Don Henly’s “Boys of Summer” explained by none other than Mike Campbell from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers More information on this song than you can find anywhere, the hidden context, mystery and story behind this classic hit
I never realized Mike wrote the music for Boys of Summer......one of the most perfect pop/rock songs ever. It's a great day when you learn something new.
@@Zero8880 I was young back then and never knew Mike even worked with Don until I bought "End of the Innocence" and was looking at the inlay card with a big picture of the band and Mike was standing there with Stan Lynch in the pic. hahaha.
@@petergunn3614 Right? It's crazy seeing all the connections between the great musicians of youth bc we didn't have the internet back then. Like how Henley's bandmate, Don Felder, knew Tom Petty from their Gainesville days, and he taught Petty how to play the guitar. And Henley's connection to Kenny Rogers, or Glenn Frey's connection to Bob Seger.
Whenever I hear the “Boys of Summer” song I’m immediately transported back to my youth. A time in my life when I was free from stress and the world was full of endless possibilities. Phenomenal song!!
Bittersweet for me, having surfed in California in the mid-1960's, with a group of friends, then things changed and fell apart in the 1970's and beyond.
Yes, Music has a way to take us back in time for sure. Its just wonderful Sometimes it can even bring back times i had totally forgotten about. :-) I am such a huge fan of the music from my youth that I can remember where I was and what I was doing the first time I heard many songs.
Same here man. Same here. Most of the best songs of our time came from that decade and before. I think I am only a year older than you just guessing by your RU-vid (profile name) user name …whatever it’s called . Lol. 👊🏼🎵🎸🎵🤟🏼
Definitely! For many years now, I'll hear a very restrained but FANTASTIC guitar solo on a Heartbreakers track and I'll just say to myself "what an efficient little piece of music".
'The Boys of Summer' is easily in my top ten list of favourite pop songs of all time. Mike Campbell is also an enormously underrated guitarist as well. Great story.
No, this great guitarist is not 'underrated'. You are merely infected with the youtube comments section 'underrated' word fetish. I do wonder what drives this mass pathology from a psychological perspective..
I feel that man I grew up in south n I luv tha lil stories they tell takes me back to a time b4 everything was so very socially politically correct when things where'nt perfect but they where fun lol nowadays i live on my memories
About a year ago, I was driving and Boys of Summer came on the radio. Im 51, so of course I remember when the song came out and I’ve heard it hundreds of times. But as I was driving and listening, the guitar licks really caught my ear, and I found myself wondering who Henley hired to play guitar on that record, because it is just some amazing playing. I looked it up and found that, not only was it Mike Campbell, but that he wrote the music. So cool to now hear his story. Mike, you’re a phenomenal story teller. Thank you.
Not only is Mike Campbell my absolute favorite guitarist, but even at 62 years old, I could sit and listen to his stories for hours on end. Such a true gentleman.
Aw...I wish I'd seen the Eagles. I didn't know Don had been allowed to play that solo song with his old band. It's a fantastic song, I always loved it. I never get sick of it.
@@reesemorgan2259 Don does that and Joe Walsh goes off with his Jamesgang and solo tunes. If they are still touring I highly recommend seeing them. They played Hotel California in its entirety plus all the hits. About a 2 and a half hour show. Phenomenal!
Every interview I hear with Mike, at some point he says, "I don't want to get too long winded..." or something to that affect. And as soon as he says that, THAT'S when he tells the BEST part of the story.
That guitar progression, to this day, is so catchy. It pulls you in , the guitar is almost like grabbing you by the shoulders , sitting you down and then pointing to a screen to make you watch. Something about that progression just grabs you. The tone, ...everything about that track is magic.
@@jamesparker1063 Absolutely. The outro , in a major key , just has this “that’s a wrap!” feeling , as if to say “you heard the message/story , and now here’s ‘The End’ “ - like it’s putting it to rest. I don’t think I ever get tired of listening to it , and the album is great , too
When I heard that song, It was just summer to me. Hairs on the back of my neck stood up. It still happens now. I'm so glad it happened for you especially at that time. Your hard work paid off!
