Don't You Want Me - Part II

In an earlier post, I looked at the song "Don't You Want Me" by Jody Watley, but there is another very popular song by the same title from much earlier in the decade.  "Don't You Want Me" by the Human League was released in 1981 and is a completely different tune.  Story line is simple--guy finds waitress at a cocktail bar, turns her into a star, they have a five year love affair, and boom--she doesn't want him anymore.  It's that simple.  Makes for an interesting story, but the funny thing is that the actual song is very upbeat, uptempo, and has that kind of synthesized "happy pop" feel to it.  Pretty neat considering the song's lyrics seem a bit sad--and kind of desperate.  "Don't...don't you want me?  You know I can't believe it when I hear that you won't see me...Don't...Don't you want me?  You know I don't believe you when you say that you don't need me..."  It's alright, though, because the video will put you in trance with the stone cold faces of the singers, which are really mesmerizing.  I forgot that back in the day men and women wore makeup -- well, men in rock bands like The Cure and many, many other groups from the U.K.  The other thing that I forgot about was how cool it was for kids in the U.S. to watch the video and see cars with the steering wheel on the right side.  AMAZING.  I know--it didn't take much to entertain us back then.

Now I am an adult, so it takes a bit more to make me laugh...but not much.  I happened to find an "orchestral version" of this song on YouTube.  There are several of these videos, which are completely man-made and rather hysterical.  I especially love reading the comments when they say "Hey--they're not really playing this.  This is fake.  This is so dumb!"  Well, yes, they are not really playing "this," and that is why it's so funny.  This particular video is a mash-up of parts of the San Francisco Symphony performing Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4 and Stravinsky's Rite of Spring (the composer's names are misspelled in the YouTube notes, unfortunately).  Anyway, for classical music geeks like myself, it is amazingly funny.  Michael Tilson Thomas is one of the greatest conductors out there, which makes it even funnier.  So, I hope you will enjoy this clip.  I've added the original Human League video and the "orchestral version."

Don't You Want Me?

Wow - kind of forward there, eh?  Well, I was listening to the radio while I was driving over the river and through the mountains to get home for Thanksgiving.  It was a long drive, and I happened to tune into a station that plays classic "American Top 40" shows from the 80s with Casey Kasem.  I remember when those shows were live!  Pretty strange since when I started the drive, I heard a current AT40 Countdown - I think Rick Dees hosts it now.  So, halfway through my drive, I was transported back in time to 1987.  Yes indeed - that was a great year.  I was in middle school, and my mittle sister was born.  It was the height of my attention to the pop world in all its 80s splendor.  The music certainly had changed from the early 80s.  We began to hear many more synthesizer-driven dance tunes, and videos had really evolved into mini epic productions that were often very sophisticated from a cinematic standpoint.

So, I was driving along, and Jody Watley's "Don't You Want Me" came on the countdown.  I used to absolutely love, love, love her music - but really her fashion sense for the most part.  I remembered how she had these huge crinoline skirts that would flow as she danced in her first hit video, "Looking for a new Love."  I really wanted one of those skirts.  There was no way that a 7th grader would be able to integrate that into her daily wardrobe, but hey, when it was time to dance around the bedroom singing into a twirling baton, I wanted to be properly attired.  Ms. Watley just seemed so cool and the epitome of current fashion.  She was a trendsetter, too, with everything pretty much over-the-top -- huge hoop earrings, long hair down to the waist, those huge puffy crinoline skirts, and of course, bustiers and other undergarments as tops.  The video is really well-directed, and it certainly adds a sophistication to the song that I didn't capture as I listened to the radio.  Goes to show how important videos were to the success of songs back in this time period.  They could really make or break the tune and certainly boost the wow factor of something seemingly "okay."

The song alone (without video) made me smile as I drove.  The song is about a woman and a man, and a potential romance.  Seems as if the man is giving the woman mixed signals, and she is saying, "Hey, uh, what's the deal here?  Yes or no?"  I guess it's kind of fun to build intrigue.  We saw that with sitcoms back in the day.  So, in the first verse she talks about him smiling "as though to say 'oh yeah'."  That made me smile, actually.  Wouldn't it be interesting if we all simply communicated by expression?  Maybe that would make the whole man/woman thing better.  Just kidding.  It actually made me think about middle school again, which I guess is why this song appealed to me at the time.  I'm kind of smirking now and thinking, "hmmm...." but it is all in good fun once again.  If you watch the video, you'll see that in the end she gets the guy, and everyone lives happily ever after :)