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| John King is a graduate student and writes 'King's Eye Land' for the Daily News. His views do not necessarily agree with those of the newspaper. |
Bryan Adams' "Summer of '69" rocks.
(I swear there's a point. Bear with me.)
Sure, Adams' latter-day love songs are fodder for ridicule. "Everything I Do, I Do For You," just screams for a beating.
For serious musicians, Adams is Satan, tormenting and taunting from the radio. "The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me Is You," is perhaps the greatest musical crime ever committed.
Around 1984, Bryan Adams abandoned conventional rock and began recording everything in the key of suck.
But despite his sins, 1983's "Summer of '69" survives as a universal secret guilty pleasure of twenty-and-thirtysomethings.
When the song debuted, most of today's college students were fetal.
Furthermore, few people reading this actually lived during '69. But the beauty of "'69" is that it doesn't specify which century. It's like the Y2K bug, only not.
But no matter when we were born, "Summer of '69" is universal cheese that can make us feel young.
If you hear "Summer of '69" and smile, you've understood a greater truth of the universe. If you get reminiscent, you know you've passed some generational mile-marker.
Punk bands understand this, and relentlessly pay tribute to it. I never really thought about it, but now, I understand too.
Check out the lyrics:
"I got my first real six-string. Bought it at the five and dime. Played it 'til my fingers bled. Was the summer of '69."
That's poetry. When I started playing guitar, I wanted to rock, but wow, my fingers hurt.
"Oh when I look back now, the summer seemed to last forever, and if I had the choice, yeah, I'd always want to be there."
With summer approaching, this is a reminder: Enjoy it, because Indiana summers last about 10 minutes, and then the weather sucks again.
"Ain't no use in complaining when you've got a job to do. I spent my evenings down at the drive-in, and that's when I met you."
Bryan Adams' work ethic meant nothing when I was a kid, mainly because I was busy trying to figure out the drive-in part. Our disintegrating drive-in was a forbidden haven of sin.
"Standin' on your mama's porch, you told me that you'd wait forever. Oh, when you held my hand, I knew that it was now or never."
I never had dates in high school. I have no idea what he's saying here.
"Yeah, we were killing time, we were young and restless, something-something-something. I guess nothing could last forever, forever, no."
Hey, I never said I knew all the words. But the point is there: Nothing lasts forever -- except songs and memories.
Gathering friends, blaring music, enjoying life (or maybe a decade of college): These are beautiful things that don't last forever, but songs and memories keep them around.
Nobody really thinks about when these things end.
"And now the times are changing, look at everything that's come and gone. Sometimes when I play that old six-string, I think about you, wonderin' what went wrong."
What did go wrong? We stopped watching MTV and turned to VH1. Current events became interesting. We graduated. We had to get jobs.
Responsibility crept up and stole all our free time, leaving us to look back at the stupid things we used to do.
Those were the best days of my life.
Write to John at kingseyeland@bsu.edu
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