Don Henley "Boys Of Summer"

In high school, I worked my summers in the the Ice Cream business.

If you were ever to travel old Route One, and you ventured through Newburyport, well, I may just have served you a double scoop.

I started at Haley's Ice Cream the summer after my Sophomore year and worked there up until the week I left for college, making sundaes and splits and frappes and soft serve with chocolate dip.

There were sooo many life lessons gleaned in those years, starting on Day One.

I'd never worked a cash register before, and no one had ever taught me to count back change. After giving back a customer too much change, Mr. Haley took me aside and said gently, but firmly, "I'll tell you what the Old Man who was my boss, told me on the first day I went to work as a kid, 'Do everything fast. Count money slow.'" And then he patiently taught me how to give correct change.

I also learned just how damn heavy 5 Gallons of ice cream can be. I dropped one of those old metal dairy canisters full of coffee ice cream on my foot. I spent the next several weeks on crutches, and even today my big toe is still noticeably deformed.

The best part of working at Haley's was the discovery of how a social scene develops around a workplace. It's obvious now, but it had never occurred to me that this loose connection of people in different grades, from different schools would form summer-long, and in some cases, life-long friendships.

When I hear "Boys Of Summer" I think of Stephanie. I also laugh a little bit at myself.

Stephanie and I went to high school together, started at Haley's at the same time, and wound through a path over the next couple of years that culminated in us being dates to the Senior Prom.

This song makes me think of her, and that time in my life.

At 18, I was wise enough to understand that this was a song about the end of something, and about the wistfulness left in its wake.

And as the summer of 1987 came to a close, it also meant the end of a huge chapter. We'd be leaving Haley's, leaving Newburyport and our families, going off to college, turning the page to adulthood.

End of summer as a metaphor for the end of high school.

Nearly 25 years later, I smile at what was my limited worldview. 25 years later, I hear that song, and understand it as a loss of so much more than losing a prom date to the upcoming Fall semester.

25 years later, Steph and I and all of the Class of 1987 are at a very different place in our lives, where there are bigger losses, harder truths, and where the innocence of a limited worldview isn't something that may be slipping away, it's something that is far in the rearview mirror.


See the video on Youtube.

Don Henley "Sunset Grill"

This week's posts are written by Scott Lajoie, editor of Cape Cod Magazine. In creating a publication that reflects the look and feel of the region, Scott is particularly attuned to the stories, sights and general nostalgia of summer. So I asked him to write about some of the songs that have touched him personally over the years, particularly the ones that connect to iconic memories or feelings of Cape Cod.

1984. It was an interesting year for a variety of reasons. It was also the year The Eagles’ drummer/sometimes lead singer Don Henley released his second solo album, Building the Perfect Beast.

It was a huge hit. Featured heavy hitting collaborators—Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham, Heartbreaker Mike Campbell, Go-Go Belinda Carlisle, and Patty Smyth. Chock full of radio singles, too. You might think I am going to talk about “Boys of Summer,” right? That quintessential end-of-summer ditty paying homage to the summer fling that gave Henley a Grammy the following year.

Actually, no. “Boys of Summer” is a great song, don’t get me wrong. But it has gotten a little too much airplay over the years, and it is flat-out too straightforward lyrically. We get it: Summer’s over and you’re still thinking about that girl, “her brown skin shining in the sun” with her “Wayfarers on, baby.”

The song that has stuck with me over the decades is “Sunset Grill.” Supposedly it is about a hamburger place on Sunset Boulevard, but really anyone can claim that it is about their favorite place to hang out. And since that “Boys of Summer” song is so prevalent on that album, well most of us could probably assume that the subject of this song is our favorite place to frequent while on vacation.

Summer hangouts. Cape Cod is full of ‘em. And we all have our favorites. Since I live on the Upper Cape, I think of the Chart Room in Cataumet or the Raw Bar in Popponesset Village. But for others, it could easily be Baxter’s in Hyannis, Brax Landing in Harwich, Sundancer’s in Dennis, or the Beachcomber in Wellfleet.

Henley’s melody about this mythical watering hole is dreamy one moment and angry the next. Kudos to a young Randy Newman who orchestrated the synthesizer symphony. As they come off that solo, they begin a steady rise with the last verse: “Maybe we’ll leave come springtime/Meanwhile, I’ll have another beer/What’ll we do without these jerks anyway/Besides, all our friends are here.” It’s a statement of loyalty to place, made ten times stronger than any phrase from Toby Keith’s “I Love This Bar.” While other songs about hangouts may be more popular—Billy Joel’s “Piano Man” comes to mind—nothing quite accomplishes that feeling when you sit on an easy chair with a beer, “stare out at the auburn sky,” and know that you would never leave if you didn’t have to.

Hear the song at Grooveshark: