Great article James - perfectly captures that "I'll listen to anything" period when your ears are wide open and you haven't yet chosen your tribe.
Also, Northop Hall!! What I remember about Northop Hall is that it had a ford across the road, which always fascinated me, even though the A55 had long since bypassed it.
I grew up in Halkyn., but I was a dozen years ahead of you, so my "not sure why I like this" track was from an earlier Don.
Don McLean's American Pie. His high school sounded a lot more interesting than mine. Nobody was kicking off their shoes and dancing in the gym at Holywell High. Or if they did, they didn't invite me.
Here was another old guy, trading on nostalgia and lamenting 'the day the music died'.
Hang on just a minute, Don. You mean I'm only just discovering this stuff and I've already missed the best?
But, Boys of Summer is a classic. It's so much more than just another bland slice of AOR. It's a rock elegy to a dead romance, or maybe one that never was. And let's face it, where else could you find a guitar solo that sounds like seagulls?
I entirely unironically really like ‘Boys of Summer’ - as you say, it has a properly evocative, elegiac quality (and a killer tune IMO). And yes - I guess whenever you start listening to music there’s always the ‘been there, done that’ crowd waiting for you somewhere. What you don’t realise at the time is that they’re just mourning the passing of the time when they were the young guns.
The mid-80s was like Jurassic Park for rock dinosaurs, with David Hepworth as a sort of Richard Attenborough, exhibiting them in an insecure Q magazine to alarmed teenagers
There’s also a terrific interview with Mike Campbell, who co-wrote Boys Of Summer and came up with the original riff, about the writing of the song, on YouTube…
Don Henley himself didn’t care for the music video. He viewed music videos as a necessary evil, as they compromise a fundamental element of the music: They define a visual image of the song, that didn’t really exist - and he believes music should allow each listener to form their own image in their mind.
Great article James - perfectly captures that "I'll listen to anything" period when your ears are wide open and you haven't yet chosen your tribe.
Also, Northop Hall!! What I remember about Northop Hall is that it had a ford across the road, which always fascinated me, even though the A55 had long since bypassed it.
I grew up in Halkyn., but I was a dozen years ahead of you, so my "not sure why I like this" track was from an earlier Don.
Don McLean's American Pie. His high school sounded a lot more interesting than mine. Nobody was kicking off their shoes and dancing in the gym at Holywell High. Or if they did, they didn't invite me.
Here was another old guy, trading on nostalgia and lamenting 'the day the music died'.
Hang on just a minute, Don. You mean I'm only just discovering this stuff and I've already missed the best?
But, Boys of Summer is a classic. It's so much more than just another bland slice of AOR. It's a rock elegy to a dead romance, or maybe one that never was. And let's face it, where else could you find a guitar solo that sounds like seagulls?
I entirely unironically really like ‘Boys of Summer’ - as you say, it has a properly evocative, elegiac quality (and a killer tune IMO). And yes - I guess whenever you start listening to music there’s always the ‘been there, done that’ crowd waiting for you somewhere. What you don’t realise at the time is that they’re just mourning the passing of the time when they were the young guns.
Halkyn eh? Small world. I will be there next weekend, trying not to fall into one of the holes hidden under the gorse bushes of Moel y Gaer
I used to drop stones down those holes to see how deep they were, on my way home from school.
The mid-80s was like Jurassic Park for rock dinosaurs, with David Hepworth as a sort of Richard Attenborough, exhibiting them in an insecure Q magazine to alarmed teenagers
It was always very frightening when they escaped onto Top of the Pops
The Travelling Wilburys hunting Bob Peck through the BBC canteen. ‘Clever girl’.
There’s also a terrific interview with Mike Campbell, who co-wrote Boys Of Summer and came up with the original riff, about the writing of the song, on YouTube…
https://youtu.be/mxBYBnPJfGQ
Don Henley himself didn’t care for the music video. He viewed music videos as a necessary evil, as they compromise a fundamental element of the music: They define a visual image of the song, that didn’t really exist - and he believes music should allow each listener to form their own image in their mind.