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Please forgive Bryan Adams; he can't stop loving the big cliché. It sort of warms my heart to know that he's still cycling through the library of standard love song tropes, hoping to find another unplumbed combination of non-statements to follow up the 1991 epiphany, "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You." He's done well sticking to the basics, from "those were the best days of my life" ("Summer of 69," 1984) to "you still turn the fire on" ("Please Forgive Me," 1993).
Last year's 11 is true to form, featuring songs like "Broken Wings," "Somethin' to Believe In," "Mysterious Ways" and "Walk On By," none of which are covers or bear any relation to better songs by Mister Mister, Poison, U2 or Burt Bacharach.
Adams' voice, at least, is in good form. His husky inflection and slightly boyish range haven't changed in 25 years. Unfortunately, none of 11's tracks manage to transcend the elusive barrier between hopelessly cheesy and confoundedly catchy. Adams has managed that feat before, but it's been over 10 years since he struck gold, since lightening struck twice, since he flew on broken wings...oh, sorry about that. Please forgive Bryan Adams, for he just does what he does.
Bryan Adams plays the Wilma Theatre Monday, Sept. 28, at 8 PM. $40–$85.
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It's funny that it wasn't until last spring that I finally understand the actual story behind the song the "Summer of 69".
Co-writer Jim Vallance has always gone for the more conventional interpretation of the title being a reference to a year. He notes Jackson Browne's "Running on Empty", which contains references to 1965 and 1969, as his own influence, and recalls Adams cited the film Summer of '42 as his.[4] Vallance has said:
"I wish this little "controversy" would just go away. First of all, when Bryan and I were writing the song, it was originally called "Best Days Of My Life". The words "summer of '69" only appeared once, right after "played it 'til my fingers bled". That was it! The song really was about the summer of 1969! It took us a week or two to fine-tune the lyric. At some point we realized that "Summer Of '69" was a better title, so we literally "shoe-horned" that phrase into a few more places in the song. At no time do I recall discussing sexual innuendo with Bryan ' except for one little thing. When we recorded the demo in my basement, towards the end of the song Bryan sang a little naughty bit: "me and my baby in a '69". We had a laugh about it at the time, and Bryan decided to keep it when he did the final recording a month or two later. Nobody seemed to notice, and that was the end of it until a few years ago when Bryan started introducing the song in concert by saying, "This song has nothing to do with the year 1969". The audience reaction was predictable. Let me qualify this by saying I don't pretend to speak for Bryan. Two of us wrote the song. Maybe he was thinking about something completely different ... but I was thinking about that amazing summer when I turned 17. There were brand new vinyl albums released by The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Who, The Kinks, Janis Joplin, The Band. It was awesome and I'll never forget it. Bryan Adams is a great writer, a great singer, and a great friend. He's entitled to his recollections as to what inspired the song "Summer Of '69". My recollections just happen to be different than his."
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