Fly the Ocean in a Silver Plane

I like Doo Wop music. Among my favorites is "You Belong to Me" by the Duprees, a doo wop version of a song written by Pee Wee King, Chilton Price and Redd Stewart:

See the pyramids along the Nile

And watch the sunrise on a tropic isle

But just remember darling all the while

You belong to me.


See the marketplace in old Algiers

Send me photographs and souvenirs

Just remember when a dream appears

You belong to me.


I'll be so alone without you

Maybe you'll be lonesome too

And blue.


Fly the ocean in a silver plane

See the jungle when it's wet with rain

Just remember till you're home again

You belong to me.


I'll be so alone without you

Maybe you'll be lonesome too

And blue.


Fly the ocean in a silver plane

See the jungle when it's wet with rain

But remember darling till you're home again

That you belong to me

There is something about the lyrics that really gets to me. At first I thought it was the cheery (maybe arrogant) pre-911 view of the whole world as the traveler's playground--the singer's only fear as the lover wanders the Mid-East, North Africa, the tropics, is that the lover might not choose to return. But then I realized there was more to it--the Duprees are men, so the traveling lover is presumably a woman. She "belong[s] to" the singer, but he neither complains about her absence nor suggests that her proper place is with him. Now that's a guy to come home to! Lucky for me, that's what I've got.

Technorati Tags:
Feminism, Navel Gazing, Music