Cuts Like a Knife

The CD changer in the Ford isn't working properly and hasn't since I had it detailed, inside and out after Cassie's trip to the ER. We're stuck with the radio or one of several-dozen cassettes that have been hiding in the trunk.

Today I tired of the radio and went hunting to see what exactly was in the trunk, it's been so long. With no recollection of what exactly was stored away in these cases, I stumbled across this; endearingly cheesy 80's-rocker Bryan Adams' breakthrough album. Nothing says "cheese" more than that cover photo.

Yet whenever I hear that title cut, I'm obliged to turn it up and crank it. It is the nascent predecessor (the sound that characterized Adams for the first part of his career was born on this album and continued on in- and beyond- Reckless) to Adams' single-greatest tune, Summer of '69; a driving melody with tragically simple lyrics. Twenty-two years later it is a guilty pleasure; at the time it epitomized early-80's rock music. If you listened to rock-and-roll in the tradition of your older-siblings 70's classics, you knew this album.

In 1983 MTV was more interested in music videos than reality-TV. That summer everybody knew this song because everybody knew the video. At least me and the other 17-year old guys knew it...and it was always about the girl on the diving board.

Well, that and the writing:

I took it all for granted
But how was I to know
That you'd be letting go

Now it cuts like a knife
But it feels so right
It cuts like a knife
But it feels so right

What cuts is the realization that the Summer of '83, when I engaged in all the typical hijinks of the type you do while you kill time between High School and college is 22-years ago. What cuts is the realization that what you thought was weighty simply was not. While it is some consolation that the real difference between then and now lies in the difference between adolescence and maturity, it still feels somehow that something is lost.

I took it all for granted
But how was I to know
That you'd be letting go

Now it cuts like a knife

Here's to the 17-year old who thought he knew the first thing about life. It was nice seeing you again kid!