“Summer of '69”

T H E S O N G by Fergal Kavanagh Questo pezzo rock di Bryan Adams è passato alla storia. “Summer E’ un ricordo nostalgico delle gioie della gioventù, anche se nell’estate del ‘69 lui aveva solo of ‘69” 9 anni. LANGUAGE LEVEL (To appreciate this article fully we sug- Springsteen’s “Thunder Road.” He also ADVANCED gest you type “Summer of ’69 lyrics” acknowledges10 the Beatles’ influence into an Internet search engine, and refer on the line “When you held my hand.” Track to them as you read.) There is some controversy surrounding 10 the real meaning behind the song, and “Summer of ’69,” which was written in the next verse recalls nothing to do Speaker: 1984, takes a nostalgic look at the joys (“killing time”) and the need to relax Chuck Rolando (Standard of youth. Bryan Adams, who was born in (“unwind”). American accent) November 1959, was only 9 in the sum- In the sleeve notes11 for his 2005 An- mer of ‘69, but the song’s co-author, thology, Bryan Adams claimed the song Jim Vallance, was a few years older. Val- has nothing to do with 1969, saying it lance remembers: “I was thinking about was a “double entendre,” but Jim Val- that amazing summer when I turned 17. lance disagrees: “At no time do I recall We originally planned on calling the discussing sexual innuendo12 with Bry- song ‘Best Days Of My Life.’” an.” The use of the apostrophe in the A six string is a guitar, title’s number should which the singer bought confirm the song is Glossary at the five and dime, a about the year. shop which sold items1 The song concludes in 1 items - articoli. priced 5 or 10 cents, the present with the 2 bled - sanguinavano. 3 quit - se ne andò. and then played “til my singer and his teen- 4 drummers - 2 percussionisti. fingers bled .” The sec- age girlfriend no longer 5 carpets - moquette. ond verse recalls his together. He looks at 6 bride - sposa. 7 recalls - ricorda. first band, which soon “everything that’s come 8 porch - veranda fell apart (“Jimmy quit3 and gone” and occa- (tipica delle case americane). and Jody got married”). sionally plays his old 9 line - verso. 10 acknowledges - Jim Wesley was in fact guitar, wondering “what registra, riconosce. one of Bryan Adams’ drummers4 in his went wrong”13. 11 sleeve notes - note 5 di copertina. early years, but left to sell carpets , “Summer of ’69” was a huge hit in 1984, 12 innuendo - allusione. while Jody Perpik was, and still is, but surprisingly was not a number one: 13 wondering what went wrong - Adams’ sound engineer. He got married it reached number five in the U.S.A. chiedendosi cosa è around the time this song was written, charts and just number 42 in the U.K. andato storto. and appears in the song’s video with his new bride6. This recording features 15 seconds from The fourth verse recalls7 days in a bor- “The Summer of ‘69,” which was writ- ing job, and evenings at the drive-in, ten by Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance an outdoor cinema popular in the 1960s (1984). where viewers watched from their cars. This was where the singer met his girl- English Through Music... friend, and pictures her on her mother’s Fergal Kavanagh, the author 8 of this article, runs the website porch , an image Jim Vallance remem- www.tuneintoenglish.com. bers as a reference to a line9 from Bruce The Students’ Area features activities for learning English through pop music..

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