Tunesday : Johnny and Mary

( New Music hosts JD and Jeanne)

Johnny and Mary

Written and Performed by Robert Palmer

Johnny's always running around
Trying to find certainty
He needs all the world to confirm
That he ain't lonely
Mary counts the walls
Knows he tires easily

Johnny thinks the world would be right
If it could buy truth from him
Mary says he changes his mind more than a woman
But she made her bed
Even when the chance was slim

Johnny says he's willing to learn 
When he decides he's a fool
Johnny says he'll live anywhere
When he earns time to
Mary combs her hair
Says she should be used to it

Mary always hedges her bets
She never knows what to think
She says that he still acts
Like he is being discovered
Scared that he'll be caught
Without a second thought
Running around

Johnny feels he's wasting his breath
Trying to talk sense to her
Mary says he's lacking a real
Sense of proportion
So she combs her hair
Knows he tires easily

Johnny's always running around
Trying to find certainty
He needs all the world to confirm
That he ain't lonely
Mary counts the walls
Says she should be used to it

Johnny's always running around
Running around

So far, the music I've been remembering are those songs that I was "supposed to" like; either because it was the music my parents listened to, or what my brothers listened to, or like with disco, it was what everyone else was listening to.  I started babysitting when I was twelve, and for the first time, I had control of a TV on a weekend night. And for the first time, I discovered City TV's The New Music -- a one hour precursor to Much Music up here in Canada, coming even a couple of years before the juggernaut of MTV taught America to love music videos.

One of the first songs that made me sit up and take notice was Johnny and Mary, and looking at the video now, I know it's totally lame and cheesy, but I loved this and hoped they would play it every time I babysat. I still really love the actual song -- most likely because of the positive imprint it made on my brain -- even in spite of those lyrics. 

I don't have a significant related memory for this song beyond sitting in the basement of the house across the street from my parents' house -- the residence of my good friend Terri-Anne's father's employee from the radiator shop -- where I would be responsible for a tiny baby who would already be asleep when I arrived, listening to the hunting hounds howling from their kennel in the back yard (I bet you couldn't get away with that inside city limits today), and watching whatever I liked on TV. Never missing The New Music if I could help it.