This week’s Song Lyric Sunday prompt from Helen Vahdati is “self love.”
“Self love” is an interesting theme in that it can be taken a few different ways. One way is the emotional context expressed by the old adage that “you need to love yourself first before you can truly love others.” It’s like something a psychologist might tell you: “Love yourself first and everything else falls into line.”
Another way of looking at self love is the physical way of loving one’s self (i.e., masturbation). That, of course, is what came to mind for me.
When I thought about a song that incorporates the physical interpretation of self love, the one that came to mind almost immediately was Jackson Browne’s “Rosie.”
It’s a song about a singer in a band who sees a female fan — probably more a groupie than a fan, actually — and is attracted to her. But it’s the band’s drummer who ends up leaving with her at the end of the show. And that’s when the singer decides to take matters into his own hands, so to speak.
Here are the lyrics:
She was standing at the load-in
When the trucks rolled up
She was sniffin’ all around
Like a half-grown female pup
She wasn’t hard to talk to
Looked like she had nowhere to go
So I gave her a pass
So she could get in and see the show
Well, I sat her down right next to me
And I got her a beer
While I mixed that sound on the stage
So the band could hear
The more I watched her watch them play
The less I thought of to say
And when they walked off stage
You know, the drummer swept that girl away
But Rosie, you’re all right
(You wear my ring)
When you hold me tight
(Rosie, that’s my thing)
When you turn out the light
(I got to hand it to me)
Looks like it’s me and you again tonight, Rosie
Well I guess I might have known from the start
She’d come for a star
Well I told my imagination not to run too far
Of all the times that I’ve been burned
By now you think I’d’ve learned
That it’s who you look like,
Not who you are
(You all keep that in mind)
Rosie, you’re all right
(You wear my ring)
When you hold me tight
(Rosie, that’s my thing)
When you turn out the light
(I got to hand it to me)
It looks like it’s me and you again tonight, Rosie
It looks like it’s me and you again tonight,
It looks like it’s me and you again tonight, Rosie
Rosie, Rosie, Rosie, Rosie
And here is the video:
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