Lyrics for Boys of Summer as interpreted by Lennon Lover 99

Boys of Summer Lyrics
Nobody on the road
Nobody on the beach
I feel it in the air
The summer's out of reach
Empty lake, empty streets
The sun goes down alone
I'm drivin' by your house
Though I know you're not at home

But I can see you-
Your brown skin shinin' in the sun
You got your hair combed back and your sunglasses on, baby
And I can tell you my love for you will still be strong
After the boys of summer have gone

I never will forget those nights
I wonder if it was a dream
Remember how you made me crazy?
Remember how I made you scream
Now I don't understand what happened to our love
But babe, I'm gonna get you back
I'm gonna show you what I'm made of

I can see you-
Your brown skin shinin' in the sun
I see you walkin' real slow and you're smilin' at everyone
I can tell you my love for you will still be strong
After the boys of summer have gone

Out on the road today, I saw a DEADHEAD sticker on a Cadillac
A little voice Inside my head said, "Don't look back. You can never look back."
I thought I knew what love was
What did I know?
Those days are gone forever
I should just let them go but-

I can see you-
Your brown skin shinin' in the sun
You got that top pulled down and that radio on, baby
And I can tell you my love for you will still be strong
After the boys of summer have gone

I can see you-
Your brown skin shinin' in the sun
You got that hair slicked back and those Wayfarers on, baby
I can tell you my love for you will still be strong
After the boys of summer have gone

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maverick0073
10-05-2006

Rated 0 
excellent song, the Ataris did a cover on this, but i do prefer the original than any cover. Its about someone special that you spend the summer with and after the summer is over you might not ever see that special someone eve again. Or maybe that they left for college after summer.

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duhaast
10-09-2006

Rated 0 
The song is about looking back on your life and loves after you have started to get on in years.

The girl is the love of his life. He has not nor will ever forget her.

The boys of summer are just that...the fleeting affairs of youth. He will still love her after the boys...and years... are all past.

"Out on the road today, I saw a DEADHEAD sticker on a Cadillac
A little voice Inside my head said, "Don't look back. You can never look back."
I thought I knew what love was
What did I know?
Those days are gone forever
I should just let them go but-"

Regret. Longing. What could have been.....

I'm 55 now...married with two grown kids, but then I was 22, she was 19, and we were together 3 years, married for half of that. Her name is Jacqui, and I know I will never ever forget her.

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sookie
12-29-2006

Rated 0 
I went out with a girl for a couple of years before she left for university and met someone else there.... and sometimes I still drive by her house" though I know your not home", and I did think that 'babe Im gonna get you back' but...unfortunately it didnt work out... I still think about her when I hear this tune and that's 20 years ago!

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madnesslover_89
04-09-2007

Rated 0 
This song needs no decoding, no key...no explanation.

What does need explanation, however, is the fact that this, the original, is far better than any of the covers, most notably the Ataris version.

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Josega
04-17-2007

Rated 0 
Top song. This song stopped me in my tracks when it came out in 1985, before that, music was just noise to me. Always thought it was about lost love. I was lucky though, I got her back after 12 years...

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joe walsh rules
07-19-2007

Rated +1 
i love this song ,anyway its about a guy who meets a amazing girl during the summer but sadly after the summer shes gone and he feels why did this happen to me i met the perfect girl and she just played me for a whole summer but don is saying hey dont look back i thought i new what love was but what did i know those days are gone forever just let em go.

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Ashley765
07-25-2007

Rated 0 
I think this song is about the girl he still longs to see, now that his 'wild days' with the guys ('boys of summer') are over. Young guys can be quite reckless and I always picture the lyrics to be about that, how guys chase girls but don't mean to get serious... but the singer now declares that he wanted more than just that fling.

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Urban Cannibal
09-13-2007

Rated 0 
Interesting take, Ashley765, but I think it's the other way around. He does long for her, but he's reading far more into the relationship then she ever intended. They had a brief time together, then she dumped him and moved on, and she has been with plenty of boys since then. But to him, they are all just short term temporary flings - "Boys of Summer" - and he is sure that once they are all gone he can win her back, despite the fact that to her, there never was anything serious. Part of him - the voice in his head - is telling him that there is nothing there and he has to move on, but he shuts out the voice, because he can't forget her, even though she hardly even notices him any more. Every time he comes close to moving on, all he has to do is see her, or just visualise her, and it all comes back. He even makes it happen himself, driving by her house even though he knows she isn't there.

It's a beautiful, bittersweet song of unrequited love, and one of my all-time favourites.

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shredderboi14
10-07-2007

Rated 0 
im young, im still in sencodary school, but i can still relate...i used to really love some1 and now a year on we never talk...she smiles at everyone, i walk past her house everyday from school...ans this song makes me think of those days...

it;s about girls u never 4get

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okayokay
10-30-2007

Rated 0 
come on, everyone knows there's an allegorical meaning......

I will type more next time

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CharmingMan
11-26-2007

Rated 0 
..I passed my driving test when this song was charting. I remember thinking it was a fabulous driving song - I remember driving and driving and driving to it - through the country to the beach.... to meet my destiny

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otisotisotis
12-17-2007

Rated 0 
The boys of summer are the Grateful Dead. He met the girl on Dead Tour. He was there for the long haul, she was into the fling.

