What would Bryan Adams be doing if he hadn't recorded Summer of '69?

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Choose one:

a) snow-plow (winter)
b) landscaping (summer)
c) B-porn star (autumn)
d) Lansing Michigan community theater (Brigadoon) (summer)
e) other (any season)

― Alison Crimson (tracerhand), Sunday, 25 August 2002 01:32 (twenty-three years ago)

Roadie for Loverboy (all year 'round, baby, 'cause the ROCK NEVER STOPS)

― Nate Patrin, Sunday, 25 August 2002 01:43 (twenty-three years ago)

e) other

― ron (ron), Sunday, 25 August 2002 01:46 (twenty-three years ago)

You forgot 'opening for Gino Vanelli'

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 25 August 2002 02:20 (twenty-three years ago)

More importantly, what would DJ Sammy do?

― Keith Harris (kharris1128), Sunday, 25 August 2002 03:39 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm thinking Joey would never have got married.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Sunday, 25 August 2002 05:58 (twenty-three years ago)

He's supposedly a great photographer, so I reckon he'd be doing that.

― jel -- (jel), Sunday, 25 August 2002 06:51 (twenty-three years ago)

Singing back up for Glass Tiger. Wait, he already did that.

― rat, Sunday, 25 August 2002 12:15 (twenty-three years ago)

He'd probably be a rock musician of some sort.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Sunday, 25 August 2002 21:00 (twenty-three years ago)

He'd probably give up his futile dream of being a Canadian version of John Cougar Mellencamp, start aping Green Day and write a song called "The Summer of '77" where he obliquely claims to be a true punk rocker.
Side note: He sooooo young enough in '69. The hypothetical band he claims to have played for in "The Summer of '69" could've only be called "The Swinging Embryos"

― Lord Custos Alpha (Lord Custos Alpha), Monday, 26 August 2002 12:34 (twenty-three years ago)

He'd still be on the radio in Canada, probably as Corey Hart's backup singer or a member of Ginger.
Which means he would be:
a) Sleeping (day)
b) Wearing Sunglasses (night)

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Monday, 26 August 2002 13:32 (twenty-three years ago)

Actually, not to be Mr.Pedantic here, but hadn't he already established himself with "Cuts Like a Knife" and "Run to You" prior to "Summer of `69"?

It's all moot now, though, when ya think about it. Where is he today?

― Alex in NYC, Monday, 26 August 2002 18:06 (twenty-three years ago)

Australia I think. Maybe still hanging on to former Spice Girls.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Monday, 26 August 2002 18:07 (twenty-three years ago)

b-porn + community theater = aftershave commercials

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 26 August 2002 18:10 (twenty-three years ago)

Actually, not to be Mr.Pedantic here, but hadn't he already established himself with "Cuts Like a Knife" and "Run to You" prior to "Summer of '69"?
Yeah, but they were both crappy songs, with "Summer of '69" as a queasy final installment to a trilogy of idiocy. I think that duet he did with [...who was it...Bette Middler? Cher? Celine Dion. I don't recall, I've went into denial] "Everything I Do (I Do it For You...or for Cold Hard Cash, If Possible.)" was the final nail in his coffin. By then Michael Bolton cut his hair and became big again and Adams was overshadowed.

― Lord Custos Alpha (Lord Custos Alpha), Monday, 26 August 2002 18:52 (twenty-three years ago)

I think "Summer of 69" is the one truly great and wonderful thing Bryan Adams has done with his career. It has a very winsome energy to it, his vocal performance is really spot-on, and most notably it's constructed so that every one of the transitions preserves every single bit of the momentum from the previous part -- it's even better than the Strokes are at that trick. Also the video made me want to buy a denim jacket and throw fruit at my friends.

― nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 26 August 2002 19:24 (twenty-three years ago)

nabisco..."Sov69" is fake, shrill and cheesy (and not in "Plan 9 from Outer Space" kind of way...more like limburger left to rot in the swamp kinda cheesy). He was trying to cash in on a passing fad and he did it some poorly that you have to keep asking yourself "Why is he nostalgic for this?" and the painfully obvious answers are "ooooohhhh, because fake Woodstock in back in style for the next 10 minutes" and "he has this delusion that if Springsteen could do 'Glory Days', why couldn't he?"
I would've liked him alot more if he actually wrote a song about his actual childhood|teenage years instead of trying to convince us he's actually a vampirically young version of Phil Lesh or Garth Hudson.

― Lord Custos Alpha (Lord Custos Alpha), Monday, 26 August 2002 20:35 (twenty-three years ago)

I didn't know much of anything about 1969 when I first heard the song: for me it read, and still reads, as an unspecific "plug in your own year" expression of nostalgia, such that I could personally sing "Summer of 93" and not much of anything would feel different. I got my first real six-string at the guitar store behind the Arby's on Highway 50 -- it's the thought that counts.

So whether or not it was pulling on a terrible passing spasm of boomer nostalgia, I wasn't old enough to catch on: I just heard it as a quite good song, and I think it's a decent testament to its emotional success that even at age seven (1984, right?) its type of nostalgia resonated with me. Admittedly, from ages 5 to 10 a lot of the pop songs I liked had some sort of wistful or nostalgic quality -- "Leader of the Band," or "Wishing (If I Had a Photograph of You)."

― nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 26 August 2002 21:01 (twenty-three years ago)

one year passes...

Rolling Stone confirmed that the "69" in the title actually refers to the sex act and not the year. This shook me to my core.