Buck Dharma (Blue Oyster Cult member/write of Don't Fear the Reaper) was a guest on "That Metal Show". Host Eddie Trunk asked him out of the blue if there was a song that he wished he'd written, and without a second's hesitation he answered: "boys of summer", which completely stumped Trunk. A great song writer knows a great song.
I was never a huge Eagles fan, but "Building the Perfect Beast" is one of my favorite albums ever.... it actually gave me a new appreciation for the band
''I saw a deadhead sticker on a cadillac''- one of my favourite lyrics ever, on top of Campbell's beautiful riff. Btw , Henley simply wrote what he saw( a deadhead sticker on Joe Walsh's Cadillac ) but it sums up perfectly the baby boomer generation looking back at their ''glory days''. One of my favourite songs ever. This tune is to music what ''the big chill'' was to the movies.
It's one of my favorite lyrics, too, but don't be fooled by Henley's simple explanation. He understood the irony, the disillusioning implications, and the broader theme of the symbolism of the sticker and the Cadillac. Henley was a student of literature. The song's title comes from the poem 'I see the Boys of Summer' by Dylan Thomas. The song and the poem ( and most of Dylan Thomas's poetry as well as most of Henley's solo work) share common themes of the relentless passage of time, the loss of our innocence, the failure of the passionate idealism of our youth to weather life's ever-changing seasons, grieving the death of our ideals and our quest for meaning, hopelessly grasping in denial for redemption through nostalgia, and the wisdom that comes from this realization. It's about how the idealistic '60s became the cynical and hedonistic '70s which became the greedy, self-centered '80s, just like it's also about losing a summer love. But it's also, on a higher level, about universal themes that define our experience as human beings over the course of our lifetimes. Like everything else in this world, there is a deep meaning to be found in this song. It's just a question of how deep you're willing to look. The Boomers are not that different from you. They're just in a different place on this big conveyor belt to Hell we're all riding on.
@@wulf67 Great analysis. Btw , I totally agree with your point- each generation can only be judged by the standards of their particular era, it is too easy to think that we are living at the end of History and judge them by today's standards. Many people read history from the end to the beggining.
@@wulf67 thank you so much for sharing this. I love learning the deeper meaning of things, especially the poetry that is the lyrics to music i love. Thank you
So true! I was experiencing that exact story-line at the time (I was 23) so it really resonated. And for a long time I couldn't listen to song without remembering this crazy dame! But you know what ... as true as that experience did match up (it was scary ... Ray-Bans and all) I didn't need said experience to "HEAR" that song and groove on it. Thankfully the memory is long faded but not the tune ... except when I see a Deadhead sticker! Btw, OWNER OF A LONELY HEART has a similar vibe ...esp. the guitar.
@@dianeorehek4633 Really like the "slant" of your comment! I knew the bittersweet feelings but couldn't put them into words. Song really summed up a lot of feelings ... "coming of age", beginning our real adulthood etc. What's amazing is Campbell created a piece of music smack in the middle of the 80's (might've saved the decade ... haha) that one would now be hard-pressed to hear (or not hear) the time-period ... i.e. simply timeless!
The 3 note lead part over those beautiful chords is what pulls me in. Then, Don's lyrics and melodies are so melancholy and nostalgic, you are hooked. Amazing song.
Mike, I am one of those fans that knew you wrote the song, when it came out, and knew a lot about the history of the song being presented to Tom and then Don getting it, but all those other details were so amazing to hear and the miracle that came out of this when you could’ve lost everything, not just the song, but your house, and who knows what else. Thanks for all the years of music and continued success for you and your friends and family.
He couldn’t possibly be “long-winded” talking about the process of making one of the most iconic songs of all time. Thank you for the insight. I have heard this song thousands of times and I crank it every time. It takes me back to a place I’ve never been but somehow I miss with every fibre of my being.
You could never be long-winded when you're telling one of these stories, Awesome song, incredible story ! If you still have that demo I would give anything to hear it. Thanks for sharing !
I don’t really have the right words to express my appreciation for Mike’s encouragement here. For the past couple of years I’ve been writing songs with an ethic that I’ve heard stated by Tom Petty, Rodney Crowell, other great songwriters: basically, commit to writing a certain number of songs a week and just show up and do it. In doing that, I’ve come up with more than a fair share of clinkers, or ideas that I didn’t think had any traction. Every once in awhile I revisit one of those and realize that, being my own worst critic, I didn’t give the song the shot it deserved. Sometimes the song stinks, but I learned a thing or two in seeing it through. Mike’s right, stay on it, stay with it, don’t give up when things get difficult.
