WE'RE ALL ALONE
"Close the window, come alive
And It will be all right
No need to bother now
Let it out
Let it all begin
Learn how to pretend."
When you're a kid, you don't understand lyrics written by women in their
twenties or so. You think you do, but then teenagers on Usenet newsgroups think they
understand fifty-year-olds and their feelings are terribly hurt when fifty-year-olds tell
them they don't understand. They claim it's age bigotry -- do these children have
any idea what a fifty-year-old goes through? Of course not. But I'm willing to
make you a bet. I'm willing to bet you every single fifty-year-old person in this
world has been seventeen at some point. Okay, enough ranting. I remember what
I was like when I was seventeen -- I was an asshole, too. But, then, I'm still an
asshole -- just an older one.
I'm guessing this song seemed "deep" and/or "romantic"
to me when I was eleven or twelve or, perhaps, thirteen. The truth of the matter is,
this song really is deep, though profoundly unromantic. I know there are other Rita
Coolidge songs around, but this is the one I remember hearing on AM radio.