Walkin' Back to Making America Great Again...

So I was listening to a Pandora station earlier tonight and the “inspiration” for the it was the song WALKIN' BACK TO HAPPINESS by Nancy Shapiro. Now I had never heard of Nancy Shapiro – I knew the song from a movie and chose it based on having heard that on the soundtrack – but she was voted Britain's “Top Female Singer” in 1962 when she was 16 years old. So a lot of the songs that were played were early '60s girl group kinds of things.

The first song that came up was Lesley Gore's THAT'S THE WAY BOYS ARE. Well, that blew my mind. The lyrics forgive a bunch of really passive-aggressive behaviors with the phrase “that's the way boys are.” And I learned from this song that in 1964, boys were real assholes. According to Richard Aquila (and my pals at wikipedia) this song's lyrics “voice the era's acceptance of sexual double standards” and Walter Everett (a musicologist) says it “perpetuated a boys will be boys tolerance for male, but not female, infidelity.” The first line is about how she feels so awful when he check's out other girls, but she just suppresses those rebellious feelings because, for heaven's sake, he is a boy. They are wired for objectifying women! (Spoiler, when they have a fight it is Lesley's fault.) This is the girl who sang YOU DON'T OWN ME, so it makes this a little tough to take.

But next up is Bo Diddley's CHEYENNE. And that CHEYENNE was up to all kinds of mischief. Manly mischief. It was a good time to be a manly man...

Then Bobby Darin tells us how he wants SOMEBODY TO LOVE. You see, he was off chasing fortune and fame, but all he wants now is a good, good girl to spend his life with. (And she damn well better be good!) He wants to change her name. He is even willing to give up his roaming ways. I think that means he may even stop having sex with other girls for her! (But he might not be able to because he is a boy, after all.)

These are all love songs, but the pining kind. ONE FINE DAY, STAY, TELL HIM – lots of instructions about how to make these crazy teenage relationships work. There was one song by Nancy Shapiro (Britain's Top Female Singer!) called WHEN THE RAINS CAME that seemed like it might be about agriculture. But no, it was a metaphor for love - chaste, sweet love. So much romance and longing in these songs, but no one is getting it on! Except maybe Cheyenne, he had a lot going on. And Bobby Darin back before he quit his roaming ways. Let's put it this way, the boys were getting it somewhere, but not from these nice singing girls!

Susan Maugham hit the jackpot with best song of the night with BOBBY'S GIRL. Okay, Susie, you have one way and one way only to show the whole world that you are grown up now. Are you going to do really well in school? Are you going to help those less fortunate? Maybe you should run for office! Nope, not going to happen. You are putting your eggs in one basket. A basket named Bobby. Being his girl is the pinnacle. It is the greatest gift you can give yourself – the gift of a boy! Admittedly, he's a boy who has someone else and probably doesn't even know who you are, but his love is the only goal worth achieving here! You will be a thankful, faithful girl. And that is the most important thing a girl can be!

Admittedly, I love the feel of these songs. I even like the romanticism of the lyrics and the nostalgic sexism behind them, but it dawned on me as I was listening that these are the songs that 70 year old men grew up listening to. No wonder they want to make America great again! Boys got to do all the fun stuff and girls basically waited around to be noticed. Right around the corner we have the summer of love where everyone gets a seat at the table, eventually Madonna shows up, followed by Lady Gaga and Beyonce. It occurs to me that I don't listen to much modern pop music - give me the Grateful Dead and the Rolling Stones, please – (and don't mock me for thinking that Madonna is modern pop music) and I am not sure exactly what these ladies want out of life. But I am pretty sure it isn't to be Bobby's girl.

But as the worm turns, politically, and feminism is still considered a dirty word in many quarters, these songs I listened to tonight made it clear that there was some programming in the culture that made it seem like if, you weren't a girl, it was pretty awesome to be a roaming, adventuring fellow, secure in the knowledge that when you were ready to settle down you would have a good, good girl waiting for you. And with this kind of advertising it is no wonder that some old guys (and some young guys, and some women who don't have a real grasp of the concept of equality) want to find a way to get these gals back in the kitchen making those sandwiches and remembering who it is who wears the pants in this great country of ours!