Pump It Up
Elvis Costello & the Attractions
Here's the video
~~*~~
I've been on tenterhooks, ending in dirty looks
Listening to the Muzak, thinking 'bout this 'n' that
She said that's that, I don't wanna chitter-chat
Turn it down a little bit or turn it down flat
Pump it up! when you don't really need it
Pump it up! until you can feel it
Down in the pleasure center, hell-bent or heaven sent
Listen to the propaganda, listen to the latest slander
There's nothing underhand that she wouldn't understand
Pump it up! until you can feel it
Pump it up! when you don't really need it
Hey!
She's been a bad girl, she's like a chemical
Though you try to stop it, she's like a narcotic
You wanna torture her, you wanna talk to her
All the things you bought for her, could not get a temperature
Pump it up! until you can feel it
Pump it up! when you don't really need it
Out in the fashion show, down in the bargain bin
You put your passion out under the pressure pin
Fall into submission, hit-and-run transmission
No use wishing now for any other sin
Pump it up! until you can feel it
Pump it up! when you don't really need it
Pump it up! until you can feel it
Pump it up! when you don't really need it
Pump it up! until you can feel it
Pump it up! when you don't really need it
Don't really need it!
Don't really need it!
Don't really need it!
~~*~~
One of the greatest dance songs ever.
Back in the day--we're talking the early 80s--
and at least in Colorado at the time--
when you turned 18, as I did in 1980,
you could go to bars.
They were known as "18 bars,"
as distinct from all the other bars,
which you couldn't get in
because they served hard liquor.
In 18 bars, all that was served was beer.
(Yeah, I know. Like that made it any safer or saner.)
I'd go to those 18 bars with friends, and when this song
came on, I'd friggin' have to dance.
It didn't hurt at all that it's basically about
a guy who's totally sexually frustrated and hard up,
which I was back then pretty much 24/7.
Only occasionally, I have to report with some sadness,
did I have a partner to dance with when this came on.
People--and this includes girls and women--
didn't really do the thing these days
where if you don't have a partner you just go and dance anyway.
And so I'd sit there far too often tapping my feet and nursing my beer.
I had girl friends--as opposed to girlfriends--
and finally got the genius notion,
I the college student (mathematics no less!),
to ask those girl friends out to those bars
so that I could dance whenever I wanted,
granted that they were up for it,
which they always were.
Great times. Great memories.
~~*~~
Digital Art: Uncomplicated by yours truly
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