Lazy Summer

Maybe it's the heat, maybe the pheromones, but summertime's the season for your inner sloth to emerge from hibernation and express itself. At 70-plus years, Gershwin's "Summertime" is the great-granddaddy of lazy summer tunes, and Sarah Vaughan does it proud. Sheryl Crow's version of George Harrison's "Here Comes the Sun" will definitely take you to a hammocky place . . . and Dobie Gray's "Drift Away" tells you what to do when you get there.

The Lizard King kicks back and relaxes, in Next Steps.

When Jim Morrison wasn't seething with regal, reptilian menace, he had his chill-out moments and "Indian Summer" is one of those, recorded at the height of a Los Angeles summer in 1966. Yo La Tengo's "The Summer", with its hint of guitar discordance, wobbles like a heat haze that never lets the horizon settle into focus, while George Melly's "Lazybones" plants itself in the shade of a big tree, uncorks a nice cold bottle of pinot grigio, and refuses to move.

Don't exert yourself too much — just click on Deep Cuts for more summer indolence.

Jimmy Buffet has made a career out of personifying the laid-back Key West summer vibe. His "Grapefruit – Juicy Fruit" might not have the stamp of approval from your family dentist, but it definitely captures the quintessential beach bum attitude. Devon Sproule beckons you into the fields and meadows of her imagination with "The Weeping Willow" and Scottish folksinger Donovan spins a dreamy stream-of-consciousness tale in "The Summer Day Reflection Song".

Gershwin had it right in "Summertime" when he said, "The livin' is easy." Summertime is the time to bring out the barbeque and the hammock and the casual clothes. It's the time to go for a picnic in the park, or bunk off work on a Friday afternoon . . . the time to get right out of Dodge and into your swimming kit. Time for a summer fling. Time for lunchtime cocktails and time for ice cream. Time for . . . excuse us, what were we saying? We nodded off there. Maybe it was that third blue drink in the coconut shell. Tell you what: allow us to get back to you. Is September OK? Good. Have a great summer.