@@jcripp7974 He's rarely featured in guitar magazines or mentioned when people are speaking of great rock guitarists - that's what happens when you're a backing musician for a major solo artist. Sure, the band was called Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, but everyone knows Tom Petty - the average rock fan probably couldn't name any members of his band. Same with Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band or Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band (although Clarence Clemens is fairly well-known, and Max Weinberg became well-known for being the bandleader in Conan O'Brien).
@@jcripp7974 i don't understand you people on the internet that hear the term "under rated" and take it as a knock & get offended.... not sure where you're from but where I come from it is a compliment. Usually meaning as much as the man is respected for his talent, he actually has the skills, the chops & experience to be held in an even higher regard by a larger group of people. Even If someone says jimi Hendrix is UNDER rated, they just mean they personally think he's even better than the everyday avg joe thinks, it's never a cut down even when talking about someone widely considered to be the best. I had a guy threaten to track me down & kill me because I mentioned somebody was under rated one time & I don't know if you guys are misreading thinking it read "over rated" or if you were just never taught what under rated actually means
Well that explains it. Boys of Summer is my favorite D Henley song and Mike Campbell is one of my favorite guitarists. I also realized later in life that many of the songs from my youth in the 70’s featured another of my favorite guitarists... Larry Carlton.
So cool. The way Mike describes Henley hunched over the tape player, listening to the song so intently. Don was likely already intuiting the lyrics for it upon that first listen. A great song and a great melody will hit you like that.
I think Don instantly felt that sad nostalgia captured in the instrumental and wanted to interpret that feeling with the lyrics before it faded away. Nailed it. Everyone involved with this track should be proud of the impact this song has had. Just beautiful.
Such a great story. Roger Linn really had something with his drum machines for a time. But the Linn drum machine company, according to Modern Drummer Magazine, went out of business because their drum machines were prone to errors and bugs, and the people using them got frustrated and started using other maker's machines. To think this classic almost was lost because of a finicky drum machine, shedding tape, and Don Henley almost wrecked his car!
One of my top five favorite guitarists of all time. Melodic, tasty, catchy, and always just right for THE SONG. Everything I want in a lead/rhythm guitarist.
Thanks for the story. I hope the royalties on this great song are still coming in. After 38 years I just read the Dylan Thomas poem which has transformed and added so much to my understanding of the lyrics.
I use to know Roger Linn, who was a guitarist & song writer, in the 1980s. His first drum machine was the LM-1, (Lynn/Moffett), came out in 1980. This was fully tunable. It was programed real drums, burned onto computer chips. I believe he used Art Wood for the drum sounds. In 1982 he put out the LinnDrum which used the same idea, adding some more sounds, but was partially tunable. I can say people loved this drum machine.
First time I heard this I was listening in the car during a whiteout blizzard. Till this day I am immediately thrown back to that moment. How isolated the roads were, how great the song was.
Mike did his job and beyond that’s for sure. He’s melted into his guitars with no shred just beautiful music. Every note is precise and well delivered with perfect timing. 🤘🏻🎸🎶😎
Mike Campbell is simply the coolest dude ever! He's the Tom Hanks of rock 'n' roll. You just can't NOT like the guy. He's so down to earth, humble, earnest & somehow relatable despite having achieved more than one can imagine & played with absolute Titans. I could listen to his stories endlessly. He needs a series to just tell his amazing stories!
Mike is absolutely one of my favorite guitarists. Everything his does is super tasty. I have always loved boys of summer too. Used to listen to it with my mom when it first came out. Good memories. That song really captures a feeling. I thought it was so cool to learn he wrote the music. It’s amazing that the money from it saved his house from foreclosure too. Hehe.
Campbell is an under appreciated gem. And Boys of Summer is the best solo song Henley ever did. Every time I hear the song it takes me back to high school in '78 and my girlfriend (whose brown skin did shine in the sun) right before our lives went in directions that we never could have anticipated.
