I realize that this song has a substantial hatedom, but I’m asking you to look outside of your blinding hatred for this one. What message do you think the song is trying to convey?
Hmmm…I could have sworn I had question marks in there.
I don’t think it’s trying to convey a message…just tell a story of two people who didn’t realize they already had what they wanted.
I really don’t think there’s much below the surface of that song.
Guy decides to cheat on and/or dump his wife/girlfriend (it’s not clear which), so he places an ad in the personals (which actually used to be an actual thing in actual paper newspapers). In a crazy twist of fate, his “own lovely lady” is the one who answers the ad, and they realize they were meant for each other all along.
If there’s any message, I guess it’s to appreciate what you already have.
(For the record, I don’t hate it. But it’s surely not a masterpiece of 20th-century musicianship.)
It’s an excuse for Gen-Xers to reaffirm their own relationships via personals ads.
Yes, I have seen this exact ad in a personals column:
You have a couple of people who are supposedly in a relationship, that are doing some pre-Tinder fooling around looking for someone to cheat on the other with.
And then the person they find is, surprise!, the partner they were trying to betray. Everyone is so happy because they both like the same things, and probably always have, and they end up together, still entirely sick of each other. They go home in a brief romantic mood and find that the dog has puked on the carpet, the dishwasher needs to be unloaded, and they did not find what they were looking for. One on the couch, one in the bedroom, both crying.
Dreaming of the “what if?” What if I had just swiped left instead of right? I would still have my somewhat imperfect marriage/relationship. But that is all gone now. And then the lawyers came.
Too sickly sweet and nausea inducing, much like a Pina Colada.
Given that it came out in 1979 and considering the way the song ends, it seems like they went off and enjoyed a romantic escape to a tropical beach and had their piña coladas.
It’s a cautionary tale about the perils of not being open with your partner about what you really want. If either of them had bitten the bullet and admitted they wanted pina coladas et al., the other would have either jumped at it, and re-affirmed their relationship, or suddenly realized how stupid those desires were, allowing them to end the relationship on an honest basis.
Now it’s just awkward.
Clearly by its cheerful bouncy tone and the fact they are both laughing at the end, it intends to convey that the relationship is affirmed. Of course, a cynic (or a realist) will conclude it’s destroyed, but that would require a level of self awareness on the part of both members of the couple that is not apparent in the song. They’re both extremely shallow.
Actually, she’s the one who put an ad in the personals first. He reads it while she is sleeping beside him, and responds to it in kind.
Hold on folk…
SHE places the ad that HE is answering.
Edit: Col…come on. You beat me literally by seconds.
:smack:
I hereby turn in my “1970’s one-hit wonder expert” card.
Several years ago there was a new report about a couple who apparently actually experienced this phenomenon – both placed personal ads and ended up inadvertently meting each other. as I recall, it didn’t do much for their relationship.
I’m not surprised they hooked up again – despite the song lyrics, you’re likely to write an ad looking for someone like your current SO, and so are they. There’s a pretty good chance of being set up with your prospective ex.
I really have a hard time imagining that this would make their bond better – they were both actively looking for a new partner on the sly, which has got to make you suspicious, even if you learn more commonalities from the experience.
Agreed, but I would argue that a shallow person would turn on their heel and dump the chump who wanted to bail on the relationship. Never mind that they wanted to bail as well - true shallowness does not admit such self-awareness.
Conversely, it takes a certain degree of maturity and acceptance to swallow one’s pride and admit that the problem all along was communication and failing to be genuine with each other.
Something like this happened to my uncle. He’d been through a bitter divorce a few years prior, and a couple of (new) friends said they knew someone he would like.
Sure enough, they inadvertently introduced him to his ex-wife.
I have had dating apps that matched me with exes before. I figure it is quite common.
I have to conclude that these people are VERY different than the people I hang around with. A couple catches each other, red handed, in the act of attempting to cheat - that doesn’t end with a laugh and a, “Oh, it’s you.” It ends with sirens.
It’s an episode of Love, American Style, set to a bubblegum tune.
Well, if two people who both kinda likes Breakfast at Tiffany’s is enough for one couple then both liking Pina Colada should be good enough for this couple. If anybody doesn’t know, that’s from a song called Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Deep Blue Something.
Something. The name of the band is “Deep Blue Somethi-
Oh.
Belay my last.
Love is a very stupid thing.