Wednesday June 30, 2021 “The Boys of Summer” Don Henley

Summer songs continue with “The Boys of Summer” which might suggest to you that it’s a tribute song about baseball, but nope it’s about love lost and the hope of getting it back.  

The music for today’s song was written by Mike Campbell, one of Tom Petty’s  Heartbreakers, and he offered it to Tom who felt it wasn’t suited to the other songs that he and Campbell were working on at the time like ”Refugee” and “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around”.

Don Henley heard a demo, liked it and wrote the lyrics.  I know you have always wondered about this but Henley says he actually did see “...a Deadhead sticker on a cadillac”. 

And the video for this song was a big MtV award winner in 1985 but Henley has said that he had no idea what was going on while they were shooting it, and maybe afterward as well.  Would like to have included the video but Mr. Henley is a notorious web “blocker” and it's not available.

Not a fan of Mr. Henley on a personal level because I think he is a bit of a jerk.  For example, I use a couple of different sites for lyrics to songs and in typical Don Henley fashion this very rare statement came up when I searched for this song's lyrics: “Due to a publisher block, we are not authorized to display these lyrics.”   Dylan doesn’t do that, the Beatles don’t do it,  the Rolling Stones don’t do that, but Don Henley does.

Stay safe and well...and it irritates and confuses me that I still like much of his music.

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

Don't know you're not home

 But I can see you

Your brown skin shining in the sun

You got your hair combed back

And your sunglasses on, baby

I can tell you my love for you will still be strong

After the boys of summer have gone

 I never will forget those nights

I wonder if it was a dream

Remember how you made me crazy

Remember how I made you scream

I don't understand what happened to our love

But, baby, I'm gonna get you back

I'm gonna show you what I'm made of

 I can see you,

Your brown skin shining in the sun

I see you walking real slow

And you're smiling at everyone

And I can tell you my love for you will still be strong

After the boys of summer have gone

 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

I thought I knew what love was

What did I know?

Those days are gone forever

I should just let 'em go, but

 I can see you,

Your brown skin shining in the sun

You got that top pulled down,

And that radio on, baby

And I can tell you my love for you will still be strong,

After the boys of summer have gone

 I can see you,

Your brown skin shining in the sun

You got that hair slicked back,

And those Wayfarers on, baby

And I can tell you my love for you will still be strong

After the boys of summer have gone