A Test for Old Kids

[Riverwind (imported)]

The Beach Boys, and Jan and Dean were products of southern California and the surfing crowd, it was about fast cars, hanging 10 and dead mans curve, grandma's in their dodges etc.

River

[iBorg317 (imported)]

Starry Starry was about Vincent Van Gough.

Warmth of the Sun? The Wilson brother who drowned or Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones?

[A-1 (imported)]

...

"The Warmth Of The Sun" by the Beach Boys.

Anyone care to show off their "Old Kid" smarts and tell us what historic things inspired those two songs?

Anyone care to show off their musical smarts and offer other popular songs that commemorate certain things?

"The Warmth of the Sun" (http://www.musicsonglyrics.com/B/beachb ... lyrics.htm) whose lyrics is bound up in hormonal-driven love lost causing adolescent angst is probably a private thing influenced by a dark mood and the ability of the sun to cure seasonal depression.

The Beach Boys did not have a lot of political positions. Missing from Woodstock and allegedly not invited because of missed performance dates, their absence from the political movements of the late 60's - early 70's created in the eyes of some a wholesome image despite Brian Wilson's tendency to be a recluse, his allegedly abusive father, his notorious drug abuse and his severe bouts of depression.

Later, in 1983 Ronald Reagan's Secretary of the Interior James Watt banned the Beach Boys from a 4th of July concert on the Washington D.C. mall and instead scheduled Wayne Newton. (http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,306121,00.html)

It was the beginning of Jame's Watt's downfall and it netted him a severe ass-chewing from Nancy Reagan herself. Watt later resigned as a result of describing one of his advisory committees as ''a black, a woman, two Jews, and a cripple.''

So, considering the song was composed by and the lyrics were the result of a collaboration of Mike Love and Brian Wilson I'd say that there was no real hidden meaning in it. What you see is what you get. The moodiness comes form Brian Wilson's pulling himself out of the depression-drug abuse pit and the lost love is no doubt a regretful fling and rejection by a girl in the past of one or the other of them, but if I were betting I'd bet the lost love was in the history of Mike Love, one of the groups most dominant voices.

[Rusty Dai (imported)]

I missed three of them, #8, 10 and 13. But I think I deserve extra credit because I may have been INcorrect about the person who "The Day The Music Died" was written for, but my incorrect guess was another person who died on that plane.... He was famous for "La Bamba." Isn't that worth at least half a point? And there was that other guy, famous for "Bad, Bad LeRoy Brown." DAMN! That was one bad plane crash, killed a lot of good talent the day the music died.

Richie Valens was on the plane along with Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson). Lost some really talented people that day.

Later, Jim Croce is who I think you referenced.

And in 1964, Patsy Cline, Cowboy Copas and Randy Hughes.

I had them all except the Red Skelton question.

[A-1 (imported)]

Richie Valens was on the plane along with Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson). Lost some really talented people that day.

Later, Jim Croce is who I think you referenced.

And in 1964, Patsy Cline, Cowboy Copas and Randy Hughes.

I had them all except the Red Skelton question.

Jim Croce died in September 1973, I believe.

[transward (imported)]

I can readily think of two other songs that are like that; "Starry Starry Night" also by Don MacClane, and "The Warmth Of The Sun" by the Beach Boys.

Anyone care to show off their "Old Kid" smarts and tell us what historic things inspired those two songs?

http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1437

The Warmth Of The Sun by The Beach Boys ...This was inspired by the assassination of US president John F. Kennedy, an event that Chicago's Museum Of Broadcast Communications declared the 'most memorable' political moment in American radio and television history

Transward

[DeaconBlues (imported)]

http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1437

Transward

Yours was the first correct answer for "The Warmth Of The Sun," congratulations!