Estimated reading time: 1 minute
Hey, I’m not dead (at least on the outside)! Part of my full-time job is managing a summer arts camp in July, so I am finally starting to recover. Really grateful that for the first time EVER, I decided to take the month of July off from teaching, because I left my brain somewhere in June!
It’s getting steadily warmer here, and I sweated buckets while at the summer camp. When summer really hits, I can’t resist The Ataris‘ cover of “The Boys of Summer”. I didn’t know the original recording by Don Henley before this one came out; in fact, I didn’t realize it was a cover at all until the radio stations suddenly started playing the original when this cover started getting popular.
You can definitely hear the musical influences of each recording’s era, even though so much of the melody and guitar licks remain the same between the two. The change in guitar tone, synth, and drum patterns really make a big difference in transforming this ’80s hit into the pop punk style that was so popular in the early ’00s.
I listened to this Ataris album OBSESSIVELY as a young teenager and can still sing along to every single song by heart. Honestly, I still really enjoy So Long Astoria, and think it has aged better than a lot of other pop punk albums from that era. If you’re unfamiliar with (or don’t remember) The Ataris, take a listen to the rest of the album sometime!
Stay cool and enjoy this summer tune!
Riffs on the Reg 