Artist: Don Henley
Video: From DailyMotion.
This is one of my all-time favorite songs. It was like a "gateway drug" that led to my discovery of the Eagles' classic tunes. It was a rare positive 1985 introduction to a rock 'n' roll legend.
"The Boys Of Summer" peaked at #5 in the Billboard Hot 100. Filled with beautifully poetic lyrics, the song is a melancholy lament of lost youth and innocence. The “Dead-Head sticker on a Cadillac” line is a condemnation of yuppie hypocrisy.
The video won the MTV Video of the Year award in 1985. So why isn't it #1 in the countdown? Or at least in the top 64? The order of MTV's list continues to baffle me.
Shot entirely in black and white, this is one of MTV's classic videos. We see a number of scenes in which Henley appears to hover above Los Angeles. He is actually being filmed while riding in the back of a pickup truck.
The enduring image is of two young lovers running and playing on the beach. It recurs as if it were a memory of the video's characters, who appear haunted and touched by the theme of lost innocence. In particular, the small, intense-looking boy playing drums bears a striking resemblance to Henley.
I saw Don Henley live during the "End Of The Innocence" tour in 1989. It was a terrific show, much better than the disappointing and overhyped Eagles' "Hell Freezes Over" tour, which devoted a ridiculous amount of time to the individual band members singing their solo hits. Seriously, I paid a premium for Eagles tickets so I could hear Joe Walsh sing "Ordinary Average Guy"? If you're going to get the band back together, sing the songs that made the band great in the first place.
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