# They wouldn't fly now **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 14, 2022, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-wouldnt-fly-now/962825 "2022-04-14T14:24:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2022, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-wouldnt-fly-now/962825/121 "2022-04-16T20:19:28Z")
I just realized that my comment may have come off as rude or snarky. This was not my intent. Prior to reading **Treppenwitz** post, I didn’t know the show was originally British. I assumed that they didn’t know that it ever ran in the USA. I was just trying to be informative. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2022, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-wouldnt-fly-now/962825/122 "2022-04-16T20:46:24Z")
Hey, I saw no snark - no problem here. I was just noting that back in the day a bit of joshing casual racism wasn’t something that wasn’t taken too seriously. All good. j ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2022, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-wouldnt-fly-now/962825/123 "2022-04-16T20:54:03Z")
[The Ayds Diet Plan.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayds) ---
**Author:** ![mundylion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mundylion/32/3604_2.png) [@mundylion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mundylion)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2022, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-wouldnt-fly-now/962825/124 "2022-04-16T21:28:35Z")
Hell, we routinely drank _while_ driving. Referred to a trip as a 2 can or a sixer. First time I drove to Texas I was surprised and happy (gad it was hot!) to find out that it was actually still legal to drink while driving. We bought a big bag of ice and a case of beer and straddled the thing to cool off. Wonderful. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2022, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-wouldnt-fly-now/962825/125 "2022-04-16T22:50:01Z")
1. The trailing end of the hippie era, when people let it all hang out, put aside their sexual hangups, and _Show Me!_ by Will McBride was published in the USA: [https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.sVdoTwtxRUxv-gGOp8iO-gAAAA?pid=ImgDet&rs=1](https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.sVdoTwtxRUxv-gGOp8iO-gAAAA?pid=ImgDet&rs=1) Family nudity, displays of erections, matter-of-fact explanations about semen, watching older siblings having sex with their partners, and experimental touching. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2022, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-wouldnt-fly-now/962825/126 "2022-04-16T23:22:30Z")
_I’ll be watching you_ takes on a different meaning today. From innocent and affectionate to… [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/OMOGaugKpzs/maxresdefault.jpg "The Police - Every Breath You Take (Official Video)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMOGaugKpzs) ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2022, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-wouldnt-fly-now/962825/127 "2022-04-16T23:33:40Z")
There’s a scene in the Brady Bunch in which the youngest two mention that they’ve been invited to swim in a neighbor’s pool without suits (Alice tells them to put on their suits). ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2022, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-wouldnt-fly-now/962825/128 "2022-04-16T23:52:17Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > _I’ll be watching you_ takes on a different meaning today. From innocent and affectionate to… The song is explicitly about Big Brother. It was never intended to be “innocent and affectionate”. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2022, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-wouldnt-fly-now/962825/129 "2022-04-17T00:14:17Z")
Perhaps, but I remember when it first came out, and the Big Brother connection was never considered by my (adult) peers. Maybe it was _us_ who were innocent. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2022, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-wouldnt-fly-now/962825/130 "2022-04-17T00:40:12Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > MTV refused to air that video, but Night Flight did. TIL. I guess I was remembering Julie Brown’s constant presence on MTV. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2022, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-wouldnt-fly-now/962825/131 "2022-04-17T00:46:08Z")
I loved Julie Brown. Her first album was brilliant. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2022, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-wouldnt-fly-now/962825/132 "2022-04-17T00:53:47Z")
_God_ yes! From [Big and Stupid](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvvGR09P5XI) to [Time Slips Away](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQomJcYZAh0). ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2022, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-wouldnt-fly-now/962825/133 "2022-04-17T00:54:47Z")
