In 1984, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell sketched out a new song using a drum machine and synth: as Petty didn't feel the song suited the feel of the album he and the group were working on, (which became 1985's Southern Accents) producer Jimmy Iovine suggested that Campbell should consider showing it to Eagles drummer Don Henley, who, at the time, was working on his second solo record. The result? The Boys Of Summer, a top 5 Billboard chart hit, and Henley's definitive solo single.
The song not only introduced Henley to a whole new audience, but caught the attention of one of his peers, Bob Dylan, who Mike Campbell also played with on occasion.
In a new interview with Vulture, the guitarist reveals that Dylan was actually so impressed with the success of the song, that he wanted a slice of the action too.
"I was at a session one day and he told me, 'Wow, The Boys of Summer is a big hit'," Campbell recalls, adding that Dylan's next words to him were, 'Did you use the drum machine on that?' and 'Do you still have it?'
"I said, Yeah, and he went, 'Could you bring it down tomorrow? I’d like to have a hit, too'."
Unfortunately, as Campbell recalls, lightning did not strike twice here, mainly due to the fact that Dylan was rather bamboozled by his new high-tech 'drummer in a box.'
"He didn’t play along with the drum machine and got frustrated," Campbell recalls. "I don’t know how he didn’t comprehend that. He was playing freestyle."
"After a few minutes Bob and the engineer look over at me, and Bob goes, 'That doesn’t sound right.' He looked at me like it’s my fault. I said, Well, Bob, when you turn the machine on, you have to follow it so the record is on beat with that. And he responds, 'You mean it won’t follow me? Well, what good is it?' He was dead serious.
"I thought that was the most illuminating thing about Bob," Campbell concludes. "He had Jim Keltner, Ringo Starr, Levon Helm, and all of these great people in the studio and still felt he needed the drum machine. It’s a thin line between child and genius. I love the guy."
Campbell's new memoir, Heartbreaker, is available now, published by Constable.
