You don’t know how many times I’ve wished that I could
Mold you into someone who could
Cherish me as much as I cherish you

Everything sounded good on the radio today.

Last week I was skiing in Colorado, and I came home to spring in Southern California. That freshness in the air, especially in the morning. But even more, the change from long sleeves to short, and soon I’ll be wearing my shorts, but not on the east coast where I’m going tomorrow, it’s not quite as warm there.

And I was listening to 60s on 6 and “Wooly Bully” reached me in a way that it hadn’t in decades. It was a revelation on the airwaves back in the sixties, we didn’t know about that sound, never mind the humorous lyrics.

And Lulu’s “To Sir With Love”…with its line “but what can I give you in return?”

Before, it was just an offer, a quid pro quo, but today, today it sounded like Lulu had gratitude for the experience, for the lessons she learned, and she really wants to let the teacher know she appreciates it, but knows that nothing she can give will equal what she has gotten.

Pop songs. You know them by heart, but then decades later they reveal meanings that heretofore went unnoticed.

I heard “I’ll Get You” on the Beatles channel.

That was the flip-side of “She Loves You,” which meant we played it incessantly until we knew it, that’s how hungry for Beatle material we were.

Prior to this, the B-side was dreck. Oftentimes unlistenable, but the Beatles changed that.

Now when I listened to “I’ll Get You” with my sixth grade brain, I thought it was about payback, I’ll get you for the way you treated me, just you wait.

And then, within the last year, I suddenly realized it’s about getting the woman in the end. He never had her, he wants her, she’s immune to his advances, he’s gonna win in the end.

This is a completely different scenario. It’s about desire, male power. Whereas I always thought it was about rejection and woman power. Whew!

The record didn’t change, I did. The meaning was there all along. It’s not like I misheard the words, I just never understood them!

So after “To Sir With Love” played, the read-out said it was gonna be “Cherish,” by the Association.

Now the first Association hit is an unheralded classic. “Along Comes Mary,” whether it’s about smoking marijuana or not, has the feel of dope, of being cut in another room, through a locked door, you can smell it, but you can’t go there, listening is your only option. The record took you away, made you feel older.

But the subsequent Association tracks were not as edgy, not as deep. The band was a known quantity, kinda like Bread after them, that existed on the hit parade but didn’t quite move your personal needle.

And I pushed the button to 70s on 7, but I didn’t cotton to that track and went back to “Cherish” and heard the above lyrics.

Now you’ve got to know, we heard these songs through a cheap speaker in the dashboard, or a transistor radio. That’s one of the reasons why so many people got the words wrong, like there being a bathroom on the right in that Creedence Clearwater Revival song. We know them, but we don’t know them as well as we think we do. Or maybe I was just too young to understand them back then.

I mean I thought “Cherish” was a love song, a man singing to a woman, how much he cherished his girlfriend/wife, but today I realized THAT’S NOT WHAT IT’S ABOUT AT ALL!

Oh, he’s got a feeling for her inside all right, he’s TORTURED!

I figured the lyrics about how many times he wished that he could hold her were about being on the road, I didn’t know it was an unspoken crush.

That I am not gonna be the one to share your dreams
That I am not gonna be the one to share your schemes
That I am not gonna be the one to share what
Seems to be the life that you could
Cherish as much as I do yours

I guess previously I just heard “dreams” and “schemes” and I thought it was just fear, of losing her, which is why he wanted to tell her he cherished her. But NOW, I realize he realizes that he’s never gonna get her, unlike in the Beatle number.

Oh, I’m beginning to think that man has never found
The words that could make you want me

He’s in the friend zone! She’s nice to him, but she doesn’t think of him that way.

That could make you hear, make you see
That you are drivin’ me out of my mind

That’s what it feels like. You can’t sleep, you think of them all the time, and you avoid them, because you realize if you talk to them you’ll be paralyzed, you’ll come across badly, better to dream than to have hope extinguished.

Oh, I could say I need you, but then you’d realize
That I want you just like a thousand other guys

She’s an icon, she’s desirable, and he’s nothing special, he knows he’s got no chance against the hunks, so he thinks he’s got to try a different approach, but he can’t approach her at all.

Meanwhile she’s got no idea.

He wants to change her, mold her, have her cherish him as much as he cherishes her.

And I do cherish you

He’s testifying, but only to himself. He’s in his own private universe, which may as well be in Idaho, that’s how far he is from her.

So “Cherish” isn’t a beautiful love song, but more a tale of frustration, of desire, of unrequited love.

And I didn’t know that until today!