Meaning

I think [“Summer of ’69” is] timeless because it’s about making love in the summertime. There is a slight misconception it’s about a year, but it’s not. “69” has nothing to do about a year, it has to do with a sexual position…At the end of the song, the lyric says that it’s me and my baby in a 69. You’d have to be pretty thick in the ears if you couldn’t get that lyric.

Lyrics

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

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

Oh, when I look back now
That summer seemed to last forever
And if I had the choice
Yeah, I'd always wanna be there
Those were the best days of my life

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

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

Oh, yeah
Back in the summer of sixty-nine, oh

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

Yeah

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

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

Oh, yeah
Back in the summer of sixty-nine, oh
It was the summer of sixty-nine, oh, yeah
Me and my baby in sixty-nine, oh
It was the summer, the summer,
the summer of sixty-nine, yeah
Play with the song, fill the gaps
Legend
  • The video player plays from the time specified
  • Chorus
  • People Talking

Vocabulary

five and dime

A store that sells many different small items at low prices, such as things for your home

Drive-in

Denoting a facility such as a cinema or restaurant that one can visit without leaving one's car

unwind

relax

restless

Unwilling or unable to stay still or to be quiet and calm, because you are worried or bored:

Guess

To suppose