Haven’t swum for ages… but perhaps I can still be a bit beachy (nearly) every day, (or some days), by finding out about a beach somewhere, sometime (perhaps in summertime) from time to time. Doesn’t have to be a beach as it is now, in the present, because now is weird. Blink and you miss it. And, how soon is now? (He’s the son, and the heir, of a shyness that is criminally vulgar. He’s the son, and heir, of nothing in particular). Thinking Morrissey may have been a beach-goer I tried to find out what his favourite beach might be as that could make an interesting starting point for the revitalised ‘beachaday’ blog. Perhaps Redondo Beach? Maybe? In 2004 he covered a 1975 song of that name by Patti Smith.
Photo of Redondo Beach in the 1970s from here
Photo of Redondo Beach in 2015 by Steve McCrank from here. The palms look ok but I’m not too keen on the power ‘plant’ that sprung up behind them.
And here’s the Morrissey / Patti Smith song. Spoiler alert… it’s sad. No surprises there.
Redondo Beach is in Los Angeles, California, just left of the headland in the satellite photo below. The modified coastline on the right is Terminal Island next to Long Beach.
According to Wikipedia, Redondo Beach had a population of 603 in 1890 and has a population of about 70,000 today. The population expansion is in part due to the region attracting immigrants in the early 1900s and it is now a mixture of several European cultures as well as African Americans, Asian Americans and Pacific people from Samoa and the Hawaiian Islands. It also has a ‘sizable’ Native American community. Sounds interesting, I’d love to go there!
It’s also mentioned in the BEACH BOYS song Surfin’ USA.
A beach a day 