About The Song
The Chase produced the No. 1 hits “Somewhere Other Than the Night” and “Learning to Live Again” in advance of “That Summer,” the fourth and final single from the album.
The Chase was a strange project for Garth Brooks at the time. It was more reflective and somber than his previous albums, and it took until the fourth single, “That Summer,” for the album to produce a hit that was more in line with his earlier work.
The storyline is improbable, but that may be why “That Summer” works so well. It’s an adolescent fantasy of first love, where the teenage hired hand is seduced by the widowed farmer “hellbent to make it on her own.” True to form, Garth creates a female character that is defined by more than just her lustful desires:
She came to me one evening
Hot cup of coffee and a smile
In a dress that I was certain
She hadn’t worn in quite a while
There was a difference in her laughter
There was a softness in her eyes
And on the air there was a hunger
Even a boy could recognize
He follows this with the observation that “I watched her hands of leather turn to velvet in a touch,” which is a sudden realization that she’d been working the land herself, perhaps even alongside her husband when he was still around. This is not the stuff of Letters to Penthouse. The woman has an identity and storyline completely separate from this interaction, and we’re given glimpses of it through well-crafted songwriting. She’s grounded in reality, even if the storyline is not.
It’s hard to believe that this isn’t even the best “virginity lost on a summer farm” No. 1 single that we’ll cover this decade.1993 was a great chart year for Garth, with three No. 1 singles from The Chase being followed by two No. 1 singles from his fifth album before the year was out.
Video
Lyrics
I went to work for her that summer
A teenage kid so far from home
She was a lonely widow woman
Hell bent to make it on her own
We were a thousand miles from nowhere
Wheat fields as far as I could see
Both needing something from each other
Not knowing yet what that might be
‘Til she came to me one evening
Hot cup of coffee and a smile
In a dress that I was certain
She hadn’t worn in quite a while
There was a difference in her laughter
There was a softness in her eyes
And on the air there was a hunger
Even a boy could recognize
She had a need to feel the thunder
To chase the lightning from the sky
To watch a storm with all its wonder
Raging in her lover’s eyes
She had to ride the heat of passion
Like a comet burning bright
Rushing headlong in the wind
Out where only dreams have been
Burning both ends of the night
That summer wind was all around me
Nothing between us but the night
When I told her that I’d never
She softly whispered “That’s alright”
And then I watched her hands of leather
Turn to velvet in a touch
There’s never been another summer
When I have ever learned so much
We had a need to feel the thunder
To chase the lightnin’ from the sky
To watch a storm with all its wonder
Ragin’ in each others eyes
We had to ride the heat of passion
Like a comet burnin’ bright
Rushin’ headlong in the wind
Out where only dreams have been
Burnin’ both ends of the night
I often think about that summer
The sweat, the moonlight and the lace
And I have rarely held another
When I haven’t seen her face
And every time I pass a wheat field
And watch it dancin’ with the wind
Although I know it isn’t real
I just can’t help but feel
Her hungry arms again
She had a need to feel the thunder
To chase the lightnin’ from the sky
To watch a storm with all its wonder
Ragin’ in her lover’s eyes
She had to ride the heat of passion
Like a comet burnin’ bright
Rushin’ headlong in the wind
Out where only dreams have been
Burnin’ both ends of the night
Rushin’ headlong in the wind
Out where only dreams have been
Burnin’ both ends of the night