One of the great things about summer is the shades—sunglasses perched on every nose I see.
“Sun Cheaters”, as they once were called for reasons completely unknown to me (if anyone happens to know, please enlighten me), have been around longer than we have recorded history. The Intuits wore walrus tusks with thin slits cut in them to reduce the amount of glare they saw off the water and snow.
Tinted lenses did not appear until the 18th Century (about 1752), courtesy of the work of James Asycough. By the early 1900′s, the silent screens movie stars were all wearing them, some think to avoid recognition, while others think it was due to the red eye caused by the powerful arc lights used to light the set. By 1936, we hit the big time, when Edwin Land began experimenting with lenses made from his patented Polaroid filters.
Ever since, sunglasses have been a much needed wardrobe accessory. Who can picture Jackie O without those large, dark sunglasses? Can you imagine James Dean without his Ray-Bans? When you think of John Lennon or Ozzie, can you not think of teashades, those little round sunglasses barely bigger than the eye? So no matter what style of sunglasses you prefer, slip them on, even if its night, sit back, be cool, and enjoy these songs that refer to shades.
- Cheap Sunglasses – ZZ Top
- Sunglasses at night – Cory Hart
- The Future is so bright, I have to wear shades – Timbuk3
- Boys of Summer – Don Henley (and as mentioned before, The Ataris)
- Outlaw Blues – Bob Dylan
- Black Sunglasses – Mount Sims
- Tire Me – Rage against the machine
- Sunglasses – Divine Brown
- Sunglasses after dark – The Cramps
- Get Over – Lil Wayne
This entry was posted on Saturday, July 10th, 2010 at 2:18 pm and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
