The Boys of Summer (song)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| "The Boys of Summer" | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
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| Single by Don Henley | ||
| from the album Building the Perfect Beast | ||
| Released | December 1984 | |
| Format | 7-inch | |
| Recorded | 1984 | |
| Genre | Rock | |
| Length | 04:50 | |
| Label | Geffen Records | |
| Writer(s) | Don Henley, Mike Campbell | |
| Chart positions | ||
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| Don Henley singles chronology | ||
| "Dirty Laundry" (1983) |
"The Boys of Summer" (1984) |
"All She Wants to Do Is Dance" (1985) |
"The Boys of Summer" is a song sung by Don Henley, written by him and Mike Campbell. It is the lead track and first single from Henley's 1984 album Building the Perfect Beast.
[edit] History
Driven by synthesizers and drum machines, the song has a haunting rhythm and feel throughout the intro, bridge, and verses, but a 'summer-ey' hook and guitar tones. It is widely speculated that the song is about the passing of youth and entering middle age, with the obvious theme of 'summer love' apparent in the choruses, and of reminiscence of a past relationship. The line "My love for you will still be strong, after the boys of summer have gone" can be construed as a realization that relationships are often destroyed by restless youth, even though there is a conflicting desire for that love to flourish.
The title is the same as the book The Boys of Summer by Roger Kahn, and is similar to the Dylan Thomas poem "I See the Boys of Summer".
After a mid-way instrumental break, in which Henley (or another guitar player) brilliantly imitates a seagull's call on a guitar, is the song's most famous lyric:
- Out on the road today
- I saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac
- A little voice inside my head said,
- Don't look back, you can never look back.
This image of once-countercultural Deadheads driving establishment status symbol Cadillacs immediately connected with Henley's age group, and neatly encapsulated the song's feelings of loss and aging. It is rumored that this line was inspired by Henley seeing Joe Walsh driving a Cadillac with a Deadhead sticker on it while on Sunset Blvd.
"The Boys of Summer" was a big hit, reaching number 5 on the U.S. pop singles chart and topping the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. It was also a hit in the United Kingdom, reaching number 12 on the UK Singles Chart.
Henley won the Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance for the song.
[edit] Music video
The music video to "The Boys of Summer" is a striking, evocative, French New Wave-influenced piece directed by Jean-Baptiste Mondino. Shot completely in black-and-white, it shows the 'main character' of the song at three different stages of life (as a young boy, a young adult and middle-aged), in each case reminiscing about the past relationship. This is shown during the line "A little voice inside my head said don't look back, you can never look back" at which point, each of the three people look back in turn. The young boy in the video resembles Henley to the extent that he also is a left-handed drummer. The cutaways of the "boys" jumping in the air appears to have been influenced by the 1938 film Olympia. Interspersed with these scenes are segments of Henley miming the words of the song while driving in a convertible. At its conclusion, the video uses the post-modern conceit of exposing its own workings, as with a wry expression Henley drives the car away from a rear projection screen.
The video won the Video of the Year at the 1985 MTV Video Music Awards. It also won that year's awards for Best Direction, Best Art Direction, and Best Cinematography. The Best Direction award was presented to Mondino by Henley's then-former Eagles bandmate, Glenn Frey.
[edit] Other versions
The song was also performed by Codeseven, an alternative band, on their 1998 album A Sense of Coalition.
In 2003, the song again became a Top 40 hit covered by both American rockers The Ataris and the Spanish DJ Sammy. The Ataris' sped-up version, which appeared on their album so long, astoria, changed the Deadhead mention to "Black Flag sticker ...", a reference to the Henry Rollins-fronted punk band. This recording made it to #20 on the Billboard Hot 100 and appeared on a number of other American charts as well, scoring highest at #2 on Modern Rock Tracks. It also peaked at #49 on the UK Singles Chart. Soon after The Ataris' version became a hit, lead singer/guitarist Kris Roe began publicly sporting a T-shirt reading, "Who The F*** Is Don Henley?", which caused some misunderstanding and controversy. [1] In contrast, the DJ Sammy version was a hit overseas, reaching #2 in the UK and #10 in Australia.
A version of the song is also performed by Bryan Adams and Norweigians Espen Lind, Kurt Nilsen (of World Idol fame), Alejandro Fuentes and Askil Holm on their very popular 2006 live album, Hallelujah. Later in 2006, pop-punk band Simple Plan performed a version which sounds similar to the Ataris' version, although with a slightly faster beat. Swedish indiepop outfit Nixon covered the song on their 2003 album Snow Day.
"The Boys of Summer" is also performed by Henley with the reunited Eagles when on tour; such a version is included on the group's 2005 Farewell 1 Tour-Live from Melbourne DVD.
An acoustic version of this song was performed by the Custom Kings on the Australian radio station Triple J. It was performed on the 1st of September, 2006, on the Like a Version segment of the Mel in the Morning program.
