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by Have A Nice Day on November 7th, 2009
I always thought it was about "summer romances", although I guess some of them could have been baseball players and/or college students. Basically he's just watching some chick run around with all these other guys and wishing it was him the whole time.
by Matrixbarf on November 3rd, 2009
Some people will tell you that this song is about baseball players (sometimes, specifically naming the 1952 Brooklyn Dodgers). This is because the title of the song was taken from a book with the same name. The book is about how the lives of the former ballplayers had changed between the time the author (Roger Kahn) covered the team as a sportswriter and the time he tracked each of them down twenty years later. That was the general plot of the book, but not the subject of the song, according to Henley. Henley stated that the song was about aging and questioning the past events of your life.
by Nightwatchdog on November 3rd, 2009
The boys of summer are baseball players.
by MasterS on November 7th, 2009
This song is about growing up and the passing away of youth.
"Out on the road today I saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadilac. A little voice inside my head said don't look back you can never look back"
This line here is pretty good about expressing this, The person realizes that even the Dead heads have grown up.
by WelbyQuentin on November 4th, 2009
It certainly is not about baseball players if one listens to the lyrics. [ Matrixbarf nails it correctly in my opinion with his last sentence in his answer ]
And I admit, I equate the song with the two half-nude male volleyball jocks jumping up and down in slow motion in the music video.
+5
by overeducated on November 3rd, 2009
The boys of summer are baseball players, yes, but the song sounds like it's using the idiom as an allegory--for a line-up of wrong guys for a woman for which our singer is the right guy.
But admittedly I don't know all the words.
by sm00z on November 7th, 2009
Specifically that song mentions Mickey Mantle of the New York Yankees, Willie Mays of the New York Giants, and Duke Snider of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Henley was probably waning nostalgic wax in regard to all three New York teams having great center fielders during the 1950s.
How many pies can a porpoise poise on purpose if she pleases?
by Andy B has left AB on October 20th, 2011
| 4 people like this
What does "death may be your Santa Claus" mean?
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My dog wont eat an is vomiting there is blood in his stoool What do i do????
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by Andy B has left AB on October 1st, 2011
| 5 people like this
You're reading In that Don Henley song, are The Boys of Summer baseball players, college students, or something else? Never understood it.
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Comments
:) Yes. Your answer certainly makes more sense with the lyrics, then trying to somehow equate it to baseball players in my opinion. :) +6 But i just read smOOz's answer -- I might be full of crap I guess. I haven't listened so closely as I thought to the song.
by WelbyQuentin on November 7th, 2009
Well to be honest I've never heard the Don Henley version, and don't remember any baseball players mentioned in the 80s cover, and it was a Black Flag sticker, not a deadhead, which implys hippies and Jerry Garcia.
by Have A Nice Day on November 7th, 2009
I've only heard Henley's version -- and the lyrics posted in the question's link don't mention three baseball players as sm00z mentioned. I'm confused, I guess. :) I didn't follow the Black Flag sticker, deadheads and hippies reference in your answer. I'm sorry. [ It is probably me -- I've been having difficulty lately following things here in AB. :) :)] I'M AN IDIOT!! - I just figured out what you meant about the deadhead sticker- - { on a cadillac} - -please excuse my darn ignorance in invading your answer!
by WelbyQuentin on November 7th, 2009