"Boys of Summer" by Don Henley

Don Henley's "Boys of Summer" could have been a Tom Petty song. Hear the story of how a song written by The Heartbreaker's guitarist Mike Campnbell got to Don Henley and how Henley's lyrics express summer beyond all the fun in the sun. And Henley really did see a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac. 
Hear the full interview with Mike Campbell on Brian Koppelman's The Moment podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-moment-with-brian-koppelman/id814550071?i=1000519286788

A playlist with "Boys of Summer" and other songs relevant to this episode can be found here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1Sf2ClX1lP9MJtmfGxGaDt?si=5f71ef53b5ed4532
You can also read The Best Song Ever (This Week) for free at bestsong.substack.com. Recommended if you like footnotes. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
The Shark Deck. Hello and welcometo the Best Song Ever this week,
a short deep dive into a song, it's story and what makes it special.
The best song Ever this week thisweek is Boys of Summer by Don
Henley. I'm your host, ScottFrampton. We won't be listening to the

(00:37):
song together here, so please headto the show notes, where you'll find
a link to a playlist with Boysof Summer and other songs relevant to the
episode. So let's begin, Heartbreakers. Guitarist Mike Campbell and Tom Petty,
we're in the studio mixing. Don'tcome around here no more. When they
decided to honor the tradition of listeningto the mix in the car. It's

(01:00):
one thing to listen to a songon very precise studio monitors. It's another
to hear it as your audience.Will. Campbell switched on the car radio,
and before he could push in thecassette, the moody sins and shimmering
guitar of Boys of Summer poured outof the car speakers. Cambell quickly changed
the channel, only for the nextstation to also be playing the Don Henley

(01:21):
hit. The song could have beenPetty's Kimbell brought the song to Petty as
a demo, which he had donewith new songs since his rough demos of
Refugee and Here Comes My Girl ledto Hits. Producer Jimmy iven was also
there that day. Petty and Ivenewere more or less grooving to the song

(01:41):
until it got to the minor chordthat ended the chorus. Ivene said sounds
like jazz, which seemed to sumup their indifference to the demo. Ivan
did call Campbell later, however,and as a favorite to Henley, asked
that he go play the demo forthe Eagles drummer, who was looking songs
for a new solo record. Boysof Summer went on to number five in

(02:06):
the pop charts and topped the rockcharts as the lead track for Henley's nineteen
eighty four Building the Perfect Beast album, which Winter will platinum. The song
would also win Henley a Grammy forBest Pop Male Vocal Performance. This version
of the song has one key changefrom the one Petty heard. However,
before playing it for Henley, Campbelltook Aadene's feedback and changed the chorus so

(02:29):
that it ended in an uplifting majorchord. If that moved Henley, Kempbell
couldn't tell, because, as herecalled, Henley just sat at the other
end of a big table, quotelike a judge, listening in silence with
his eyes closed. Kimbell left havingno idea if Henley liked the song or
not. When he got home,he got a call from Henley, who

(02:51):
said, I just wrote the bestsong of my life to your music.
Henley wasn't just blowing smoke. Hislyrics for Campbell's song about the lost promise
of summer. Boys of Summer beginswith the lyric nobody on the Road,
Nobody on the beach. I feelit in the air. Summer's out of
reach. It's a long way awayfrom the cliche of unalloyed fun in the

(03:15):
sun. Henley's Summer is one oflong shadows, a metaphor for lost youth,
lost relationships, and the loss ofa generation's ideals, and it still
feels more personal than didactic. Injust three verses and an increasingly affecting chorus,
Henley makes us feel two essential truthsabout summer. It's never quite what

(03:37):
we think it should have been,and that it ends. The story goes
that Henley wrote the song listening toCampbell's demo while driving along the Pacific Coast
Highway, and the lyrics pastiche ofobservation and nostalgia certainly feels how new stimuli
spark reveries behind the wheel. It'salso a source of one of the song's

(03:57):
most memorable lines. Henley told Enemyin a nineteen eighty five interview. I
was driving down the San Diego Freewayand just got passed by a twenty one
thousand dollars Cadillacsaville, the status symbolof the right wing upper middle class,
and there was this grateful, deaddeadhead bumper sticker on it. Henley also

(04:17):
made a key change to Campbell's song, and that he raised the key to
better suit his vocal. This forcedCampbell to relearn the song he wrote in
order to redo it. In thecourse of teaching himself to play a part
that had just come to him.In a flash of inspiration, Kembell thought
to add something else to the end, which is when he came up with

(04:38):
a guitar hook that ends the song. It's a simple piece that spirals a
bit, but it's catchy and itcements that feeling that the song and metaphorically,
more is coming to an end becausesomething new is here to guide us
out. Boy, you were reallylucky with that, Tom Petty told Mike

(04:59):
Campbell that day when Don Henley's Boysof Summer was unavoidable in the car radio.
The two had been in bands togetherfor fifteen years and had written hits
that made Petty a rock star,and they were sitting side by side hearing
a Campbell song then another artist madeinto a hit they'd pay Campbell's mortgage.
It was a moment that could havefrayed their relationship but instead deepened it.

(05:24):
As Campbell recalls, Petty said,with honest humility, I wish I would
have had the presence of mind notto let that one get away. Thanks
for listening, and as listeners orpodcasts, I really suggest heading over to
Brian Cooppelman's podcast The Moment, wherehe interviews Mike Campbell. It's where I

(05:46):
got the real dope on the storyof this song, and it's worth hearing
it in Campbell's voice. There's alot of other stuff about creativity in his
role, his collaboration with Petty,and just being a guy that's done a
lot of cool st in the musicbusiness. But anyway, there's a link
to that in the show notes aswell, and please do give it a
listen. I'll also that a frequentmisheard lyric of mine is that I thought

(06:11):
the lyric boys of Summer in thechorus of Boys of Summer was poison of
Summer. Yeah, the syllable's donethat up, and yeah, the lyric
is the song title, which istaken from Roger Khan's book about the Brooklyn
Dodgers, itself borrowed from Dylan Thomas. So it seems to indicate that I
don't like summer when I very muchdo, even though I'm recording this in

(06:32):
a house that's been without air conditioningfor nearly a week. I had the
good fortune to spend a week ormore the very nice beach town of Ocean
City, New Jersey, from nineyears old into my fifties. There's a
long stretch of the beach at thequiet south end of the island that bends
around to the estuary of Courson's Inlet, where birds out number of people.

(06:54):
I love it still, but summerhas also always held some sort of anxiety
for me, and that feeling aboutsummer is not as representative pop culture as
summer fun or summer romance. There'ssomething for me where summer is, to
quote Henley, always felt out ofreach. Please follow podcast wherever does you

(07:18):
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Thanks again, See you next week. Hi, I'm Mark Francis and host

(07:45):
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