Changing key for your voice is the most magical thing. I didn't know about it until I did some quick test of my vocal range, which showed I'm most comfortable in an A or Bb key range. Just from knowing that one fact about my voice, I went from struggling to sing songs in G and E to being able to relax and have fun singing, and all because I was finally in the right key for my voice. I wish I had known that when I was jamming with friends years before that! I swear, it's like adjusting your chair for your height or wearing the right glasses prescription.
Beautiful song that always reminded me of the 1960's guitar work of Roger McGuinn and the Byrds. Thanks Mike for this musical masterpiece and Ken for uploading the video.
It's really impressive that Henley could impart such a perfect melody/lyric into a raw music bed track...and have it seem it was birthed at the origin of the song. I would love to hear Dons side of the story, and what he felt/imagined on first listen. That's what you call a mix of chemistry, magic and maybe a touch of divine intervention right there!
I flew out of New Zealand and was in Sydney for a coupe of weeks and watched Boys of Summer on MTV back in the day for the first time and I couldn't get it out of my head for weeks if not months telling everyone it was something special, I was not wrong. Great story on a Great Song, thanks Mike
Thanks to Mike Campbell for the incredible track and work on this song. Also fantastic work on End Of The Innocence a truly gifted musician. I'm just stunned so many people never bother to read the album covers and information credits. I never knew it was Mike Campbell when I first heard it, by I sure did the second I bought the tape which was only days later.
Mike, WE we're really lucky that you saved that song. It was released in 1985 and 37 years later Boys Of Summer has remained a classic and covered by many artists. There is no higher compliment or recognition than that. Also, someone here said you were "underrated" as a musician and songwriter. Quite the contrary. You and The Heartbreakers along with Tom Petty are the best American Rock Band to ever grace a stage. I know this to be true because I worked 22 years in Concert Production including 7 years as a Stagehand and there was simply no one better at performing live than you guys. I say phooey to underrated. You are considered one of the best by your peers and fans. You don't have the personality or antics of a Keith Richards but you certainly are up there in that upper echelon of guitarists. Thank you for sharing this with all of us. Boys Of Summer is one of those songs that will be around forever. It just goes to show that, you can start out with something so basic, change it around or rearrange it and without ever knowing what you got, it becomes a standard. I have watched Don Henley perform it live and it gives me goosebumps. I remember Don's solo tour in '85 at the Concord Pavilion where I was a Stagehand. Every song was perfect.
I stumbled upon this video today - oh my gosh. LOVED hearing all of these details behind the song! Mike, you are one of my favorite guitarists. What a delight to hear you talk about the process of writing this famous (for good reason) hit song.
Very telling, how Mike describes the song saving his home he was about to lose to foreclosure... We think these musicians are loaded with cash from their first hit, but it doesn't often work that way.
@moparedtn I was surprised by that comment too. Plus the fact that he said "thanks to my wife" he had a 4 track Teac. The song was released in 1984 by which time Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers had achieved major world wide success and Campbell had co-written some of the band's hits. It's hard to see him as destitute at the time.
I’m guessing a lot of guys were getting screwed over before they got wise to publishing rights and stuff. The horror stories we’ve all heard. Jim croche passing having made almost no money. Unreal.
Tom petty and the Heartbreakers suffered for a long time fighting their record label and trying to change the pillaging record/music industry, they all suffered greatly as all p
I kinda wonder if he meant to say ‘close on’ instead of ‘foreclose on’? Because he said “House we were about to foreclose on.” Obviously you don’t foreclose on your own house. Plus at that time in the 80s interest rates on mortgages were crazy high. Prob over 10%. So if you had a bunch of money come to you would just pay your mortgage off.
I read the Tom Petty book, and there was definitely financial issues at times between the band members and Tom. Tom was very up front about it. Stan was the most outspoken about it.
Mike, I had this on constant repeat in 1984, 1985, 1986, etc. Drove my family & friends nuts! 😅 This summer, as in many summers past, I’ll be opening the sunroof, rolling my windows down and cruising with this, one of my all time favorite tunes taking me back in time! ☀️😎🎸🎹🥁❤️🔥 Listening to the process and many Divine interventions is fascinating. I am certainly thankful that that the “almost didn’t happen,” happened!
