Behind Blue Eyes

     One night a few months ago, Mike and I were eating dinner at Biba's, the Italian restaurant near our house. There was a sound system playing overhead, and a song came on that made me wistful, and I said to Mike, “I've always liked this song.” Mike, who knows my rock history is weak, immediately said, “And the artist is?” it took a moment, but then I realized I was sure of the answer, “The Who” then Mike said, “Why do you like it?”

     I told him, the song always takes me immediately back to first semester freshman year of college (1971) – I was sitting at a desk in class and looking at the graffiti covered wooden desktop – ink or carvings, just like all the desks, but on that particular day, three words that had been etched in jumped out at me - “Behind Blue Eyes” - It was the name of a song on the top 40 on AM radio at that time – a fairly new song. Seeing the words on the desk sent a chill through me – someone had so recently identified with that song – so strongly that he, and I presumed it was a guy with a knife, felt compelled one day in class, out of boredom, or depression, or that stereotypically college word – out of angst – he carved “Behind Blue Eyes” into the desk. I pictured the guy as someone with blue eyes who felt misunderstood.

     And then Mike said, “what does the song mean?” I had to confess then that when the song comes on the radio, I usually only hear the first couple of lines. The words take me back to that desk and the boy with blue eyes and then I go to other places, thinking about guys with blue eyes and they are attractive, and life is mostly easy for them because they are good looking and so they don't have to learn to be nice to get what they want, and then people realize they aren't nice and the blue eyed boys become mistrusted and shunned and they become lonely with empty lives and no one knows what it's like!

     After that, Mike and I did what we do more and more often these days – we whipped out our respective cell phones and googled. We were eager to read what Wikipedia had to say about the song “Behind Blue Eyes”. And my modest understanding of what was written is that Pete Townshend, a member of the Who, was standing outside after a concert one night when a female fan approached him and offered to spend the rest of the evening with him. He was tempted, but resisted the temptation and went back to his room alone and wrote the song.

     Now admit it, when you read just now that a rock star knew about temptation, you were surprised weren't you? And then when you read that not only did he know temptation, but he resisted it, you were even more surprised! Because is not the very definition of rock star equivalent to sleeping with a different groupie after every concert?

     We make assumptions based on reputation – we don't know what it is like behind blue eyes!

     It was a very satisfying dinner that night in Biba's – the sharing of an old memory led to a conversation that took us in many directions, and the conversation led us to do a bit of modest research that opened up new perspecives. I still say, “I've always liked this song”, but now the saying of that has so many more dimensions to it!

     And there is even more to the story – to be continued

77 20150318 Behind Blue Eyes