I thought I knew what love was
The Boys of Summer. Lyrics written by Don Henley and music composed by Don Henley and Mike Campbell
Although it sounds awesome in the summer … this classic is admittedly more relevant lyrically right now. And it sounds great still.
Hans Olson, October 29, 2011
Exactly. I used to crank this in college and it’s still as strong, 27 years later. Some idiot stoner in our suite famously said, “this is a song about Deadheads — at least I think it is.” That one line, “saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac” and this douche thinks it’s all about him. We used to mimic how doltish he sounded when he said this, always good for a laugh.
At some point, “at least I think it is” became a thing on it’s own, a way to end any sentence to point out the absurdity of what you just said …
“Out of Africa” is a movie about hockey, at least I think it is.
I never understood what the song meant but knew for fuck’s sake it wasn’t about Grateful Dead fans.
There’s so much meat in the chord changes, if that’s guitar lingo that actually means something. It rolls from chord to chord in a way that never not grabs you. With music like that, you didn’t need lyrics.
Never really dawned on me the meaning until about 12 years later, one day in the fall — as you said.
Having a hard time moving past a relationship I badly needed to get the hell away from, yet still wanting to make it work. Had to face up, it wasn’t gonna happen. I couldn’t. I kept hanging around the same situations, perpetuating a belief that there was always an ever so slight chance that it might … and then one day I heard this song for the 228,962nd time.
Schwing! Look at me driving around the girl and only all these other reasons it’s never going to happen are standing in the way but, by all means, keep driving around the girl. Town shuts down, reduces her options and, maybe … because if she has other choices, you’re not in the picture — which means you have your answer, dude. You need to drive out of this town, just go. There’s nothing for you here. Don’t look back, you can never look back.
It has NOTHING to do with Deadheads.
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