Good Morning. It was a good morning.

While driving back from a wedding gig with Fly By Radio in New Orleans this past weekend I found myself needing a distraction from the darkness of the night, the warmth of the truck cab, and the roar of the tires on the interstate. I was just barely halfway into my drive to the hotel. The echos from the night’s activities had subsided and the ringing of cymbals and high pitched screams had soothed. I was not tired or sleepy but I was feeling like the heavy eyelids would come sooner than wanted if I didn’t find a distraction and a way to focus my thoughts. I stopped at a Love’s Travel Station for fuel, a restroom break, and a bottle of water. I’m not sure why but I began humming Don Henley’s Boys Of Summer while waiting to pay for my purchase but I was hearing it wide open in my head. I looked up that song on Spotify once back in the truck and selected Don as my entertainment for the next hour or so of driving. Together we hit the road.

Now, I have heard Boy’s Of Summer countless times in my life. I’ve played this song with various musicians throughout the years. I find myself playing those iconic Mike Campbell guitar licks any time I pick up a guitar. I sing along to the lyrics anytime this song plays. I have always really liked this song. I liked it as a young teen and I like it just as much now at near fifty years old.  I would even say that I know this song by heart. However, as it played in the wee morning hours along that dark Mississippi highway I realized that I have never really listened to this song. I mean really listened. This time I heard it, listened to it for what felt like the first time.

I could go on at length about what I think this song is about or how I feel like I know what Don Henley is talking about with his imagery and double entendres. No, not the point. What I heard, for the first time, was just how perfectly the lyric, the melody, the music, the mood, and the supporting parts all tell the exact same story. And here’s the thing, the story hasn’t changed since it was released and we all sang along to it ad nauseam when it dominated the airwaves back in the day. The words are the same. The music is the same. The tempo is the same. So why did it hit me so differently that morning? What changed? I changed.

How do I mean that I changed? I mean that I am older and I have lived through various life cycles. I have loved and lost and had no idea what I had when I had it. I have lived long enough to realize that a memory of a loved lost that haunts you doesn’t rest solely on the memory of the person you loved. It is as much about missing who you were and how you felt during that time. Holding onto hope that those lost loves could be recaptured or rekindled is misguided at best. Age has shown me that what is being longed for is the entirety of the experience, the good, the bad, and the ugly. That is what makes this song and so many other songs, poems, movies, books, ballets… so great. It is a way to give voice to that feeling. 

We should let go of the crazy romantic notions of youth and live in the now and just move on but we don’t, we can’t. Why would we want to do so? Even if only for a moment it is wonderful to feel that way again. That is the power of art. The power of story. The power or notes combined in a fashion that makes our memories come to life. For the length of the time we invest ourselves in the art we transport ourselves back to those feelings and memories. If we are lucky that lingers on with us for a bit longer.

So, when Don sang “…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…” I heard and understood them like I never understood them before. I realized that this song was written as a memory, as an ode to a life lived. This wasn’t a teeny-bopper love story like I had previously thought. This is a song about being alive and having a very human experience and wanting to feel that way again.

I am releasing a new song this week too. It’s called Good Morning. I really enjoyed creating all parts of this song. I think it very much tells a musical story of the many musical influences that I have discovered over the years. I hope you enjoy it. It’s a goodern.