“Steal My Sunshine” by Len, Friday, August 5, 2022 (updated repost)

In the summer of '99, I was 12 years old. I spent the first half of the summer with my dad, a truck driver, as he crossed the U.S. delivering camper chassis and steel. A lot of kids would get bored looking at the Interstate for hours, but I always loved the journey. I loved maps and geography, and I was getting a firsthand experience of seeing what America looked like. Of course there were some boring parts. But what was best about the miles of cornfields was that the radio stations lasted quite a while-- a lot longer than they lasted in the foothills of North Carolina. With my dad, I got to experience new (old) music that my mom didn't approve of at the time. On the road I first listened to Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, Steve Miller Band, George Thorogood & the Destroyers, America, and so many others I could fill a whole blog post listing. We also listened to new music--Red Hot Chili Peppers, Goo Goo Dolls, and Sugar Ray. 

IMPAIRED BY MY TRIBAL LUNAR SPEAK. One of the songs that was fun to hear on the radio stations across America was Len's summer hit "Steal My Sunshine." Surfer-dude meets baby doll singing, with strange lyrics, and happy, vibey instrumentation that sound like it would make a dog happy, this song became quite an infection radio gem. Listening to this song again, it reminds me of a time when the radio was fun. You didn't know what style of music you were going to hear next. The '90s were a time when alternative rock had a place on the Top 40 along with Hip Hop and bubblegum pop. In the late '90s rock started flirting more with Hip Hop and electronica, hence making unique tracks like this one. As the Canadian brother-sister fronted band failed to release a follow-up album to their 1999 hit You Can't Stop the Bum Rush, the band and their style remains a kind of time capsule of the summer before Y2K. It would have been interesting to see where they could have taken pop-rock, though, into the new millennium. 

I KNOW IT'S UP FOR ME.  Unfortunately, Len was unable to capture the hooks in their only hit twice. In fact, the band kind of rebelled against hooks in the rest of their music, much to their detriment. It's also worth it to check out why this was the only song we've ever heard from Len in the 8-minute documentary from True Rock N' Roll Stories (see below). If you just take the song on the first listen, along with the embarrassingly awesome music video, you might conclude that it's just a feel good song with some strange lyrics. However, on a deeper listen/read, you can see that the lyrics are about dealing with depression. The song talks about how other people can "steal [our] sunshine." It also talks about feeling down when others are enjoying themselves. This is another example of a music/lyric paradox used in songs like "Rose-Colored Boy" and to a lesser extent "Float On." "Steal My Sunshine," is a pretty good pre-curser to Emo pop. So what does this song mean for today? It's been a really rainy summer in Korea and extreme weather is taking over the globe. There's so much to bring us down. Life is looking different every summer. So that's kind of why we need to remember the good: those simple summer days when we didn't stress about heatwaves causing wildfires that might burn down your home. Please don't steal my sunshine--but also, don't turn it up to 11!

Read the lyrics on Genius.

Check out the episode of Pump Up the Jams discussing "Steal My Sunshine" It's well worth your time!