More than 30 summers have passed since Pavement filmed a music video for “Summer Babe,” but now they have decided to release it. The clip shows three of the group’s five members performing the song on a pier in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
In a statement, the clip’s director, Tanya Small, said they held onto the clip for so long because of the absence of multi-instrumentalist Spiral Stairs and drummer Gary Young, who were both in Stockton, California at the time.
“The story line for the video is the same as Grease’s but without a happy ending,” Small said in a statement. “Two people from different backgrounds — an indie rocker and a club kid — separately waxing nostalgic about their time together. Back then, it was unlikely a club kid would be caught dead with an indie rocker.
“It was filmed on 16mm and Super 8 film and edited on video,” she continued. “I was a teenager when I made this — into Stan Brakhage and Beatles films. It took less than two hours to film. All the footage was lost except for a VHS tape with this edit with its enduring timecode. The version of ‘Summer Babe’ was from an unmastered cassette. The club kid outfit was borrowed from Love Saves the Day.”
The song, “Summer Babe (Winter Version),” was the first track on the band’s debut album, 1992’s Slanted and Enchanted. It ranked Number 244 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. “According to [singer-guitarist Stephen] Malkmus, he was trying to imitate Lou Reed, singing about “sad-boy stuff,’” the blurb reads. “It evokes the levees and houseboats of their youth — as Malkmus said, ‘That’s definitely the suburban California summer.’”
From Rolling Stone US
