This list of songs is inspired by lists published by radio station KEXP-FM from Seattle in 2010, as well as the latest poll taken in 2021 by Rolling Stone Magazine. For the most part I will faithfully countdown from their lists, starting at Song #500 and going until I reach Song #1. When you see the song title listed as something like: Song #XXX (KEXP)….it means that I am working off of the official KEXP list. Song XXX (RS) means the song is coming from the Rolling Stone list. If I post the song title as being: Song #xxx (KTOM), it means I have gone rogue and am inserting a song choice from my own personal list of tunes I really like. In any case, you are going to get to hear a great song and learn the story behind it. Finally, just so everyone is aware, I am not a music critic nor a musician. I am a music fan and an armchair storyteller. Here is the story behind today’s song. Enjoy.
RS: The Top 500 Songs in Modern Music History
Song #95: Boys of Summer by Don Henley
Don Henley released “Boys of Summer” in the early 1980s on his debut solo album called Building the Perfect Beast. Just prior to this album coming out, Henley had belonged to one of the most successful rock acts of the 1970s, The Eagles. He was their drummer and wrote some of their biggest hits, including taking a star turn on the greatest hit of them all “Hotel California”. All through the 1970s, Henley was immersed in the Southern California music scene. He began as a session player along with the likes of Glenn Frey and Randy Meisner, performing back up roles for stars such as Carole King, James Taylor, Jackson Browne and, most notably for Linda Ronstadt. The California music scene was very vibrant and close-knit. There were many collaborations occurring between members of different bands and/or between band members and solo artists. The Eagles had a string of great hits and enjoyed much success all throughout the 1970s. Those were heady times to be a musician like Don Henley. But after the experience of having a mega-hit like “Hotel California”, the members of The Eagles found it impossible to follow it up in a manner that would allow them to remain a cohesive unit. Instead, internal conflicts arose, particularly between Glenn Frey and Don Felder. Sadly, as the 1970s drew to a close, the boys in the band decided to break up. Each member of the band set out on their own solo career. For Don Henley, his solo career began with an album called Building the Perfect Beast and a song called “The Boys of Summer”. Here is the story of “The Boys of Summer” by Don Henley.
Don Henley was always a good songwriter. What he liked to do best was work with someone who would create a musical score and then Henley would take that music, go for long car rides along the Pacific Ocean and allow the notes and chords to flow over him and into him until such time as lyrics began to form in his mind. The music for “The Boys of Summer” was created by Mike Campbell, who was the guitarist in the band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Campbell shared his musical idea with Petty first but because it didn’t quite fit, musically-speaking, with the songs they were working on for their own album Southern Accents, Petty turned the song down. Campbell shared the song with Henley next. Henley took Campbells track and went for one of his famous car rides along the California coast and came back with a rough outline of a song that became “The Boys of Summer”.
Henley built his lyrics upon a foundation that is the mythology of California: sunshine, summer vibes, beaches, driving with the top down, etc. He used the idea of how summer feels to describe the fondness with which he viewed life and love in the recent past. He lets the listener know right away that this feeling of summer was changing.
“Nobody on the road.
Nobody on the beach.
I feel it in the air
The summer’s out of reach.
Empty lake, empty streets,
The sun goes down alone
I’m driving by your house
But I know you’re not home.“
Times changed for Henley and those around him. Nothing seemed to feel the same as it did anymore. When I first listened to this song in the 1980s, I always felt he was singing about The Eagles and was putting a formal nail in the coffin of that relationship he used to enjoy with his bandmates. But according to Henley’s own words, the song is more about how the way life was being lived in California seemed to be changing. Like The Doors with “L.A. Woman“, Henley was sensing that things were shifting and that the attitude of living on the west coast was transforming into something that he might not agree with. So before moving on, Henley decided to stop in order to take stock of where his generation stood and what the future might hold for them all as a result. What he saw did not please him. His displeasure and sense of unease manifested itself in one of the best lines from any song in the 80s:
“Out on the road today,
I saw a DEADHEAD sticker on a Cadillac.“
For anyone who doesn’t get the reference, Deadheads were what fans of the band the Grateful Dead were known as. In their heyday, the Grateful Dead were one of the most famous counterculture bands in the world. So to see a Grateful Dead fan driving a Cadillac meant to Henley that his generation had sold-out their ideals and compromised their integrity. However as the song closes, Henley rallies and declares that he will stand strong.
“I can see you
Your brown skin shining in the sun
You got your hair slicked back, wayfarers on, baby
I can tell you my love for you will still be strong
After the boys of summer have gone.”
The phrase boys of summer refers to baseball players and, in particular to a book of the same name by Roger Kahn. Kahn’s book was about the story of how the storied Brooklyn Dodgers broke many hearts in NYC by leaving town and transforming themselves into the Los Angeles Dodgers. Don Henley was embarking on a similar journey. Sometimes in order to become the person you were really meant to be, you have to let go of those things which brought you comfort and pleasure up until that point in your life. By letting them go, as Henley did with The Eagles, you get the chance to define yourself on your own terms. That’s what Don Henley did with his debut single “The Boys of Summer”. This single was such a success right out of the gate that Henley’s solo career was as assured as if it was cloaked in Dodger blue.
The link to the video for the song “The Boys of Summer” by Don Henley can be found here. ***The lyrics version is here.
The link to the video featuring Don Henley discussing how he wrote “The Boys of Summer” (as broadcast on the Howard Stern Show) can be found here.
The link to the official website for Don Henley can be found here.
The link to a video that shows a really great cover of “The Boys of Summer” (this time by a band called The Ataris) can be found here.
The link to the official website for Rolling Stone Magazine can be found here.
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