Summertime Rolls by Jane's Addiction

(unfortunately I had to link to a live version; not that it is bad)

I was late bloomer when it comes to Jane's Addiction. The story goes like this. My friend Carl (see the Slayer post) had a friend named Cory. Cory was a cool guy who had the most amazing Trans Am I had ever seen. It was barely street legal. Anyway, Cory had jammed with us once just for fun and was not involved in music at all at this time. That's how I knew him. He was one of the only friends who had his own apartment and we used to go over there and party sometimes. One night we were all there and having a good time. I had several beers and was feeling pretty good. Then this song came on. As soon as it started, I felt the song take a hold of me. I closed my eyes and just listened to it, tuning out the rest of the noise from the party. The song was Summertime Rolls from the Nothing's Shocking album. I love songs that have that “trance effect” like The End by the Doors. I asked Cory who was doing the song and he told me. The song starts with a mellow but cool bass line and stays steady through the beginning of the song. The lyrics for Summertime Rolls are about a summer time love with nice poetic twists. Not cheesy at all. Later the rest of the band comes in and the song has straight forward beat but with great power. Finally is slows back down like in the beginning and finishes with finesse. Beautiful song.

So fast forward a few months and I was in the record store browsing for a cassette to buy when I remembered that song I heard at Cory's. I had to jog my memory and then found it. I was startled by the cover. Conjoined twin topless blow-up dolls. So I bought it based on the one song I heard and rushed to listen to the rest of it. I was blown away with the entire album and especially the guitar player. I remember asking myself “what the hell is a guitar player like that doing in a band like this? Nothing's Shocking is now in my top 20 favorite albums I own. Each song has its own personality and I love Perry's vocals and lyrics. I then had to go out and get the rest of their catalog and was not disappointed.

What do you think about this song?