“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”
I was a 14-year-old when my classmate now a famous rock star himself gifted me a cassette – “Bryan Adams – Collection Of Hits”
I asked him “How silly, who is Bryan Adams?” as I hummed “Jumma Chumma De De”. I turned on the tape recorder, and plugged in the cassette. Wait what am I listening to? Who is this man?
Back when I listened to “Summer of 69”, my one sided love affair with Bryan Adams began. The song was from the album Reckless (1984) and was written by Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance, who’ve had a long song-writing partnership. The song turned out to be a mega hit in the music industry. Bryan Adams collaborated with Vallance in 1977. Vallance was a drummer for the band, Prism. The duo soon began to write a lot of songs together to churn out a lot of hits.
Bryan Adams was born in Ontario, on November 5, 1959. While growing up, he grew his hair, stood up against the teachers at his strict British military school, only to be expelled and that propelled him to swing into classic rock. His parents’ divorce only jostled him to his world of music. A charismatic guy his passion for classic rock was so burning scary that he chose to ignore the advances of the amorous girls during his teens. In an interview, Adams said “In high school, I was too far into my music to even pay attention to girls […]I’d run after the occasional girl, but music and rock n’ roll bands were far more interesting to me.”
At 15, he quit studies and followed his true calling – music.
According to this website, Bryan Adams went to see a pop band called Sweeney Tod. At the end of the show, he met the band’s manager and proclaimed himself to be four times better than the band’s singer. The band decided to let him audition and took him as their front man. However, he soon left the band, the following year to pursue song writing. He said, “I knew then that if I was serious about a career in music, I had to be a writer.”
His career started in the 70s, during the 80s, he climbed a little higher in the ladder of success. But during the 90s, we got mega hits from him. Adams knew if he had to see the sunshine, he had to weather the storm. According to Chicago Tribunes,“There’s a simple reason Adams has been able to weather the times. While many of his ’80s peers offered style over substance, Adams offered neither. Songs like “Cuts like a Knife,” “Somebody,” “One Night Love Affair” and “Summer of ’69” may be banal compendiums of sentimental cliches and half-familiar riffs […]. As the soundtrack to so many formative experiences, Adams’ songs are like renewable resources, good for any occasion or, for that matter, any decade.”
During his concert in Pune, Times Of India quotes “As the lights went out and the amphitheater pulsed with reds, blues and greens, Adams pitched with his everlasting love song ‘Can’t Stop This Thing We Started,’ an energetic number with mesmerizing interludes, laden with eclectic guitar notes, then shook the audience. As multiple hues of lights jostled in the dark, Adams got louder. And so did the cheering crowd.‘ Summer of 69‘, with its intoxicating guitar riffs, energetic drum beats and of course, a voice that knew no limitation, then transported the audiences to the nostalgic era of the 60s.”
He won a Grammy award for the song “(Everything I do) I do it for you“. A few other hits by Bryan Adams include – “Here I am“, “Have you ever really loved a woman?“, “It’s only love“, “Run to you “among many others.
His character was subjected to scrutiny when he apparently got his personal assistant pregnant. Antonia Harrison, the woman he was dating at the time, refused to see him even though he tried to get in touch with her. However, he never made it clear to her if he did father the child.
To conclude the essay, I say in Adams words “If your music is great, you will have fans, not because you have spent time chatting on social media”. Always in his casuals, Adams deserves a lot of respect. He even knows his fans well. I love the music of Bryan Adams, and look at him as an inspiration. I feel that he is a child forged and hardened by suffering and pain, and has now accomplished what many privileged adults cannot. I believe that every artist needs to be that child. And if you want to follow your dreams, you should be that child just like Bryan Adams – the evergreen inspirational rock star.
