<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ejInMOws-Q">\"Green Grass\"</a>

I wonder why it was that popular music was so damned optimistic when I was in high school.

Whether it was all those happy surfing songs from the Beach Boys and Jan &amp; Dean, or the amazingly upbeat sound of the Beatles, it just seemed like there was so much to be happy about.

One song that really struck me from the spring of my 17th year was "Green Grass," by Gary Lewis and the Playboys. It's one of those songs that sort of fell through the cracks on a lot of the Oldies stations. Just about all you ever hear from Gary Lewis anymore is "This Diamond Ring," just as it's rare to hear anything other than "Happy Together" by the Turtles. Most of the Oldies stations on FM radio have fairly tight playlists.

That's one reason I was so happy to get satellite radio three or four years ago. When I'd listen to the "Sixties on (channel) 6" station on XM Radio, I would hear songs that I had loved by had all but forgotten over the last 40 years. "Green Grass" was one of those songs.

It's all about early spring, about the snow melting and the signs that the Earth is once again turning toward the sun. Summer with all its pleasures isn't far off.

<em>"Green grass, 'round my window, young leaves that the wind blows ..."</em>

Nothing spectacular about it. Spring comes every year, but to hear a song like that near the end of a long winter is to smile and know that even something as annoying as winter eventually ends.

So upbeat, so optimistic.

Of course, I <em>was</em> 16.