Cultural Convergence and the Song of the Summer

Saturday night at Wembley Stadium. Bruce Springsteen. All 74 years of storytelling muscle memory. Recounted his visit to the deathbed of the founder member of his first band, The Castilles. The realisation, captured in a moving tribute song, that he is “The Last Man Standing”.?He spoke about the clarity that grief brings and the longevity of his second band, now entering their fiftieth year of touring.

-????????????? Last week I booked tickets to see a new play at the Edinburgh Fringe by standup comedian Ivo Graham called ‘Carousel’. Inspired by that iconic Don Draper pitch scene in Mad Men, Ivo has turned it into a reflection on memory and the passing of time.

-????????????? Late June I was lucky enough to be at my eighth Glastonbury and, in that magical sundown slot, witnessed the hypnotic force of nature that is LCD Soundsystem’s ‘All My Friends’ turn the Pyramid fields into a blissed-out rave.

-????????????? For much of the summer, like the rest of the country, I sang and danced along to a song that spilled out of every bar in Germany. We may not ever reach the pinnacle of football in my lifetime, but we will always be the undisputed world champions at chant creation. So Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Dancing in the Dark’ was adopted and introduced to a new generation as “Can't start a fire, Can't start a fire without a spark, Phil Foden's on fire, he'll be playing the Germans off the?park.”

-????????????? ?Last Friday on Twitter, Ivo Graham tweeted this from a wedding: “Simply ecstatic last night when the wedding DJ began his set with Hot Chip’s cover of “Dancing in The Dark.’ What a song, what a cover, what a call.” ?I’d never heard this cover, but he is right. It is an absolute classic. In that instant my whole summer converged: Ivo Graham recommending that Springsteen/Foden song which, in its climax, weaves in a verse of?LCD Soundsystem’s ‘All My Friends.’

What is fascinating to me professionally is how that forty-year-old song has been embraced this summer by yet another generation. Perhaps longevity is the truest measure of cultural impact. Because beyond what the charts might tell you about the latest TikTok Sabrina Carpenter explosion, the real song of the summer has stood the test of time. As Don Draper says, “It's a twinge in your heart, far more powerful than memory alone.”

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