If you’re stuck in the city longing for a sea breeze, here are songs to transport you. The ocean, for seaside holiday or as epic force of nature or anything in between, is a top choice for songwriters. We could have had all Beach Boys. Instead here’s a French chanson, Brazilian bossa nova and the Who in Brighton. And beware the ice cream man.
This nonchalant French chanson about the sea, in the 1946 version by its composer, Charles Trenet, almost tastes of bouillabaise and pastis. It’s been covered 400 times – from Bobby Darin to Cliff Richard to a Soviet Russian version – and used in soundtracks (LA Story, Mr Bean’s Holiday and The Simpsons). It’s Gallic charm is irresistible even if the heavenly choir and Trenet’s high notes near the end are a bit dodgy.
You thought ice cream was an innocent pleasure. Wrong. Blur’s 2015 song from their album, The Magic Whip, is more sinister. With a bass line inspired by the Mr Softee ice cream van tune, it’s said to be a metaphor for the Tiananmen Square massacre. “Here comes the ice cream man, parked at the end of the road / With a swish of his magic whip, all the people in the party froze.” A 99 flake may never taste the same again.
My Little Boat is a bossa nova classic by the Brazilian Roberto Menescal about a small boat bobbing on a calm sea. He wrote it off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, waiting to be rescued when he was with friends in a boat that had broken down. The composer said that of all the versions, this one, sexy and gentle, by Nara Leão (1942-1989), was closest to his vision for the song.
“Here by the sea and sand / Nothing ever goes as planned.” From the 1973 rock opera album Quadrophenia, this song is set in Brighton where the protagonist Jimmy goes as an escape from home. It looks back at 1960s Mod culture when Brighton seafront at bank holiday was a magnet for thousands of day trippers and clashes with Rockers were a given.
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This track by the American singer-songwriter first appeared in 2010 but was given a new arrangement in her studio album Have You in My Wilderness (2015). It seems like a gentle escape song until the sudden shock line: “I can’t swim, I can’t swim.” A harpsichord in the background and great sax solo add to the intensity and sense of experiment.
Illustration by Charlotte Durance