Paradise by the Dashboard Light
This song is pure poetry. It captures the essence of men and women, as teenagers first feeling the most powerful urges. How teenage guys and teenage girls both deal with and react to these feelings, and the possible consequences, and the expectations placed on them by society, and the way this nuclear reaction of such powerful forces so often goes down. This is a timeless situation that gives you to understand it has happened this way millions and millions of times throughout all of history. This song captures the ecstasy and the agony. The momentary bliss and the life long despair.
All that, and it's also a genuine piece of Americana.
And wow, what a way to screw up your life. Barely 17. Praying for the end of time. Damn. I can only hope ubiquitous birth control prevents the majority of such tragically derailed lives these days.
Meatloaf's Paradise by the Dashboard Light is also arguably one of the absolute best songs of the 70s. It's poetry and it rocks! This song was definitely "before my time", so I am not speaking from nostalgia here. I grew up in the 80s, and nostalgia hit me once, like driving 80 mph (130 kph -- it is the world wide web afterall) into a concrete block wall, so I know how powerful nostalgia can be. For me it was the Talking Heads and the Eurythmics. So my praises for Paradise by the Dashboard Light are not motivated by nostalgia in the least.
Wow. Pure poetry for anyone who has ever felt passion.