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etherized
01-21-2008

Rated 0 
duhaast, you nailed it on the head.

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JODIE1983
02-03-2008

Rated 0 
Every time I hear this song it reminds me of a couple of years ago. I live in a sunny seaside town and it makes me rememeber when all the boy racers would come from miles around to parade their cars up and down the seafront in the summer. I was goin out with a boy racer from our towm and we split up cos that summer he was constantly out showing his car off to other boys, I never seen him. The words - my love for you will still be strong, after the boys of summer have gone - just summed the whole situation up really!! Once the winter came and it settled down he did ask 2 get back with him but by then I had already moved on.

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Rearranged00
04-23-2008

Rated 0 
Everyone here has it right when they say that this song is about unrequited/lost love and the inability to move on and look past that love, but that is strictly the literal interpretation of it. Like "okayokay" said, there is also the allegorical meaning, which I think is more important. The real message of the song is a warning about the dangers of living in and romanticizing the past, and that you can never be truly happy unless you start living for the right now. At least that much seems obvious to me.

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SupahManDude
05-18-2008

Rated +1 
This song is about love, but the youthful, passionate kind of love. In our lives, we've all known the girl who would "wlak reall slow and smile at everyone". All the guys wanted her, and she wanted each one of the guys at some point. But, she changes her mind so often that it seems like summer brings different groups of boys. And while she may be 100% past the relationship, the boys aren't, and they don't even care that she's had many other "boys of summer".
I've been in this situation with a flirty girl such as this. I wanted her so badly, but I was kind of just her toy. And, yes, sometimes I would go the long way home to drive past her house. Now, though, I no longer need her love, but the love I had for her is still buried inside of me, and honestly, it will never go away. Like the song says, I really go back to this time, but I still remember her and love her just the same.
Also, this song sounds like summer love. It's sexy, hot, and steamy. Plus, the video is just perfect. I love this version over any of the other covers, even though those covers are very good.

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SupahManDude
05-18-2008

Rated +1 
^*I meant to say, "I really CAN"T go back to this time" sorry!***

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briangolley89
06-24-2008

Rated 0 
This song has been part of my consciousness as most pop hits of the recent past are. Right now, the song is me. It's amazing. Don Henley is an undeniably great songwriter, even though he makes me cringe.

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StrickenJadedLoner
08-31-2008

Rated 0 
Words don't do this song justice. Nothing I can say can describe how I feel about this song... But the tears speak for themselves, I think.

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convince
12-01-2008

Rated 0 
Don's talking about being in love with the girl that's out of his league. I picture him being a regular guy, and she's this beautiful, sexy, rich, modelesque woman. It seems that their short lived relationship is over, and she's out partying it up with young buff beach men. He sees her doing this, and he knows that they are only temporary lovers. He knows that she's alone when the summer is over. He loves her, and will continue to even after the other men have gone. It's a great song. I like how he knows that's she's with other men but he over looks it

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duhaast
02-26-2009

Rated 0 
Re-posting to get it in the main thread.....

-------------------


A couple more things about the song and vid.

I don't think it's just me, but does anyone else hear the guitar seagulls during the bridge? Great evocation of the whole "summer" feel.

About the vid... IMHO one of the finest music vids ever shot. Absolutely perfect storytelling.

The vollyball "boys". Though she's with Him, she always saw all the other boys...

The use of projected film as 'memory'. Even the little boy playing drums I think is the adult Him...it's just his inner child looking over his shoulder to the past..."It shouldn't have been that way. It should have lasted."

The brooding, pencil-snapping adult....Him now, after all these years, angry, but I think mostly at himself for his failure (I'm gonna get you back, gonna show you what I'm made of..") still unable to forget and stop looking at the past. (Note: the angry adult does not appear to be Henley)

The ending car sequence... Absolute genius of visual tricks. We've been watching His memories, and so has he. He sees them everywhere, even on blank walls. And as His life goes on, and he forces himself to break out of his thought shell and go (home?), we are shown that He is, in fact, Don Henley.

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Jenlie
06-29-2009

Rated 0 
beautiful song! sounds amazing live! don's voice is stellar! this song can be interpreted anyway you want, which makes it great

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P_E
08-04-2009

Rated +1 
One of the best songs ever. I loved it since I was a kid but didn't really understand it. Now I'm in my thirties and understand all too well.

We've all got that person we think 'what if?' about. She was mine. Had brown skin too so this song just about sums me up right now.

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Digginit
09-19-2009

Rated 0 
Great, great song. I think a few on here are making it more complicated than it is. He had the classic summer romance when he was younger. Come Fall, the relationship ended as it was fated too when he went back to school or whatever. Except he, somewhat surprisingly to him, never gets over her.

I think the "Deadheads sticker on the Cadillac" line just represents the passage of time. The car driven by a former idealist hippie kid who has grown up and is now making good money with a corporation or something and is driving a Cadillac.

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dollsnatch
10-27-2009

Rated 0 
I was raised in a house where the likes of Neil Young, Eric Clapton, Bruce Springsteen and other writing geniuses were always being played (not disputing the genius of DH and The Eagles, Im a huge fan), but this song has always been the one that speaks to me.

I dont even understand why, it just has so much emotion in it. Brilliant.

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