Today’s post is about the song “Summer of 69″ from the Bryan Adams album entitled Reckless. This album was released in 1984 and also contained multiple hits including “One Night Love Affair,” “Run to You,” and “Somebody” among others. This album peaked at #1 on the Billboard charts in August 1985.
Bryan Adams-Summer of 69: What you are supposed to think the song is about
According to the song, Adams sings about how he got his first guitar and was learning how to play it and then how he got together with some of his classmates from school and formed a band. This seems a legitimate scenario. In fact, I would imagine this is how many bands would have started.
Bryan Adams performing live. Photo taken by Marco Maas (flickr user “qnibert00″) and used per Creative Commons 2.0 license.
Bryan Adams-Summer of 69: What I think this song is REALLY about
While the scenario above may make sense when taken at face value, new details emerge when a little research is done. According to Wikipedia (which we know is always correct, without exception), Bryan Adams was born in 1959. This would mean that he started his band at the age of ten. Is that possible? Well, yes, I suppose it could be until you do a little more critical thinking. According to the lyrics:
Jimmy quit,
Jodie got married.
Should’a known
We’d never get far.
This would mean one of two things:
- He was a ten-year-old playing in a band with much older kids.
- He is full of shit about the events taking place in 1969.
I will analyze each of the scenarios above.
Ronnie James Dio joined his first band, the Vegas Kings, at the age of 15.
First, it is very unlikely that someone who may have been nine or ten years old would be playing in a band with others who are at the age where they are getting married. Sure, there have been some instances where young band members played with older members. I am not talking about instances where the entire band was young, like the Jackson 5 or Menudo or similar, nor am I talking about a solo act where the artist was young. The only examples I can think of off the top of my head are Rick Allen, the drummer for Def Leppard who joined the band on his fifteenth birthday, and Steve Winwood who joined the Spencer Davis Group at age 14. Another young musician was Ronnie James Dio, who joined a local group in his hometown of Cortland, NY called the Vegas Kings at the age of 15.
The second, more likely, scenario is that this piece of Bryan Adams music used the number “69” as sexual innuendo. He probably thought it would be cute to name his song “Summer of 69″ for that reason. What do you think? Vote below in the poll to give your opinion.
