out of the car and went home to listen to it again. I thought he might be on to something. I took the wrong CD, Highway 61 wasn’t on it, but that’s a whole nother story…