UNREQUITED LOVE - ONEI didn't have a girlfriend at school. I was what is called painfully shy. The first girl I was crazy about was called Kara (middle row, second girl in from the teacher). She was in my fifth form class. I thought she was terrific. Of course I thought she was good looking, but what I really loved about her was her... sense of humour. We passed notes to each other in class. I still have those notes somewhere. They were long cherished tokens. They are absolute drivel, and looking back I may have been over-estimating her sense of humour, but then again I was only 14.
TWOI was obsessed with this album. Probably my favourite song was Two Tribes, but I'm going to put The Power of Love on the mix tape because my theme is unrequited love. For a long time this is what I thought the lyrics of a love song should be. I can still sing the whole thing with all the inflections. As usual with these songs it was the bridge that I was hanging out for:
Envy will hurt itself / Let yourself be beautiful / Sparkling love, flowers / And pearls and pretty girls / Love is like an energy / Rushin' rushin' inside of me
Let yourself be beautiful. Swoon. "Pretty girls" is odd, but "love is like an energy, rushin', rushin' inside of me". That sounded right when I was 14 and thought it was love rushin' inside of me (now I know it was hormones - a worse lyric, but more accurate).
THREE
As for Kara. I met her last year at the end of year Telecom party. I did not expect her to look like a woman and work for Telecom. She did not expect me to look like a man and still be at school. When are you going to grow up?
5 comments:
I watched Purple Rain last night. I liked the way Prince moved on stage. I didn't like his purple motor bike and, when he returned to 'real life' - mum'n dad- things didn't seem to work for me. Also, why do rock stars always have to take their shirt off on stage? It's all about bloody sex, isn't it! Ah well, I suppose life is about sex! I always imagined Prince as a fancy guitar player - I've never heard him (consciously) before - maybe, if he left his shirt on or didn't dress like an
18th century poof parading around like the Scarlet Pimpernel, he could concentrate on his guitar playing and get away from those bloody pentatonic scales! Wow, long sentence! The purple guy does that to me! I didn't make it to the end. I hope he lived happily everafter in shirt-less heaven.
But, please Prince, next time lose the silly motorbike!
R
Meeting a childhood crush as an adult is always a bit awkward; I was at my Grandparent's wedding anniversary last year and the girl who lived next door to them was there with her elderly parents; it was more than a little creepy to recall that we'd seen each other naked when we were about eleven. Ewww.
Was Kara funny as a grown up telecom person?
Frankie Goes to Hollywood?
Naivity I trust.
When this album came out - (mid 80's?) it sounded OK. I went into a record store (yes vinyl)to buy it and also an album by some other guy I'd heard a track by (ex Housemartins or something).
As I was standing at the counter buying them another shop assistant passed by the one serving me and said something like "we're getting a lot of gay guys here recently"
I of course turned around looking for who they wewre referring to.
It wasn't until I was outside that I realised they must have been referring to me. Isn't it a bastard when you miss the chance for a riposte.
When I got home and listened to both albums I could see that they were recorded by and for the other side
Richard: You stopped watching before the best song in the whole movie. This is absolutely typical. As is complaining that a person who plays r'n'b does guitar solos in the pentatonic scale. Thankfully Prince did not succumb to the urge to do wanky atonal improv in Purple Rain.
Danyl: Actually I had no idea who the woman talking to me at the Telecom party was until Justin told me. I can't say if she is still funny, but I'm guessing she probably is.
Curmudgeon: I was of an age not even to realise that Relax with all its spurting sound effects was about sex, so I can't say that I noticed the gay overtones. When you see the original video for this song however (not the boring one with the green lasers) then it's pretty clear they're not just batting for the other team, they're managing the whole franchise.
The religious instruvtor at my secondary school said to keep it zipped up until marriage.
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