From the recording Trains
John Jenkins – Vocals, Keyboards
Jon Lawton – Guitars, Percussion
Amy Chalmers – Violin
About the Song
This was written for the 2015 Liverpool Acoustic Songwriting challenge and my second successful finalist entry although I never made the top 3 this time unlike 2014. I wanted to write a story song and one specifically that embraced the Summer of 76 that was a personal favourite period of time for me – Yes I did leave school that summer, did listen to records on the lawn of no 3 Borella Road (my cousins house down the road), I didn’t have a job but everything else then belongs to the character in the song. Who’s Cathy? I’ve a few ideas but I’m not sure myself.
About the Recording
I wanted to keep it quite simple. Interestingly enough I was always a keyboard player for years but the last couple of years I’m seen as a guitar singer-songwriter so it’s nice to have one of my piano songs on the album.
Lyrics
Summer of 76
I remember that summer I remember us all
Listening to music - lying on the garden lawn
The sun was beating heavy like it never had before
That summer of 76 is the one that I recall
I was barely a man, still quite a boy
Finished school that summer with nothing much to show
When I got Cathy pregnant it broke my parent’s hearts of course
That summer of 76 the one I recall
From a boy to a man, I quickly had to grow
We got a place together down her parent’s road
And a job followed shortly
And a baby girl called Maude
That summer of 76 the beginning of the road
Now the years have flow by
And my children have their own
Holidays by the seaside, Wales or Cornwall
And I’m holding Cathy’s hand
Looking back upon it all
That summer of 76, like no other one before
From a boy to a man and now I feel so old
The circle of life it’s a strange thing to us all
But I know who I am, I just never did before
In that summer of 76 but it’s the one that I recall