“Celebrated Summer” by Husker Du

"Celebrated Summer" is the song from Hüsker Dü's New Day Rising that went out to radio stations in December 1984, a promo-only single paired with the album's title track on SST, and it's the moment the band's roar throws open a window. Bob Mould wrote it, and he leads with a riff that grabs you by the collar before the whole thing tears off.

Then comes the twist: twelve-string acoustic guitar breaks, in the middle and again at the close, chiming through the din like sunlight through smoke. For a band tagged as hardcore punk that was a real swerve, though they'd tried an acoustic before on "Never Talking to You Again" from Zen Arcade. The song looks back on summers gone, drinking on the beach, playing in a band, school letting out and everything coming loose. After the band split, Mould kept playing it, nudging the chorus to "celebrated summertime".

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.