Summer of ‘69 by Bryan Adams

“Summer of ‘69” Music Video

“Summer of ‘69” live performance

Once upon a time there was no such thing as summer vacation.

Before the Civil War there were two school calendars, one for students in rural communities that gave time off in the spring to help plant crops and in the fall to harvest and one for urban students who had as many as 48 weeks of school a year (compared to the average of 36 weeks students currently have).

In the 1840s education reformers wanted make sure that rural children got more schooling. People also thought that the urban school schedule was too long as medical theories of the times warned that over-stimulation of young minds would lead to nervous disorders and insanity. The compromise extended the rural calendar, while the urban calendar was cut down. The break that was settled on was during the summer. Having time off in the summer allowed children to help with crops and got students out of the classroom during the hottest time of the year.

Summer vacation has come into question with many schools trying out year-round schedules. Since most children do not help out on farms and because of the glory of air conditioning the original reasons to keep children out of the classroom for summer vacation are no longer valid. With the worth of summer vacation coming into the question, I can’t help but wonder if there is something intangible about the days of summer that are worth preserving?

When I think about summer the first song that I think of is Bryan Adam’s 1984 hit, “Summer of ’69.” Throughout his career Adams produced non-offensive pop rock music and one of his biggest hits was his ode to one special summer. What is powerful about this song is that it captures how it felt during that summer while providing perspective that doesn’t over-romanticize the events in the song.

The song starts talking about starting a band. They try hard with dreams of becoming a great rock band but it falls apart. Even though it doesn’t go anywhere, Adams reflects in the chorus that those were the best days in his life. Sometimes things fall apart, but that doesn’t mean that they weren’t great when they lasted.

One of the major themes in “Summer of ‘69” the feeling that things last forever. In the chorus Adams, states that the “summer seemed to last forever.” In later choruses, his love interest says that she would wait forever and that “it’d [there love] last forever.” One of the things about being younger is that you think that things truly do last forever and one of the hard things about adulthood is realizing how finite everything is in life.

When Adams thinks back on all of these events, he knows that they have sad endings but he maintains a sense of nostalgia, which is perfectly captured in the chord progression in the song. The verses stay feature primarily major chords but then the first chords of the chorus is a minor chord which adds a darker color to the song before resolving back to a major chord in the end of the chorus.

I worry sometimes that children these days are too busy to have the kinds of memories that Adams sings about to look back on. Maybe it’s not about summer vacation but about our attitude about childhood. Is it important that children have time in their lives where they believe against reality that dreams can happen and that things can last forever? There’s growing pains in which we learn the truth about life but maybe we should spare children that pain and give them reality earlier on.

That's not right.

We have it backwards, we think that learning the realities of life means that things that we believed as children need to be shattered. Instead, these beliefs need to evolve. Our dreams can become reality if we realize the emotional center of our dreams and not material trappings that we so often wish for. Sometimes things do last forever, people die, memories are forgotten but humanity that we all share truly does last forever.

Summer vacation is worth preserving. It's as American as baseball, it's an integral part of growing up and it's reminds us all of the spirit of childhood that lies deep within our hearts.