Alice Cooper found a clever little niche for himself in the mid-'70s when, having realized he could move seamlessly from the shock-horror to the Hollywood Squares crowds (OK, the Squares were their own kind of shock-horror), he applied the same cross-genreational techniques to his music, resulting in stuff like "Welcome to My Nightmare" that was equally at home in a dank rathskeller or on The Muppet Show.And indeed, it was on The Muppet Show back in 1977 that I got to know "You and Me", one of a few Alice ballads of the mid- to late-'70s that suggested he'd really absorbed Elton John's Blue Moves period. It's refreshingly anti-rockstar in its longings: "You and me ain't no superstars / What we are is what we are / We share a bed, some lovin', and TV, yeah / And that's enough for a workin' man / What I am is what I am / I tell ya baby, you're just enough for me." His workaday life is fine with him, as long as he's got his special someone in bed beside him.
I'd be lying if I said I shared those prosaic aspirations. But that doesn't mean I enjoy the song any less. (I don't get into big-bosomed ladies with Dutch accents either, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate the similarly styled "You're in My Heart" from Rod Stewart.) There's an unsatisfied striving going on in my world that runs counter to everything "You and Me" stands for; sure, it's a good thing to strive, but at the cost of feeling ever unsatisfied? It's both a blessing and a curse to not know yet what's "enough for me."
4 comments:
I'm tempted to say something smartass about Taoism here. I believe we have that episode of the Muppet Show - I had long since forgotten about it, if I ever saw it as a kid.
Soon enough Peak Oil's gonna pare everybody's ambitions down to not starving and not freezing. And we still might not all be satisfied.
I remember the Alice Cooper Muppet episode. I actually have a vague memory of watching it in the living room in Barryville. It made me nervous.
-D*
oy. i had to stop watching this midway--the second time he mentioned how "the passion starts to rise." i can't stomach right now the thought of his "passion rising" with a puppet.
regarding your goals, i do believe it's always good to strive--while also appreciating what one has accomplished and achieved already.
until, as commenter 2 says, we're all done in by world events of some type or other!
Re "passion rising" with a puppet: What do you think is making that muppet's neck move?
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