Sure, the Lovin’ Spoonful original’s great (and there's a great promotional clip of it, credibly filmed in Riverside Park here in the city), but I thought I’d mix it up and showcase my favorite cover version of the song. Lots of folks have recorded it over the years – from Joe Cocker to Joe Jackson – but I’ve always been fond of this rendition from the early 90s’s by British indie band, Eat.
Eat were contemporaries of similarly-inclined bands like The Wonder Stuff, Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, Pop Will Eat Itself and the Gaye Bykers on Acid, but never really made that big of an impression here in the States outside of the circles of anglophilic record geeks (like, ummm, myself). This cover is from their debut album, Sell Me a God, and it actually had its own, proper video, although this ain’t it.
Eat went onto make one more record (that being the slightly too-earnest Epicure) before splitting. The drummer played briefly in a band with Miles Hunt of the Wonder Stuff called Vent 414, while lead singer Ange Doolittle (yes, that’s his name) formed a new ensemble called Big Yoga Muffin, who produced at least one album before drifting into obscurity.
Anyway, below is Eat’s rendition of the Lovin’ Spooful’s “Summer in the City,” set to a very artsy, kaleidoscopic montage of appropriate images.
Enjoy. Stay cool. Have a nice weekend. Be nice to others.
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