June, 1988. I was finishing high school and getting ready to go to college. Looking back, I'm guessing that like most middle-aged people, this time of transition was my musical apex, and part of that glory involved this ever-wholesome pop duo called 'Boy Meets Girl'. They were a married couple during this time, and after having written a few songs for Whitney Houston and others they decided to sing this themselves. Maybe it doesn't get the radio play it did almost four decades ago, but the earbug quality of this song and having come across it recently on YouTube means that I am compelled to write a reaction to the video. Let's go.
0:01 A sepia-toned giant bubble flying through the air? Heck yeah.
0:21 After running through the ocean waves, you'd think you'd be refreshed, but no. Shannon throws a bucket of water on George, because maybe he's dehydrated?
0:27 Now Shannon's pushing George into the ocean. Now we got something here...is twice in less than ten seconds we see how much she really wants him to drink that water. Or maybe something more sinister...
0:32 True fact, the little blonde girl was their daughter.
0:36 "I hear your name whispered on the wind, it's a sound that makes me cry." Not sure where this is going, but two attempted drownings, maybe that's the reason he's crying when he thinks of her name. Does betterhelp do couples therapy?
0:46 "I hear a song blow again and again through my mind, and I don't know why." Yeah, that's the earbug of this song. Not sure why it's come back to me after 38 years, either.
1:03 "Trying to catch your heart is like trying to catch a star." This is a fun, happy, perky little pop song with some lyrics that make us think George and Shannon really didn't quite get each other. Couples really do struggle to have that connection, even when they sit around the piano and sing.
1:10 "So many people love you, baby...that must be what you are." Wait, is she having an affair????
1:19 Is it just me or does he look kinda like Michael Bolton back when he had hair? And she's got a real Amy Grant vibe about her (but far more awkward when she's trying to dance).
1:39 I remember when I was maybe 9 I asked for a Polaroid camera for my birthday...I loved that thing, and the package came with a cartridge of 10 pictures. I took them all within a week...I remember a picture of my grandpa Church walking through the hallway of our old house, and another picture of my other grandparents sitting on a sofa. There's another incredible picture somewhere of me in a yellow shirt in front of a birthday cake, as well as one of the few times I ever saw my parents kiss each other. Good times. Anyway, I used the whole cartridge and then asked for another and found out that a cartridge cost TEN DOLLARS. This was almost a half-century ago, and I was 9. Where on earth was I going to get TEN DOLLARS in 1979? I probably only used that camera a couple more times over the years before it disapperared forever. Polaroid was truly ahead of their times when it comes to tech...sell a good product, and then basically charge an outrageous subscription fee in order to keep using the product.
1:44 "I've learned to feel what I cannot see but with you I lose that vision. I don't know how to dream your dream so I'm all caught up in a superstition." Man, this dude is really questioning his relationship. Get these people help, stat!
1:59 "I want to reach out and pull you to me; who says that I should let a wild horse go free?" Yep. This song is about her having an affair.
2:47 After watching half a minute of a home video set in happier days, we come to the bridge. Nothing says a late 80s song like a bridge.
2:55 The bridge about waiting really does speak of love that's difficult...he'll continue to wait for her to come back, no matter long long it is. I was reading from the book of Hosea recently where the prophet is told to go and woo back his wife Gomer after a time in which she had a been a prostitute. It's a statement of God's love for his people that, no matter how long it takes, he'll be there to take us back. Maybe this is a Christian song?
3:09 Mark #2 of a late 80s song is a really strong and loud sax solo. Love it.
3:17 If their little girl had ridden a bike in a house, mom would have been so ticked. But since mom's got all the power in this relationship, no problem then?
3:24 I guess George is trying to drown himself now?
3:29 So, I guess it was worth it to literally air the dirty laundry about a dysfunctional relationship if they made it to #5 on the pop charts.
4:05 One more time with the water. He's in trouble.
4:10 "I don't know, officer. Several times it seems like she was trying to drown me, and then this morning I woke up on the beach as the tide was rushing in. I thought maybe she had left me here to die, but then I remembered I could get up and run, and so I outran the tide. Unfortunately, I made it to shore and she was standing there, looking at me."
I really do love this song. But it's a lot darker than I remember.
