I should come right out now and say that I LOVE Helen Reddy and not just her popular stuff. I even dig Ruby Red Dress and Keep On Singing and all that obscure crap. So, anyone about to try and lay waste to me over this, understand that I have embraced my inner old fart and sing "Delta Dawn" in your general direction (I also still like Afternoon Delight, but I'm a bit more cagey about that!).
Anyway, this decomp is getting airplay because, once again, the Highlander and I have renewed an age old debate about what this song is REALLY about. As the female counterpart in this relationship, I'm ALWAYS right, but actually PROVING myself thus is harder than it seems. Here's the lyrics for those of you that are younger than most of my socks:
You live your life in the songs you hear
on the rock and roll radio
and when a young girl doesn't have any friends
thats a really nice place to go
folks hoping you'd turn out cool
but they had to take you out of school
you're a little touched you know
angie baby
lovers appear in your room each night
and they whirl you across the floor
but they always seem to fade away
when your daddy taps on your door
"angie girl, are you alright?
tell the radio goodnight."
all alone once more angie baby
Chorus
angie baby
you're a special lady
living in a world of make believe
well maybe
stopping at her house is a neighbor boy
with evil on his mind
cos he's been peeking in angie's room
at the night through her window blind
I see your folks have gone away
would you dance with me today
I'll show you how to have a good time
angie baby
( angie baby ) (angie baby )
when he walks in the room
he feels confused
like he walked into a play
and the music's so loud
it spins him around
till his soul has lost it's way
and as she turns the volume down
he's getting smaller with the sound
it seems to pull him off the ground
toward the radio he's bound
never to be found
the headlines read that a boy disappeared
and everyone thinks he died
'cept a crazy girl with a secret lover
who keeps her satisfied
it's so nice to be insane
no one asked you to explain
radio by your side
angie baby
Chorus
angie baby
you're a special lady
living in a world of make believe
well maybe
well maybe
well maybe
well maybe
Everyone with me so far? So, let's explore MY possible scenarios before delving into the abyss that's the Highlander's insanity, shall we?
A. Angie is some sort of witch-chick that pretends to be crazy to lure horny young men into her room and suck them into the radio she's enchanted.
B. Angie IS crazy, which has her tapped into some other part of her brain, allowing her to use mind powers to suck horny young men into her radio.
C. Angie's just some shy girl that happens to have a magic radio that traps horny young men.
Note that all of my scenarios basically have these boys being trapped in the radio, either as sound waves or as really tiny guys, not unlike the Jackson 5ive in their cartoon, when that dude got them all in this giant radio, then shrunk them down so he could listen to them all the time...but I digress...
When you grow up in separate households with separate lives and ways of dealing with the world around you, your take on certain things will vary slightly from those you love. With that in mind, at some point, you'll end up sitting and chatting in the car one day about things like songs lyrics and finding out that your spouse thought "I'd like to hear some funky Dixieland, pretty momma come and take me by the hand" from the Doobie Brothers' "Black Water" was actually "I'd like to hear some funky Dixie Lamprey, momma come and take me by the hand" and you LAUGH and say, "Oh, what a delightfully silly idea, my love...let us retreat to the boudoir for cakes and pillow talk."
And THEN there's moments where you're driving down the road listening to JACK FM and your spouse says casually, "You know that girl Angie just CHOPS THE DUDES UP and STUFFS THEM INTO THE RADIO, right?", leaving you to stare in awed silence, mostly contemplating the colossal error you made with your life back in the summer of 99 for about 45 minutes in a pretty white dress front of a preacher, God and several innocent witnesses who had NO IDEA of the HORROR contained within the layers of rental tuxedo...!
Seriously, does anyone else BUY this? Where in heaven's name does one get a CSI scene out of a Helen Reddy tune??? I keep trying to figure this out, but the Highlander is dead set on believing this (or seems to be just to tease me) and never even entertained the thought of supernatural stuff until I mentioned it to him. And, of course, goofy me will always entertain ANY thought given me until my brain goes, "Okay, who even put this crap on my DESK, huh?"
So, you be the judge. Supernatural body snatching or unsolved murder case? Remember, I'm the GIRL, so you have to side with ME, not HIM.
The (about to go turn her radio up) Sprite & the (looking for ways to make the inside of a radio look more spacious) Highlander
P.S.--Heck, even the writer, Alan O'Day, has got my back...check this article out here: http://www.jpfolks.com/Mentors/Articles/odayangiebaby.html
