Saturday, June 7, 2014

Dreaming of the Old Days and Fred Astaire


A couple of weeks ago, we got our Amazon-ordered CD of Fred Astaire singing his songs. The CD has been running next to Carly Simon in the car ever since. I love them both, but Fred takes me back to an ancient time when he sings "Cheek to Cheek," "The Way You Look Tonight," and "The Continental." And when he swings into "Night and Day," I'm right back in boy's glee at Roosevelt Junior High. And I wonder if Mrs. Baker, who was a lovely but sexless woman, even thought about the lyrics she was teaching the adolescent youth of her class:

Night and day, under the hide of me 
There's an oh such a hungry burning inside of me
And its torment won't be through
Till you let me spend my life makin' love to you
Night and day. 

And to think it didn't even make me horny. I don't know where my head was, but it wasn't where Fred's apparently was. Maybe if we had tried to imitate Fred's intonations we could have caught on.

So I dream of the old days, when Fred Astaire danced with the gorgeous Ginger Rogers and the stunning Rita Hayworth, and I was still trying to figure out my body parts. And now I've been married almost 50 years, and I'm still trying to figure out my body parts.

3 comments:

  1. This post cracked me up! It brought back a memory from girls camp that I had totally forgotten. I wrote a post about it on Mormon Mentality (my personal playground for mostly church-related crankiness.)
    Here's the link for my version on the theme of questionable lyrics:
    and thanks for the inspiration, Tom.
    http://www.mormonmentality.org/2014/06/08/banned-girls-camp-songs.htm

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, Heather. I just read your post on Mormon Mentality. I recommend it highly. Since you haven't offered the lyrics here to the banned song, I think I need to quote them:

      Hot Dog Man

      I know a hot dog man
      He owns a hot dog stand
      He sells most everything
      From hot dogs on down

      Someday I'll change his life
      I’ll be his weenie wife
      Hot dog! I love that weenie man.

      Now we need a YouTube link of you and several of your pals singing the song. How about that?

      Delete
  2. Oh how you enter our heads and say the things we think and feel but can never say in the exact and quirky way you have such a talent for! Thank you Tom - and Fred!

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