Every young boy remembers his first time.
The first time he looked across the room and saw a pretty girl, the first time he discovered that warts didn't come from frogs, the first time cupid shot him blindly in the ass and laughed like drunken fool.
My first time was the summer of 1975 at age 12.
You and I travel to the beat of a different drum
Oh can't you tell by the way I run
Every time you make eyes at me
Wo-oh...
That voice warbled out of the dual speaker stereo in my room and I was drawn to it like a moth to a flame. I had never heard a voice so clear and beautiful come out of anyone but my mother.
Every time you make eyes at me
Wo-oh...
That voice warbled out of the dual speaker stereo in my room and I was drawn to it like a moth to a flame. I had never heard a voice so clear and beautiful come out of anyone but my mother.
You cry and moan and say it will work out
You can't see the forest for the trees
Who was this person with a voice that was mesmerizing me so? Who was this person with a voice of the Sirens that was surely helping cupid pull his bowstring back a bit harder? I sat on the blue shag carpet and pressed even closer to hear ...
Oh don't get me wrong
It's not that I knock it
It's just that I am not in the market
For a boy who wants to love only me
The black light illuminated the room as fluorescent posters stared at me in blatant wonder of what was going on beneath their placid eyes.
The RC Cola girl winked? at me, Don Garlits Wynn Charger dragster shot hot blinding flames out of it's exhaust, And I swore I saw Sammy Davis Jr come alive on an old Ebony Magazine, slap his knee, hold his side and giggle while pointing at me...my head was swimming like it never had before.
Yes, and I ain't saying you ain't pretty
All I'm saying, I'm not ready
For any person, place or thing
To try and pull the reins in on me
I was floating! Cupid had not only shot me in the ass, but loaded the tip with a double dose of fuel injected, high octane helium. In the distance I thought I heard my mom shout something like "Turn it down"or what it 'What's that sound"? Was it possible she had heard this glorious voice and was being hypnotized by it also...
So goodbye I'll be leaving
I see no sense in this crying and grieving
We'll both live a lot longer
If you live without me
What! No, this song couldn't be possible ending, I said to myself. This was my Cinderella, my Rapunzel! I would not have a drunken out of work cupid shoot me in the ass only to have my future girlfriend to be just disappear into the static charged night! I may be on 12 going on 13, but I knew this person would be my girlfriend maybe wife one day.
And then as if she had read my mind, she replied -
Oh don't get me wrong
It's not that I knock it
It's just that I am not in the market
For a boy who wants to love only me
It's not that I knock it
It's just that I am not in the market
For a boy who wants to love only me
Yes, and I ain't saying you ain't pretty
All I'm saying, I'm not ready
For any person, place or thing
To try and pull the reins in on me
All I'm saying, I'm not ready
For any person, place or thing
To try and pull the reins in on me
So goodbye I'll be leaving
I see no sense in this crying and grieving
We'll both live a lot longer
If you live without me...
I see no sense in this crying and grieving
We'll both live a lot longer
If you live without me...
As the song faded out, The disc jockey, ( no doubt feeling sorry for me), told me her name, but at the same time I heard my mom definitely say, "Turn it down!" thus only hearing "and The Stone Ponys"
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
And then I knew what had just happened in a bizarre three minutes of my life.
I had fallen in love for the first time with someone...someone who would never be my girlfriend or wife,
Someone who I would only be a dark face in a crowd, illuminated by moving lights on a stage one day.
It wasn't until about a month later, when I heard her voice again on The Midnight Special.
My heart jumped 15 beats, my eyes dilated, I looked back at my ass for Cupid's arrow and ran from the kitchen to see the face of the Siren that has grabbed attention like a deer staring at headlights.
I've been cheated
Been mistreated
When will I be loved
That night, I put face to voice and fell in love really for the first time.
I didn't marry her of course, but continued to follow her work as we both grew older.
I discovered a group called The Beatles about five or six years later and ran with them like a thief in the night and have never let them go.
Then last week, at age 49, some thirty five years later, I saw something that made me shake, and openly weep.
The voice that I had first fallen in love with had been diagnosed with Parkinson. Long story short, she would never sing again.
John Lennon once said, 'Life is what happens when we are busy making other plans'. I know that her singing career may have come to an end, but I have a good feeling that I will be seeing her in the limelight sometime soon.
And I will be pressing ever closer to hear every word she has to say.
My heart jumped 15 beats, my eyes dilated, I looked back at my ass for Cupid's arrow and ran from the kitchen to see the face of the Siren that has grabbed attention like a deer staring at headlights.
I've been cheated
Been mistreated
When will I be loved
That night, I put face to voice and fell in love really for the first time.
I didn't marry her of course, but continued to follow her work as we both grew older.
I discovered a group called The Beatles about five or six years later and ran with them like a thief in the night and have never let them go.
Then last week, at age 49, some thirty five years later, I saw something that made me shake, and openly weep.
The voice that I had first fallen in love with had been diagnosed with Parkinson. Long story short, she would never sing again.
John Lennon once said, 'Life is what happens when we are busy making other plans'. I know that her singing career may have come to an end, but I have a good feeling that I will be seeing her in the limelight sometime soon.
And I will be pressing ever closer to hear every word she has to say.
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