pop illumination

I've blogged about this particular '80s pop tune before.

This time around, I have discovered something new, something exciting, something... enlightening.

I've loved this song and video since I was a little kid, but I never really "got" it when it came to the video concept. As seen below (courtesy of the almighty YouTube) the clip involves a rather cute Tracy Ullman, dressed in Diana Ross-like '60s garb, pining away for her boyfriend Paul, a cheesy-and-sleazy-looking kind of fellow who likes to bowl and wear gaudy clothes. Then the video fast-forwards to their present situation: Tracy is pregnant and pushing a shopping cart around at the supermarket where her boyfriend/current husband works, singing away wistfully even as she looks worse for the wear.

Suddenly, we see the '60s Tracy in a car with Sir Paul McCartney at the wheel. It's the same car we saw earlier in the video, but instead of Paul the boyfriend it's now Paul the ex-Beatle.

All these years I've wondered, what is the point of this? Wish fulfillment? Post-marital escape fantasy? A gratuitous star cameo?

I looked it up again, needing a tunatic fix after having gone quite some time without listening to the song or watching the video, and I came across this comment posted by someone known as "Ritzy Trailer":

'My take is that Guido in the gold lame shirt (that's pronounced La-MAY, by the way, kids) may be dorky but she loves him LIKE he's Paul McCartney.. What WE all see in the store - is what everyone else seems to see.. but no matter - she's in love with him anyway, he may as well BE PM to her.. bad hair, and all. And that's what real love SHOULD be about.'

And now, suddenly, after over two decades and a mysterious appreciation for this one-hit wonder, I finally get it.

Yes indeed, I do.

I went back and watched it again, and I have to agree-- that's what it's all about.

Geez. I can be so thick sometimes.

Thank you, Ritzy Trailer, for pointing out what's been right under my nose for all these years.

If ever there was a time to die happy, it's right now.