104: I've Been Funny, I've Been Cool With the Lines

104. "Jessie's Girl" by Rick Springfield {#1; 3/81} [iTunes? Yes.] {Video: Jessie's Girl.}

"You know, I feel so dirty when they start talking cute. I wanna tell her that I love her, but the point is probably moot."

Ah, Jessie is a friend. And "Jessie's Girl" is a song. A song with many qualities to recommend it. Such as:

*The jealousy/unrequited love angle. (Yes, since all of my "love" was unrequited until so late in my life, I still have a soft spot for songs about unrequited love.)

*Great lyrics. There are many great and memorable lines in this song. My favorite, without a doubt, is "I've been looking in the mirror all the time, wondering what she don't see in me. I've been funny, I've been cool with the lines. Ain't that the way love's supposed to be?"

*Guitar! This song has a moment that demands that the volume be turned up. When the guitar rocks just after the "Ain't that the way love's supposed to be?" line (at the 2:00 minute mark in the video), the volume level must be turned up. It's pretty much an involuntary reaction.

*Rick Springfield is a handsome man. (Just sayin'.)

*There's a dog in a white shirt and tie!

*And, finally, there's the General Hospital factor.

Funny. Cool with the lines. 

Dr. Noah Drake. Rick Springfield was Dr. Noah Drake on General Hospital. Yes, I watched General Hospital. (I really didn't have much choice.)

My mom watched soap operas. She had three shows that she usually watched: One Life to Live (with main characters Asa, Bo, and Clint Buchanan); Days of Our Lives (with Bo and Hope, Brady and Marlena); and General Hospital. 

Days of Our Lives aired at 3:00 PM, so it was usually on when I got home from school. The other two shows, One Life to Live and General Hospital made up a lunch-time block between noon and 2:00 PM. And, if we weren't out in the field working on the farm, my dad would take us home for lunch, and we would all watch these two soap operas. 

Often we wouldn't get home for lunch until 12:30 or so, so we would only see a bit of One Life to Live. But we would usually stay and watch the entire episode of General Hospital before going back out to work. (Yes, Dad liked watching the show.)

Of course, if we were out in the fields on the tractor, which we often were, we would take a sack lunch and miss out on the show. It didn't really matter, though, because the shows were so slooooww moving that you could miss several episodes and still pick up on the story without missing a beat. (In fact, after not seeing the show for the entire school year I could usually catch right back up with the story in a day or two.) (I wonder if I tuned in today if some of the same old storylines would be ongoing.)

I still remember some of the characters. There were Luke and Laura. Luke's sister Bobbi. Dr. Noah Drake. My favorite was Robert Scorpio, because he had a cool name, and he was Aussie.

There were a lot of actors and actresses who would go on to more famous work. Demi Moore. Janine Turner (from Northern Exposure.) The beautiful Emma Samms would go on to Dynasty. John Stamos played a young punk named Blackie before moving on to Full House. A young Rush Limbaugh played a tough drug dealer named "Turk." (Okay, I totally made that last one up.)

And, of course, there was rock legend star Rick Springfield as Dr. Noah Drake.

"I'll play along with the charade. There doesn't seem to be a reason to change."

COMING UP NEXT: You should be dancing. Yeah.