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5 March 1999 Crush/Recall
You're no good, can't you see
It's just, a little crush Crush It comes like a thief in the night, stealing in through a forgotten door left unguarded against its stealthy attack. Pupils dilate, breath becomes short, palms sweat and heart races. An over-excitement of the entire system which leads to a dizzyness, a giddyness an addictive high in the brain. It's a crush. More than once a day, as if still caught in the prism of adolescence, the fluttering butterfly-wings of the heart take flight. A pure chemical reaction between body and brain, which takes only a second, a breath, a sight, a sound to kick off. Does it matter who? Does it matter when? Can you ever tell when it will happen again? Fixations, most inappropriate, on a cousin, companion or friend, sweeping up out of nothing and just as soon fading away.
You're My Heart, You're My Soul is a song from my not-so-distant childhood in Belgium. It hit No. 1 over there in '84/'85 just as my family was packing up to return to the States. The group didn't last very long, as many another 80s group on both sides of the Atlantic. I remember hearing You're My Heart, You're My Soul in video first. While the tune is very catchy, I attribute its staying power in my brain to that video. Something to do with the rather intense gaze of lead-singer Thomas Anders and the vast amounts of lip gloss and big hair in evidence. At the time I had no idea who the group was, but that intense look and the lip gloss have stayed with me along with the catchy tune over the years. Much to my surprise upon arriving in France for Christmas, I discovered that the group had made a comeback and I finally had a name to attach to the intense look-lip gloss-big hair memory. They re-released most of their original big hits, remixed for the 90s. Among these was Brother Louie which I missed when it first came out in '86 because we were Stateside. German bands don't often seem to make it over here in the US. Heck, most Euro music doesn't seem to make the transition well. More's the pity. Anyway, Brother Louie is now firmly associated with New Years' Eve 1998 and two nights of clubbing in downtown Bordeaux with Sabs' teenage cousins. It's one of those fluffy danceable tunes, which, while it's ineffably upbeat, has something mournful about it that brings back the bittersweet atmosphere that characterized the whole trip for me. Every time I spin the CD in the player, an image of neon back-lit smoke rises up and five gyrating bodies are superimposed with a tearful good-bye at the airport. |