I don’t remember thinking there was a Big Brother connection when it came out - but there were plenty of people who thought it was about what we would now call a stalker and couldn’t understand why it was so popular at weddings… Although we wouldn’t have used the word stalker in '83 - probably something more like “jealous boyfriend”. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2022, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-wouldnt-fly-now/962825/134 "2022-04-17T01:19:18Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > > [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > > > _Airplane!_ and _Blazing Saddles_ wouldn’t be made the same way today because they derive so much of their comedy from subverting their audiences’ expectations, and today’s audiences have different expectations (partly because of having seen those very films and many others released between then and now). > > Certainly the world is very different from the times the movies were originally made and the movies would need to be completely rewritten within the context of the modern world or have never existed in the first place. In the latter case the world be very different now from the way it is, and that logical incoherence is a good reason to follow the former option Absolutely true. _Blazing Saddles_ went after the conventions of Hollywood Westerns and of pulp westerns in general that people had grown up with, especially the “whitewashing” (in multiple senses of the word) involved. Brooks made a whole career of mocking classic genre tropes, and of saying yes, “you CAN make a joke about that” (_Springtime for Hitler_, anyone?) Meanwhile _Airplane!_ mocked directly the ever-increasingly-ludicrous _Airport_ series of disaster movies by essentially **using the entire actual script** of an earlier such film, _Zero Hour_. This, BTW, creates a blessing IMO insofar as these films become immunized from someone rebooting them “new and improved” to push his current vision. A 2020s equivalent to Blazing Saddles or Airplane! would need to be essentially written anew like **TriPolar** says, and it would _ **not** _ be _Blazing Saddles_ or _Airplane!_ it would be something that stands on its own in the 2020s. > [@doreen](#): > > there were plenty of people who thought it was about what we would now call a stalker and couldn’t understand why it was so popular at weddings… One of them being Sting himself. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2022, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-wouldnt-fly-now/962825/135 "2022-04-17T02:43:33Z")
heh sounds like a sexed up version of kids incorporated which a lot of people found uncomfortable … even tho there was a “story” (or excuse) that involved the songs being played ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2022, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-wouldnt-fly-now/962825/136 "2022-04-17T03:47:55Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > The song is explicitly about Big Brother. Really? What on earth does this have to do with Big Brother? I mean, I know there’s a love story in 1984, but I don’t see how it makes sense to be still riffing on the “every step you take” thing in this part if this is supposed to be the their feelings. > Since you’ve gone, I’ve been lost without a trace > I dream at night, I can only see your face > I look around, but it’s you I can’t replace > I feel so cold, and I long for your embrace > I keep crying baby, baby please > How my poor heart aches > With every step you take… > > How my poor heart aches > With every step you take? If it’s _not_ about a guy obsessively in love whose heart was broken, it’s impressive misdirection. > [@Musicat](#): > > Perhaps, but I remember when it first came out, and the Big Brother connection was never considered by my (adult) peers. Maybe it was _us_ who were innocent. Yes, and I don’t think it was so much a question of innocence. Only about 30% of the lyrics are comprehensible in Sting’s singing\*, but the obvious reading is a guy in love who can’t stop thinking about his girl. You can read it as obsessive perhaps to the point of stalkery, but there’s nothing (at least nothing comprehensible) that’s unambiguously about a Big Brother angle. And the beautiful music is not at all sinister in tone - it starts wistful then goes quite upbeat in parts. So I don’t think it’s at all surprising that everyone took it as a beautiful song about obsessive love, perhaps glossing over the stalkery part because the music is so great, that you can play for a slow dance at weddings. \*cite: [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/CwAhuEVuM7c/hqdefault.jpg "Family Guy: Sting sings Brand New Day + Fields of Gold") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwAhuEVuM7c) ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2022, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-wouldnt-fly-now/962825/137 "2022-04-17T04:12:59Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > The song is explicitly about Big Brother. And reading the Wikipedia article, I know question this assertion altogether. Sting is quoted as saying he was thinking about Big Brother, but it sounds to me that he meant he was considering the _parallel_ to the stalkerish behavior of an obsessive lover - the latter being what the song is actually _about_. [Every Breath You Take - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Every_Breath_You_Take#Origins_and_songwriting) We have: > It sounds like a comforting love song. I didn’t realise at the time how sinister it is. I think I was thinking of Big Brother, surveillance and control. but also > He insists it is about the obsession with a lost lover, and the jealousy and surveillance that follow. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2022, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-wouldnt-fly-now/962825/138 "2022-04-17T04:25:31Z")
The point is that it was never an innocent love song to begin with, but a song about toxic and exploitative love. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2022, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-wouldnt-fly-now/962825/139 "2022-04-17T04:28:48Z")
Sure, Big Brother. And Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds had nothing to do with drugs either. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2022, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-wouldnt-fly-now/962825/140 "2022-04-17T04:33:17Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > The point is that it was never an innocent love song to begin with, but a song about toxic and exploitative love. Sure, that’s _my_ point. Your point that I disputed was: > [@Smapti](#): > > The song is explicitly about Big Brother. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-wouldnt-fly-now/962825.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-wouldnt-fly-now/962825.md?page=8)