32 replies to this topic

[JRC]

Heard it on the way to work this morning, and realized again how much I like this tune.
Enough that I went out and actually paid for the CD last year.

Even when I was a kid, when it came out in 1984 (I was 11 for kryst sake) I would sing along to this.
What the hell does an 11 year old know about loss of love, longing and regret?!

The combination of daydream about the good old days and the sadness of lost love.
How even an early pain of being left feels good in hindsight.
The desire to put right an early failing.
The blaiming the other party.
The desire for a kind of revenge.

Nostalgia cures everything.

The way he adds that bitter inflection to his voice, where he's singing how much he'll always love her, you can also hear how angery he is at being left--how he never lets that anger/pain go.
The subtle stalker-ish line "I'm driving by your house / though i know that you not home..."
(Did this breakup happen 10 years ago, or last summer?)

How the heck did I relate to that at 11?
Guess I grew into it.

Oddly enough, one of my other Fav songs (& LPs) is "Hotel California" by the Eagles is simmilarly about regret, although a more adult themed version of it--oddly enough, written by a younger Don Henley.
An album all about aging, loss, and mispent youth.


Lyrics:
Nobody on the road,
nobody on the beach.
I feel it in the air,
the summers out of reach

Empty lake, empty streets,
the sun goes down alone.
I'm driving by your house
though i know that you not home...

And i can see you
you brown skin shining in the sun
you got your hair combed back
sunglasses on baby

and i can tell you
my love for you will still be strong
after the boy of summer have gone.

out on the road today
i saw a dead head sticker on a cadillac
a 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 for ever
i should just let them go and...

i can see you
your brown skin shining in the sun
you know your walking real slow
smiling at everyone

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 drove me crazy?
remember how i made you scream?

now i don't understand what happed to our love
now baby gonna get you back
gonna show you what i'm made of...

i can see you
your brown skin shining in the sun
you got your top pulled down,
radio on baby

and i can tell you
my love for you will still be strong
after the boys of summer have gone.

[Jacki O.]

now i am going to have this song in my head all day!

[raubhimself]

yeah i love the song, even after the atari's or whoever covered it.

[JRC]

yeah i love the song, even after the atari's or whoever covered it.

I didn't know they did.
That sounds . . . inapropriate.
JRC

[glitterbot]

I too love this song, although it is almost painful. Nostalgia is like eating too much really good pie; delicious and painful all at once, with the possibility for self-destruction thrown in. Plus, I like pie!

[fatguyaz]

When i was young and heard this for the first time, i wasn't sure if the line was

"i thought i knew what love was what did i know"

or

i thought i knew what love was...But, did i? No.

Also, the line about the "Deadhead sticker on a cadillac" used to freak me out cuz i didn't know what a "deadhead" was yet, so i thought it was actually a "dead head stickin on a cadillac"

I wasn't sure how a decapitated head would stick on a car. Maybe on the antenna?

Maybe this should have gone in the Mondegreen thread... oh well, too late now. Sue me.

yeah i love the song, even after the atari's or whoever covered it.

I didn't know they did.
That sounds . . . inapropriate.
JRC

It WAS The Ataris... the only good part was when the music dropped out for the line "i should just let 'um go but..." going back into the chorus.

The rest of it was kinda 'eh'

[raubhimself]

they also changed it from "deadhead sticker" to "blackflag sticker"

[unluckycharm]

There is some unwritten law out there that pop punk bands have to do a sketchy cover of an 80's hit.

[fatguyaz]

There is some unwritten law out there that pop punk bands have to do a sketchy cover of an 80's hit.

To my knowledge, Unwritten Law didn't do too many 80's covers.

[Mary]

I love the movement in that song, although I am a big sucker for "The End of the Innocence" instead.

[mothrock]

There is some unwritten law out there that pop punk bands have to do a sketchy cover of an 80's hit.

To my knowledge, Unwritten Law didn't do too many 80's covers.

ha!

[raubhimself]

There is some unwritten law out there that pop punk bands have to do a sketchy cover of an 80's hit.

To my knowledge, Unwritten Law didn't do too many 80's covers.

they did a cover of Revolution by the Beatles though!

[aaronburke]

awesome song.

[hunter gather]

Sorry,

Don Henley is a bag of dicks.

[fatguyaz]

'Hunters' have been awesome here, so far.