I've indulged in some nostalgia and procured myself an album from my youth. I wasn’t particularly cool when I was young (Actually I was a big nerd. I know, shocking eh?) but luckily for me I had a very cool older sister who knew all the tunes that the older girls listened to. So while I would have been more than happy listening to Raffi sing his truly mindless drivel, instead I got Tiffany, Madonna and the soundtrack to Dirty Dancing because this was back in the 80’s.
But the album I loved more than any other, the one where the songs were so romantic in my little mind that had never felt any real-life romance and wouldn’t for another 7 years or so (I was a late bloomer romance-wise) was Richard Marx’s Repeat Offender. Oh my goodness, Angelia and Right Here Waiting were the pinnacle of romance. And in my defense, at least Right Here Waiting is less creepy than Sting’s I’ll Be Watching You. Anyway, in my 10 year old mind, those songs described the way love (wove, twue wove) would feel when I finally had the chance to experience it.
Angelia was so sad – he clearly loved that girl so much, but she was flighty and he lost her. I mean really, can’t you feel his pain in the lyrics:
“Maybe my love is in vain,
Maybe you're the hurting kind,
Can't take no more of this pain,
I've got to get you off my mind”?
I could, and it was pure emotional gold. And she left him with nothing but a photograph – how cruelly romantic!
I used to lip-synch these songs in the back of the car, no doubt making odd faces as my mind tried to capture the emotion. At least I spared my family the real singing which no doubt would have made their ears bleed. And at least it was only my family to witness this behavior and they kept it secret. Until now since I’ve decided to spill it all on the internet.
Anyways, the point of all this is that I have downloaded the album and now, on my walk home from work, I can lip-synch to my hearts content. I still know all the words. And it will look especially classy tonight as I walk home, possibly breaking into actual song
“I hear the laughter, I taste the tears,
But I can't get near you now
Oh, can't you SEEEE it ba-by
You've got me GOING' crazy . . .”,
covered in the brownie I managed to get all over my stomach at morning tea – classy!