TL;DR:
- Don Henley’s “The Boys of Summer” was a political tackle “the Woodstock generation.”
- He stated the tune was additionally about an intergenerational romantic relationship.
- Half of the tune was impressed by a Grateful Lifeless sticker.
Basic rock star Don Henley wrote “The Boys of Summer” as a assertion about “the Woodstock generation.” The tune consists of a reference to the Grateful Lifeless’s followers. Subsequently, Henley stated that line was primarily based on a actual expertise he had.
Don Henley stated the title of his album ‘Building the Perfect Beast’ was impressed by humanity’s evil and shallowness
Henley first grew to become well-known as a member of The Eagles. Whereas the band began within the Seventies, some of that Nineteen Sixties sound and ethos carried over. Beginning in 1982, Henley began releasing solo albums.
Henley’s 1984 solo album is named Constructing the Excellent Beast. Throughout a 1985 interview with the Sun-Sentinel, he stated the title “refers to mankind, the fact that we’re the only animal who supposedly has the power to think and reason,” he stated. “But we still act like uncivilized animals. In fact, we act worse. We treat each other worse than animals treat each other.”
Henley defined why he felt that means. “When they kill each other, it’s for food,” he stated. “They don’t hold each other hostage. It’s about that, and also our obsession with appearances, our obsession with the outer wrappings, so to speak, instead of what’s inside.”
Don Henley’s ‘The Boys of Summer’ is about ‘an older guy talking to a younger girl’ and it’s not about 1 of his relationships
Henley mentioned the that means of the primary single from Constructing the Excellent Beast: “The Boys of Summer.” “It’s a statement about my generation, the ’60s generation, the Woodstock generation, the love-and-peace generation,” he stated. “It’s a personal statement in that it’s a statement about my generation. I mean, I didn’t have a girlfriend who was 15 or 16 years younger than me, and I didn’t say, ‘Someday you’re gonna find out that I’m right and they’re wrong.’”
Henley felt the tune had layers. “But it is, in the song, sort of an older guy talking to a younger girl,” he stated. “But at the end of the song, it’s more of a political-sociological statement.”
How a middle-class Grateful Lifeless fan impressed a lyric from ‘The Boys of Summer’
In “The Boys of Summer,” Henley sings about seeing a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac. Subsequently, he dismisses it. Based on American Songwriter, Henley defined that lyric throughout an NME interview from 1985. He stated the road was primarily based on an precise expertise he had on the San Diego Freeway.
Henley was shocked to see a Deadhead sticker on a $21,000 Cadillac, as he considered these vehicles as “the status symbol of the right-wing upper-middle class.” In “The Boys of Summer,” Henley seems to be saying the hippie technology bought out by the Nineteen Eighties.
“The Boys of Summer” is a nice tune even when it’s a downer assertion about society.