Pacific Blue – From the Dancing with the Moment album

verse 1
Splash in the water head to toe
Make it fast, don’t make it slow
It’s chilly and cool, now
But that’s okay

My little brother has no fear
Watch him swim way beyond the pier
Come back now.  What would Mamma say?

(chorus)
Pacific Blue
Oh, what a view!
Don’t it take your breath away?
Pacific Blue
With nothin’ to do
Messin’ ’round on a summer day

(verse 2)
On a blanket soakin’ up the sun
Drippin’ wet, havin’ fun
Watching the people passing by

Hear the music from the candy shack
The Coasters callin’ ‘Yakety Yak
Hey, pour some ketchup on those fries

(chorus)
Pacific Blue
Oh, what a view!
Don’t it take your breath away?
Pacific Blue
With nothin’ to do
Havin’ fun on a summer day

(bridge)
ooo… ah
ooo…ah

Sneakin’ glances at the older girls
An wishing I was in their world
And my every word was really cool

Hear them laughin’ with the boys they meet
They look so fine they smell so sweet
But for now I’ll stay a dreamin’ fool

(chorus)
Pacific Blue…

About the writing of Pacific Blue

The song captures the memory of a summer day in 1958 when my brother, Jimmy, and I walked from our home in Long Beach  to the Belmont Shore Pier to spend the day at the beach. Although we went to the beach many times, this particular visit became imprinted in my mind. All my senses were heightened by the smell of the sea, the coolness of the water, the sound of rock and roll (Yes, Yakety Yak was playing), the aroma of french fries, and by the gorgeous Pacific extending its blue surface to the horizon. It also conjures up the dawn of sexual awakening in my preadolescence. I yearned to be around the shapely ‘older girls;, but was cool with staying put in boyhood for the time being.

Musically, it channels the West Coast harmony sound that we were a part of in the sixties (the Peppermint Trolley Company, Bones, the Faragher Brothers), but also melodically a bit of Sam Cooke and Sarah Vaughn. It features a jazzy chromatic harmonica solo in the bridge.

Love and Harmony
Danny Faragher

Photo by Jeanne Harriott