The Story Behind “The Boys Of Summer”

The 4th of July means Summer has really started, and all the stuff that comes with it.

Like this song.

This song made me buy my first pair of Wayfarers and always reminds me of the girl that got away.

It’s nostagia personified.

Don Henley remembers:

“When we did “Boys of Summer,” we recorded the whole song in whatever key it was written in, and I did it, and I said, “This is not quite right. ” And it was finished we’d done the whole thing and the album was late-and I said, “We’ve got to raise this up half a step.” And they all looked at me like, “You’re nuts! What’s the matter with you?” And I said, “No, believe me, it’ll be a lot better.” So we did it all over again, and they went, “Geez, you’re right!”

“Boys of Summer” was one of those great, rare moments where I got so inspired by the track that Mike Campbell had given me that it just sort of wrote itself. It came just screamin’ out of me. And I was jumping up and down in the car ’cause I knew I had something there. I said, “This is good and I know it’s good, it’s great.” I like writing that way sometimes

“Beyond that, I’m also not convinced we really accomplished that much. Kennedy was president and everybody thought it was Camelot, but look at what we did. We raised all that hell ins the sixties, and then what di we come up with in the Seventies? Nixon and Reagan. The country reverted right back into the hands it was in before. I don’t think we changed a damn thing, frankly. That’s what the last verse of “The Boys of Summer” was about. I think our intentions were good, but te way we went about it was ridiculous. We thought we could change things by protesting and making firebombs and growing our hair long and wearing funny clothes. But we didn’t follow through. After all our marching and shouting and scraming didn’t work, we withdrew and became yuppies and got into the Me Decade.”

The song was memorably redone by the Ataris.

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