― Mark (MarkR), Friday, 16 April 2004 14:29 (twenty-one years ago)

on melodicrock.com with all the other useless soft rock/AOR/ hair metal bands from the 80s

― DJ Martian (djmartian), Friday, 16 April 2004 14:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Desperately trying to think of a word that rhymes with "do" other than "you".

And indeed vice versa.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 16 April 2004 14:48 (twenty-one years ago)

fourteen years pass...

nabisco otm, this is a great song.

yet even on poptimistic, no such thing as a guilty pleasure ILX, this song has always seemed a bridge too far. WHO'S WITH ME?

― rip van wanko, Tuesday, 2 April 2019 14:18 (six years ago)

What a crazy thread, when, of all people, Bryan Adams already has a second career, as an in-demand fashion photographer.

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 2 April 2019 14:49 (six years ago)

I have a different take on this one:

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

As Bryan Adams went on to sell between 65 and 100 million albums worldwide, you have to think Jimmy and Jody were kicking themselves.

― Loud guitars shit all over "Bette Davis Eyes" (NYCNative), Tuesday, 2 April 2019 15:17 (six years ago)

What a crazy thread, when, of all people, Bryan Adams already has a second career, as an in-demand fashion photographer.

Not just that but even his previous album went platinum.

― All along there is the sound of feedback (Sund4r), Tuesday, 2 April 2019 15:26 (six years ago)

Held the song with contempt from the get go, but some twenty years after the fact (since Bryan Adams never went away) it occurred to me that my classmates might have been snickering along to a double entendre in the hook. Was I too pure of mind!?

― bendy, Tuesday, 2 April 2019 15:34 (six years ago)

I think that Adams had to be joking when he said that? The lyrics don't really support the idea that it is meant to be a sexual reference that strongly imo. Fwiw, the song was co-written by Jim Vallance, who gives a line-by-line breakdown of his lyrical intentions here, none of which seem to involve oral sex.

― All along there is the sound of feedback (Sund4r), Tuesday, 2 April 2019 16:23 (six years ago)

But, death of the author and all, I wonder how many listeners were taking that from the song?

― bendy, Tuesday, 2 April 2019 17:01 (six years ago)

i find it hard to defend this position

― rip van wanko, Tuesday, 2 April 2019 17:12 (six years ago)

real hard

― rip van wanko, Tuesday, 2 April 2019 17:14 (six years ago)

I don't recall seeing the video before. That ending is unexpectedly intense.

― Nag! Nag! Nag!, Wednesday, 3 April 2019 03:07 (six years ago)

It might be fake nostalgia but you all have to admit it evokes it rather well.

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, 3 April 2019 04:14 (six years ago)

man i haven't seen that video since july or august '69 probably.

― andrew m., Wednesday, 3 April 2019 14:23 (six years ago)

seriously tho, that video is badass. bizarre. and i def don't remember that ending. whoah.

― andrew m., Wednesday, 3 April 2019 14:25 (six years ago)

Bryan Guy Adams OC OBC (born 5 November 1959) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, record producer, guitarist, photographer, philanthropist and activist.

― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Wednesday, 3 April 2019 14:34 (six years ago)

precocious or perverted, you decide

― rip van wanko, Wednesday, 3 April 2019 15:00 (six years ago)

a common position ime is that all of bryan adams's music is bad (i.e. the default position) EXCEPT "summer of '69" which is uniquely good. literally don't understand this position at all. just set yer mind free and allow yourself to enjoy several bryan adams songs.

― dyl, Wednesday, 3 April 2019 15:18 (six years ago)

I like Heaven and Run to You

― rip van wanko, Wednesday, 3 April 2019 15:28 (six years ago)

Precocious enough to accomplish this in his mid-teens!

"In late 1976, Adams became the vocalist for pub band Sweeney Todd, who had only a few months earlier hit number 1 on the Canadian charts with a song "Roxy Roller". Adams was made to sing a re-make of the song for the US, which made it to number 99 on the US charts. The new incarnation of the band released an album If Wishes Were Horses (1977) with Adams billed as "Bryan Guy Adams" on vocals."

Fun contradictory Wikipedia edits here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_Wishes_Were_Horses_(album)

― bendy, Wednesday, 3 April 2019 15:30 (six years ago)

"Run to You" is great

I think Summer of 69 was heartfelt nostalgia you've all just been damaged by winky internet "69.....nice" culture

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 3 April 2019 15:33 (six years ago)

'run to you' rules

also good? 'when you're gone' with melanie c

― a photographer, satanist and ukip voter (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 3 April 2019 15:42 (six years ago)

Matt Monahan
1 day ago
This song gets played a lot at the strip club I like to go to

― L'assie (Euler), Wednesday, 3 April 2019 15:55 (six years ago)

Have always had a soft spot for some Bryan Adams... Cuts Like A Knife is a great track to me.

My big bro was a big fan of BA and Waking Up the Neighbours was played a lot in my youths. Being that it was produced by Robert John Lange, it's basically just a Def Leppard album with Adams on vocals...

― but I can't let Trae do it I got Huerter on my mind (Spottie), Wednesday, 3 April 2019 16:09 (six years ago)

I heard Silent Lucidity in a strip club once

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 3 April 2019 16:09 (six years ago)

one year passes...

...

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Tuesday, 12 May 2020 04:34 (five years ago)

he's gone full morrissey

― fatuous salad (symsymsym), Tuesday, 12 May 2020 04:47 (five years ago)

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