Regina Spektor - Summer in the City
Telling strangers personal things.
Album: Begin to Hope [4th album]
Genre: Singer-Songwriter, antifolk
Album Release: June 13th 2006
Length: 3:50
Producer: Regina Spektor & David Kahne
Vocalist: Regina Spektor [age 26]
Label: Sire Records [subsidiary of Warner Records]
Official Audio
Live in 2004
Live at Lollapalooza 2007
Charts, Streams & Sales
Australia (albums): Certified gold
UK (albums): Certified gold
USA (albums): Certified gold
Spotify: 4,300,000 +
YouTube Music: 295,000 +
Shortlist Music Prize Nominee 2006 [losing to Cat Power]
Credits & Gear
Piano [Spektor]
Details
- The song is about a lonely person who is pining for a former or absent romantic partner "I start to miss you, baby, sometimes" the use of the pet name baby suggests affection so the lover is most-likely absent. The singer wiles away their summer in bars and sweaty streets yearning for a human connection that isn't there. Although they do seem to be enjoying the "cleavage, cleavage, cleavage".
The song's theme is loneliness amidst separation from a lover which manifests in moments of sexual tension throughout. The bridge is about "castrated ones" who get angry because they can't get erections. Their frustration at a lack of intimacy mirroring the feelings of the singer. Another section describes going to a protest to "rub up" against strangers declaring "I did feel like coming, but I also felt like crying" showing the persons desperation and shame.
Spektor is using the quirky, humorous nature of antifolk to tell a story about a long, hot summer with the absence of intimacy in her own inimitable way. It's cute, unusual and sad but also beautiful revealing more depth than its initial silliness indicates. Spektor gets across how loneliness can paradoxically exist in a city teeming with life, highlighting a contradiction in human nature, that we can feel lonely while surrounded by people - Antifolk is a satirical, mocking form of music that features comedic
lyrics and delivery used to dispel a sense of self-aggrandizing
seriousness that was
prevalent in folk music at the time. It can have a silliness to it
coupled with a 'get up and do it' attitude. If it all goes wrong what's
the worst that can happen? It's only music after all. People had very
clear ideas of what folk was supposed to be. It was Bob Dylan, Leonard
Cohen and Woody Guthrie. It was a dishevelled man with a guitar.
Antifolk is really about breaking the rules and not being afraid to go where your songwriting takes you. Yes it mocks and jests but it also tells stories and puts individuality on a pedestal. It allows a person to express themselves openly and is unafraid to push the envelope.
Folklore is a set of beliefs or stories that get passed on through a community. Antifolk artists were telling new stories, the stories of New York, and passing them on through the communities in Greenwich Village and other such places. Where folk was rural, antifolk was urban. The mocking comes from a sense of sophistication most city-folk feel when looking at the rubes from the country. Traditional folk music was serious. It was trying to take down governments, Woody Guthrie's guitar famously killed fascists and Bob Dylan was warning about World War III in 1963. Antifolk was fun. A lot of the people involved were only there to have a laugh. - The song is performed entirely by Regina Spektor.
- The mayor of New York declared June 11th 2019 to be 'Regina Spektor Day'.
- Spektor is a classically-trained pianist who also plays guitar.
- As a Russian-Jew the singer is an outspoken supporter of Israel. Her views have caused some fans to disavow her though she remains steadfast in her beliefs.
Artwork
