Turn around bright eyes
I think everyone has a story about the song "Total Eclipse of the Heart."
When I was a teenager, I used to tape songs off the radio to make mix tapes. Yes, kids, it WAS the dark ages. I would sit on the floor next to the clunky old stereo, with the cassette in the deck, and the "record" and "play" buttons pushed down, and hold my finger on the "pause" button, waiting for a good song to come along in rotation. When it did, finger off "pause" and I was good to go.
They were, as you'd expect, pretty crappy mix tapes. But they did the job.
In the summer of 1983 (84? Mid 80s, in any case), I was trying to capture "Total Eclipse of the Heart" on tape. I would wait on the floor, night after night, for the DJ to stop talking and play the song. But it took forever! Well, maybe a couple of weeks. When I finally taped it, it segued from "Sister Christian." A perfect mix, and I did it all by myself.
So, I took the tape with me on vacation that summer, and we (my friend Erin and I) listened to it over and over again, on our little boombox. We were trying to puzzle out the lyrics to "Total Eclipse of the Heart." We had most of them, but the line about "living in a blank blank, and giving off sparks" had us stumped. What was Bonnie Tyler living in, and why was it giving off sparks?
If we had the internet back in those days, the problem could have been solved with a quick Google search. But no, back then we had to wait for the latest issue of some crappy mag like Hit Parader to publish the lyrics so we'd know what they were. Failing that, we had to buy the whole album, and who wanted to spend that much money for only two good songs (I was too young to have a real job at the time. All I had was babysitting money)? So, we played the tape endlessly, trying to figure out the lyrics.
The last day of our vacation, we were supposed to be helping my mom pack the car. The Cape house had an attached garage, so the car was pulled up to the garage door, and we were carrying all the stuff through the house and forcing it into the trunk (Even more dark ages stuff - my family only had ONE car! And six of us were going to ride in it!). My father was sitting in the car, "supervising" (this is known in many places as "napping") and my brother and his friend had disappeared to the beach.
Unfortunately for my mother, Erin and I were distracted by our quest to determine the lyrics. As we were carrying out the boombox, we stopped with our packing, and sat down on the old broken couch in the garage, and played the "living in a blank blank and giving off sparks" line and started rewinding it and listening to it over and over again.
My mother continued to pack, and each time she walked past us, she would say, "Come on, ladies" or "let's get moving" or some kind of prod, and we'd respond with "Coming" or "Just a minute, we have to figure this out."
Well, there were were, crouched over the boombox, listening to that one line of the song, and arguing over it, ("Living in a polygraph?" "Why would she live in a polygraph?" "Maybe a pony box?" "What's a pony box?" "Where ponies live." "Would it give off sparks?" "I don't know.") as my mother walked by, glaring at us, doing all the work by herself.
Finally, FINALLY, we agreed that Bonnie was living in a "polar tank" and giving off sparks. What's a "polar tank," you might ask? No idea. It's the only thing we agreed on, though. So, we played the song again, and as we got to the line, we sang along, at the top of our lungs: "We're living in a polar tank and giving off sparks!"
And my mother walked by, one last time, and looked over her shoulder and yelled out, "POWDER KEG, you assholes!"
Boy, did we move! And to this day, Erin and I still refer to the song as "Polar Tank."
My mother denies all memory of this, by the way.
*************
Off to the oral surgeon to have a tooth removed. Am shaking like a leaf. Wish me luck!
When I was a teenager, I used to tape songs off the radio to make mix tapes. Yes, kids, it WAS the dark ages. I would sit on the floor next to the clunky old stereo, with the cassette in the deck, and the "record" and "play" buttons pushed down, and hold my finger on the "pause" button, waiting for a good song to come along in rotation. When it did, finger off "pause" and I was good to go.
They were, as you'd expect, pretty crappy mix tapes. But they did the job.
In the summer of 1983 (84? Mid 80s, in any case), I was trying to capture "Total Eclipse of the Heart" on tape. I would wait on the floor, night after night, for the DJ to stop talking and play the song. But it took forever! Well, maybe a couple of weeks. When I finally taped it, it segued from "Sister Christian." A perfect mix, and I did it all by myself.
So, I took the tape with me on vacation that summer, and we (my friend Erin and I) listened to it over and over again, on our little boombox. We were trying to puzzle out the lyrics to "Total Eclipse of the Heart." We had most of them, but the line about "living in a blank blank, and giving off sparks" had us stumped. What was Bonnie Tyler living in, and why was it giving off sparks?
If we had the internet back in those days, the problem could have been solved with a quick Google search. But no, back then we had to wait for the latest issue of some crappy mag like Hit Parader to publish the lyrics so we'd know what they were. Failing that, we had to buy the whole album, and who wanted to spend that much money for only two good songs (I was too young to have a real job at the time. All I had was babysitting money)? So, we played the tape endlessly, trying to figure out the lyrics.
The last day of our vacation, we were supposed to be helping my mom pack the car. The Cape house had an attached garage, so the car was pulled up to the garage door, and we were carrying all the stuff through the house and forcing it into the trunk (Even more dark ages stuff - my family only had ONE car! And six of us were going to ride in it!). My father was sitting in the car, "supervising" (this is known in many places as "napping") and my brother and his friend had disappeared to the beach.
Unfortunately for my mother, Erin and I were distracted by our quest to determine the lyrics. As we were carrying out the boombox, we stopped with our packing, and sat down on the old broken couch in the garage, and played the "living in a blank blank and giving off sparks" line and started rewinding it and listening to it over and over again.
My mother continued to pack, and each time she walked past us, she would say, "Come on, ladies" or "let's get moving" or some kind of prod, and we'd respond with "Coming" or "Just a minute, we have to figure this out."
Well, there were were, crouched over the boombox, listening to that one line of the song, and arguing over it, ("Living in a polygraph?" "Why would she live in a polygraph?" "Maybe a pony box?" "What's a pony box?" "Where ponies live." "Would it give off sparks?" "I don't know.") as my mother walked by, glaring at us, doing all the work by herself.
Finally, FINALLY, we agreed that Bonnie was living in a "polar tank" and giving off sparks. What's a "polar tank," you might ask? No idea. It's the only thing we agreed on, though. So, we played the song again, and as we got to the line, we sang along, at the top of our lungs: "We're living in a polar tank and giving off sparks!"
And my mother walked by, one last time, and looked over her shoulder and yelled out, "POWDER KEG, you assholes!"
Boy, did we move! And to this day, Erin and I still refer to the song as "Polar Tank."
My mother denies all memory of this, by the way.
*************
Off to the oral surgeon to have a tooth removed. Am shaking like a leaf. Wish me luck!