I told everyone this was a mike Campbell song for years. Had to explain to many he was the guitarist for tom petty. Followed this guy most of my life. Very underrated player. Great song writer. Fantastic even !
Loved that song for ever. It had a very deep meaning for me because I was going though one of those hurtful breakups at the time. Heard the song, liked it. Then came the breakup, she dumped me. The song took on a whole new meaning.
Oh, my God, this is Beautiful!!! Thanks for the lesson. When he said “Tom”, and stopped, to specify it was Tom Petty, there was what I saw as a second of remembrance...
This song should be at the ready in every ER in the country. If hearing the first few bars of "Boys of Summer" doesn't bring them back from the dead, nothing will.
That's a beautiful VOX Super Beatle amp! A Super Beatle was the first amp I ever played through (we also ran our vocals and bass through it). There was a music store in Glendale, CA (and a sister store in Alhambra) called Pedrini Music. A true Mom and Pop independent store, back when Guitar Center was also a single independent store (across the street from where it is now on Sunset). I grew up with one of the Pedrini kids, and when they got that VOX we immediately plugged in an Epiphone SG and a Precision bass and started playing Am/Dm7 - i.e.; Light My Fire. We were in the 5th grade. Man I wish I had that amp today!!
This song, for me anyway, was QUITE haunting. I don't know why, but it was.... AND still is. The kind you never forget. And the kind that immediately takes you back to the time when it came out. And Haunted!
This is a song that I literally melt into myself and let the FLOOD of my moments in life take me away from the best DAYS that were the 80's and living amongst "The Living" since most have now past on in my life....WHAT A SONG!
Fascinating story Mike. Thanks. These songs we hear don't just fall out of the sky do they? A lot of work an thought and analysis and discussion and pushing and pulling goes into it. Really enjoyed your rendition of the songs development and wishing you all the best.
Love the song by Mike and sung by Don and what a great telling of the birth of how it was created. Do musicians today even know how easy they have it in regard to equipment and tech when it comes to working in the studio? the hard part now is creating memorable songs like BoS as we all know, most music is pretty forgettable today.
Yeah but it would have been a completely different song. Tom would have came up with completely different words and probably a different vocal melody with different phrasing. Petty is one of my favorite songwriters but I'm not sure he would have topped what Henley wrote.
@@xrandy11 I agree. It's like when we hear about famous actors who passed on "iconic" roles. It wasn't the role that was iconic, it was the performance that made it iconic.
Mike Campbell doing Boys of Summer and Danny Kortchmar doing All She Wants to Do is Dance...Don Henley in on writing and then Don singing both. What a combo. Those two songs were musical gold for any Gen-Xer growing up in the mid-80s and they bring back a lot of memories. "I saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac...a little voice inside my head said don't look back - you can never look back." Ain't that the truth & it's my favorite line from this song. The reality is that the only Dead show I saw 30 years ago was already populated by a bunch of spoiled rotten Trust Fund Babies, who had enough of Mommy & Daddy's money to buy tickets to every Dead show for the entire tour - and afford food, gas, hotels, etc. Something nobody I knew was ever able to do. They didn't need to "look back" because they already had Deadhead stickers on their parent-money-purchased BMWs ;-) but they would all want you to just see them as hipster bohemians vs independently wealthy kids in their early 20s. Such is life.
I am sure I misunderstood Mike. He said the song paid for his house that was about to be "foreclosed." This was 1984 (my band covered it.) The Heartbreakers had completed their fifth album and he had co-written several of the tunes up to that point. They had hits and they were selling out arenas. So I am sure he appreciated the extra cash. If he needed the cash at that point, I hope they worked a much better record deal in 1985. Edit: I have to say that I saw The Heartbreakers in 2016 and they just played the gig like it was the first time. Such energy and desire to please the crowd. Top 10 in my book. I saw the Eagles about 6 months ago and with the exception of Joe Walsh, they were the walking (singing) dead. They played motionless and walked up to the mic and sang, then backed off and played motionless again. They had the 32 piece orchestra behind them, very nice, but where is the rock in that. I miss the Heartbreakers and all rock that was.
