Boomer Suicide Anthems

I've never liked "J&D," ["Jack and Diane"] that and "Glory Days" are the songs that make me wonder why more boomers haven't killed themselves.
― miccio (miccio), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 08:53 (8 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It occurred to me while listening to the radio tonight that "Summer of '69" is another one of these, despite the upbeat music.

The song is about being young and discovering sex. You need to look a bit deeper in the lyrics to find the meaning.

I got my first real six-string
Bought it at the five-and-dime
Played it till my fingers bled
Was the summer of '69

MEANING - he is talking about masturbation here. the six string is his "guitar" and the reference to 5 and dime refers to his hands (5 and 10 fingers). he "played it" till his fingers "bled" means he really got after it in that he masturbated so much it like hurt.

Me and some guys from school
Had a band and we tried real hard
Jimmy quit, Jody got married
Shoulda known, we'd never get far

MEANING - here he has discovered group masturbation. "had a band" refers to his little group "tried real hard" means they really went after it. two of his friends move on and they no longer do it. he seems a bit sad that they did not progress or "get far" which probably means he was looking for a little something more.

Ain't no use in complainin'
When you got a job to do
Spent my evenings down at the drive-in
And that's when I met you

MEANING - he keeps a positive attitude because he has a "job" to do meaning he needs to touch himself again. so he spent his nights at some "drive-in" and it is unclear here if he is talking about drive in movies that might very well be pornographic or he is talking about a drive in fast food place where he sits in the car watching.

Standin' on your mama's porch
You told me that you'd wait forever
Oh and when you held my hand
I knew that it was now or never
Those were the best days of my life

MEANING - once again he has found someone to masturbate with. apparently this person reaches climax faster than he does so they reassure him they will "wait forever" but wait what happens next ? that person then holds his "hand" (penis) and he knew he could no longer wait and climaxes - wow those were great times he thinks the best days of his life.

Man we were killin' time
We were young and restless
We needed to unwind
I guess nothin' can last forever, forever, no

MEANING - they were "killin' time" and were "young and restless" because they were basically bored and did not have cable television or the internet or anything so what did they do ? then "needed to unwind" meaning they needed to masturbate so that is how they killed time.

And now the times are changin'
Look at everything that's come and gone
Sometimes when I play that old six-string
Think about you wonder what went wrong

MEANING - they grow up and get older and he reflects on things that have "come and gone" but sometimes, probably when he is alone, he whips out "that old six-string" and thinks about his buddy or buddies.

Back in the summer of '69
Un-huh
It was the summer of '69, oh yeah
Me and my baby in '69, oh

MEANING - This is a reference to the sexual position "69" where two people come together for oral sex and resemble the letters 6 and 9 together. look at the number 69 and imagine two people facing each other but turned 180 degrees. the position allows for mutual direct access to each others sexual parts for mutual gratification. So there it is "the summer of 69" has nothing to do with 1969 it is basically a fond reflection on group masturbation.

otm

This is pretty much what I've always assumed every Bryan Adams song is about.

Fire and Rain

"Night Moves"
"Against The Wind"

It's a wonder we still have Seger around.

Oddly enough, I like "Glory Days" and "Jack And Diane" a lot more now. I TOTALLY missed the humor in Bruce's song initially, and while "hold on to 16 as long as you can" is sad as fuck imo, it feels mean to begrudge a "peaked in high school" anthem so detailed and hooky.

Intended to post "Turn the Page" last night but got sidetracked.

Well you walk into a restaurant
Strung out from the road
And you feel the eyes upon you
As you're shakin' off the cold
You pretend it doesn't bother you
But you just want to explode

xpost

Blood, Sweat & Tears - "My Days Are Numbered"

I see the heaven moonlight
syrup drippin' down my window
flowing like a river
through the tears that I have cried
I gotta find myself, hey
a reason to go on livin’
but you can't breathe life into somethin'
that's already died

LET THE TACO BELL COME AND SAVE MY SOULLLLL

Suicide is painless

duh

Deacon Blues

duh deux

40,000 men and women every day
(Like Romeo and Juliet)
40,000 men and women every day
(Redefine happiness)
Another 40,000 coming every day
(We can be like they are)

We Didn't Start the Fire
When We Was Fab

Not sure these count, but maybe?

XTC- The Last Balloon

Maybe they are not thought of as a boomer band idk. I checked and Andy Partridge was born in 1953, though (60 later this year!).

A lot of good answers. "Against the Wind" works, I think, but "Night Moves" seems a little different to me. It's nostalgic but I never get the sense that he's remembering those experiences as 'the best days of his life': he even acknowledges that they were loveless and awkward, that he and his partner were just using each other.

Then that backward-looking section at the end is just knife-twistingly real: it's clear that he has romantic feelings about the past, while at the same time acknowledging how unromantic the coupling was.

Because nostalgia often has little to do with the quality of the experiences, and a lot to do with our own shifts in feeling about ourselves. This is actually a pretty feckin wise point, and one that I don't think was ever made in song before "Night Moves."

...
― The Mad Puffin, Tuesday, 3 May 2005 14:06 (8 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"baker street" -- the sax solos are the feeling of getting the rope ready and hanging it, the concluding guitar solo is when you kick the chair away and forget about everything

also, the police -- "Ωmegaman" (which could double as an ILM posting anthem)

Genesis- I Can't Dance

The Who - "Cry If You Want"

There's gotta be a couple Byrds songs that fit this bill, right? 5D maybe?

Rock N Roll Suicide, maybe?

"hold on to 16 as long as you can" is sad as fuck imo

^ cf. "Life goes on long after the thrill of living has gone".

how did we go this long without acknowledging the deadhead sticker on a cadillac

Randy Newman- I'm Dead(But I Don't Know It)

^ cf. "Life goes on long after the thrill of living has gone".

Yeah, that's about as miserable as it gets. The first time I ever heard the song, I think I imagined that the protagonist had become severely disabled in an accident when he turned 20 or something. These songs are interesting imo in that not only do the remembered experiences seem pretty ordinary but nothing extremely tragic seems to have happened afterwards in the lives of the protagonists. Apparently, this sentiment really resonated with a large number of people who were approaching middle age in a time of relative prosperity and stability.

The Statler Brothers have at least a few cuts straddling this line between An Innocent Man/"Pencil Thin Mustache" nostalgia ("Do You Remember These," "Carry Me Back") and boomer suicide, especially "The Class of '57":

Helen is a hostess, Frank works at the mill
Janet teaches grade school and prob'ly always will
Bob works for the city and Jack's in lab research
And Peggy plays organ at the Presbyterian Church

And the Class of '57 had its dreams
Oh, we all thought we'd change the world
With our great works and deeds
Or maybe we just thought the world would change to fit our needs
The class of '57 had its dreams

(obviously, they couldn't be boomers proper graduating high school in '57, so maybe this is some other sub-generational statement of ennui worth noting, but still)

"many rivers to cross"?