Some songs are so knotted into the context of their time that untying them is a difficult task. Don Henley’s “The Boys of Summer,” for example, was an omnipresent hit that ruled radio and MTV during the mid-1980s, somehow connecting with the zeitgeist despite being the lament of the middle-aged. Whether one loved, liked or despised it matters not; everyone knew it.
The lyrics look back at a relationship that haunts the protagonist, who can’t help but wonder what could have been—a question many ask themselves, really, when they look back at their personal histories. Some heard it as a wistful ode about a love that got away, others as a bitter rumination. In truth, it’s a bit of both. In the context of the mid-‘80s, however, there’s another layer to excavate: The long-ago summer fling can be heard as the fabled Summer of Love, with the girl in question a metaphor for a generation’s ideals; by ‘84, after all, the once-vaunted Woodstock Nation—the subject of so much pop culture and lore—had traded the flowers in their hair for securities, stocks and bonds.
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 'em go, but…
That it proved as popular as it did, reaching No. 5 on Billboard’s Top 100 singles chart and topping the Mainstream Rock chart, isn’t a surprise in and of itself; as anyone who navigated pop culture during the Reagan years can confirm, it was awash with middle-aged artists and bands, while the revolt of youth was occurring elsewhere—college radio, for example. In Henley’s case, he was helped by song’s smart video, which would win Video of the Year at the 1985 MTV Video Music Awards. Directed by Jean-Baptiste Mondino, it’s as inventive a post-modern short film ever shot to celluloid. (Yes, I’m being a tad facetious.)
Others have had success with the song in the years since, of course. In the early 2000s, for instance, the Ataris tried to recast it by upping the tempo and swapping “Deadhead” for “Black Flag,” with its success tied to faux nostalgia; the band’s frontman Kristopher Roe simply looks and sounds too young to be forlorn about a long-ago romance, with the love he lost likely his first crush. The angst and gravitas of the original is missing.
As an Internet search just reminded me, I analyzed the song and several cover versions when spotlighting the Summer Songs EP from Americana-flavored singer-songwriter Karen Jonas a few years back. So I’ll skip more of my planned grandstanding and focus on the subject of this essay, “The Boys of Summer” as performed by Sarah Darling and the SIx One Five Collective.
Darling and company have slowed the song, swapped Mike Campbell’s memorable guitar riff for a fiddle, and supplemented her lead vocal with a proverbial cushion of support. It’s wistful and sorrowful, longing set to song. Similar to Jonas, Darling mourns both the summer (her youth) and the guy who got away. The long-form metaphor that drove Henley’s original has been left on the roadside for no other reason than the times have changed. Grateful Dead memorabilia is everywhere, these days, while the values they championed are not.
The Six One Five Collective, by the way, is a cool group of talented artists who come together every so often to record and tour. In addition to Darling, whose last album was a delight, it includes Aaron Goodvin, Nicole Witt and Michael Logan.
The Old Grey Cat 