"She Kissed Me" by Leagues, Friday, July 23, 2021
EACH TIME I SAW HER, I COULDN'T WAIT TO SEE HER AGAIN. In 1963, a girl group called The Crystals released their song "Then He Kissed Me." The song is a story about a young girl who falls in love with a young man and they eventually get engaged. Two years later, The Beach Boys covered the song, this time telling the story from young man's point of view. The Crystals' single reached number 6 on the American Top 40 charts. The Beach Boys' cover charted in Europe, but not in the U.S. The song was also covered by Glam Rock band KISS, closing their 1977 album, Love Gun. All three of these versions keep the same melody, fast and built around a major scale. However, Leagues slows the song down, building it around minor chords. The guitar adds atmosphere and emotion arguably absent from the previous versions of the tune, making the relationship sound much, much more intense. The musical atmosphere distracts listeners from how undernourished in lyricism this song is. The simple song is an account of what happened. But the instrumentation on Leagues' version, that is the real poetry.
ONE DAY SHE TOOK ME HOME TO MEET HER MA AND HER DAD. "So are you planning on staying there forever?" Josh and his mother were having breakfast for dinner at Cracker Barrel on the way back from the airport. Then the waiter came, a tall young man, wearing a ball cap covering his sandy blond hair. "What about our coffee?" Josh's mom asked. "Oh, right! I'll be right back." "It's a job," Josh said, finally answering his mom. "It's steady, and there's not much around here." "Yes, that's true. You don't want to be a teacher in North Carolina." "Here's your coffee." "We ordered two," Josh's mom said. "Right. I'll be right back." "The kids they've got working here," Josh's mom said shaking her head. Josh and his mom saw the server at the front counter, talking with the maître d, leaning on the counter as if he were hanging out with a friend at the mall. Josh couldn't help but check out his tight jeans. "Well, as long as you come home every year and you can pay your bills and you're happy," The server came back with the coffee. "Thank you," Josh said, looking the young man in the eye. "I think we're all set." The rest of the conversation at breakfast-for-dinner was pretty trivial, about the flight, interesting things about work, a trip his mom had taken. Josh had put boundaries on talking about his personal life back in 2015, when after his mother pressed him on a Skype call to talk about if he had found someone so that she could report back to everyone at church, he said firmly, "Just tell them that I'm happy." The truth was there should be an extra person at the table. Josh shouldn't have flown alone. Josh couldn't help think of how disapproving his mother was of the server. And yet what if he had lived in North Carolina? Maybe he would have taught at a public school and eventually come to terms with his sexuality. But it would have been much harder to hide from his parents. There would probably be years of silence, but maybe, just maybe someday the relationship would mend. He'd could introduce his parents to his boyfriend, a cute server at Cracker Barrel. Then his parents could disapprove of his partner, not because he is a man, but because he is lazy. It could be normal generational disapproval. Something that happened all the time with Jess all throughout high school. Instead, everything would remain hidden. But for how long?
Leagues live:
The Beach Boys "I Kissed Her"
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band cover:
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