"These Days," by Rascal Flatts, is the second biggest stalker song I know. (The undisputed winner, of course, is "Every Breath You Take.") Rob Paravonian says that "if you listen to the lyrics of a pop song, it'll ruin that song forever." Well, it isn't only true for pop songs.
Have you ever heard "These Days"? It's a plaintive, romantic ballad about a man who hasn't forgotten his first love. Except that his first love left. Apparently a while ago. Because since the last time he saw her she has graduated from college, moved to Vegas, and married a rodeo cowboy. "Wow," he says, "that ain't the girl I knew." No kidding. Because you haven't seen her in years. She ain't the girl you knew.
But the really stalkish thing about the song is that it's written as a first-person monologue directed to the woman in question. And the scenario is that they've met randomly in an airport. And when they meet randomly in this airport, he (knowing both that he hasn't been in contact with her for years and that she's married) spills his guts about how he's still not over her, how he cries about her when he wakes up and dreams about her when he falls asleep, how he listens to their song and checks his phone messages in case she left him one.
There is one line in the song that gives a hint to the woman's point of view on this scenario: "Well, hey, girl, you're late, and those planes, they don't wait." (Translated from the polite brushoff, "I'm running late and my plane is leaving really soon" means "I didn't initiate this contact and have no desire to prolong it. I am so thankful for a ready-made excuse right now I could almost cry.")
He asks her to stop by next time she's in town, to visit an old friend. Sure, that sounds like an appropriate thing for a married woman to do, drop by for quality time with a high school or college boyfriend who still professes devotion. Smart. Not awkward at all.
Let it go and move on, protagonist of "These Days." Your "girl" obviously did.
What's your favorite stalker song?
2 comments:
uhhh....
I kind of love the song "These Days" and I don't know if I'd call it a stalker song..."stalker" would seem to imply that the dude in the song has been sitting in his car outside her house, or obsessively checking her facebook account every 5 minutes. As it is, he's just sad about a relationship that didn't quite make it.
And yeah, maybe it's pathetic that he can't quite give her up even after years have passed and she's married, but then again, I'm the person who still can't listen to bluegrass music without getting a little weepy, so maybe we have something in common.
I've always envisioned the girl in the song as being quite a hussy, myself.
Also, I love "Every Breath you Take", even if it is a stalker song. Sting can stalk me any day.
I'm not the queen of letting go, either. But I despise that about myself, which is probably why I broadcast that out to other people.
And it's one thing to mourn a lost relationship, and another thing entirely to lose even more dignity by telling the person who has irrevocably moved on.
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