The Boys of Summer might be one of the greatest songs ever written. The high hat. The synth. The guitar. The tambo. Whatever it is. It’s where it needs to be.
Nobody on the road
Nobody on the beach
I feel it in the air
The Summer's out of reach.
It’s like the start of a race as the lyrics kick in. The energy so high and pure. So sure of ourselves. The gun fires and we are off to the races! Slick hair. Shades. The key to any success. You've got it all baby and it's All got you!
I think there must be a great knee-slide in this when performed live. I hope to god someone is sliding on their knees across the stage performing this.
I can’t stop listening to it, in the car mostly. I used to get such bad drivers anxiety. But now I feel the closest to my Dad when I’m behind the wheel. Open road, tunes blasting.
The Boys of Summer takes you on a journey you weren’t ready for but also needed more than anything. A place you’ve never been, but you know what’s coming around every corner. A feeling that comes and goes like the memories you try to hide from. It’s like a big slice of nostalgia, that cool burn of heartbreak like the hit off a cigarette. It’s fast and it stings. The weightlessness of being a teenager with no albatrosses.
The way the guitar in the intro makes you feel like you're in a convertible, sunlight shimmering off the windshield. Hot sweat on the back of your neck, the breeze kissing it. Shades on, slight buzz and the endless summer ahead of you. Bare feet pattering down the wooden slats of a dock. Springing into the air without a worry. No cells phones in your pocket. NO GPS tracking. Live feeds. Just summer reads. Actual books sitting under actual trees! Cold convenience store AC soothes sweet summer sweat. A Slurpee a day should never have gone away.
This song makes me miss my Dad incredibly. Not that he ever talked about it with me or played it intentionally. But I know it must have played on our car radio 1000 times on 1000 Sunday drives.
It makes me wish I could have one summer day with him in the 70’s. My mom too. Years before we were born.
I can see it now. They’re “walking real slow, smiling at everyone.”
They talk about the seasons of life. Breaking into earths cold winter when you are born. Then relishing in the fruits of spring in your teens and 20s. Apparently but not surprised, I am in the summer of my life.
Nobody on the road
Nobody on the beach
I feel it in the air
The Summer's out of reach.
But my summer is right in the heat of it. If Don Henley can be there for his lost love after the boys of summer are gone. I can be here for myself in my summer. It’s what my dad would want.
Start a fire. Start something!
My whole life I’ve burned things down, mostly bridges. So I understand the urgency and passion behind the lyrics "Don't look back, You can never look back" The pain being too great. I used to believe the only power and ounce of self respect & cool you have left lives in your ability to maintain that cold shoulder. To strive forward so that time fills the wounded part of you and then forgets.
But now I really like looking back. A daydreamer by career choice, I'll be fine remembering those Sunday drives with my family. Laughing over burgers. Maybe a small fist fight in the parking lot between siblings. Windows down. Radio on.
Today I cried so hard on this anniversary of your death, I had to tip out the tears from my Wayfarers.
I'm still voting Endless Summer baby. Even if it’s cruel, Bring it on.
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