I have recently had the song Escape stuck in my head. If you don’t recognize by that name then you’d know it by the famous lyrics of the song.
“If you like Pina Coladas, and getting caught in the rain
If you´re not into yoga, if you have half a brain
If you like making love at midnight, in the dunes of the cape
I´m the love that you´ve looked for, write to me, and escape”
That’s the part of the song everyone knows. It’s an iconic song that most people know. Since I had it stuck in my head I had to listen to it.
I waited for the part singing about Pina Coladas and sang along. After that had passed I didn’t know the rest of the lyrics so I just waited for it to come around. I listened to them and questioned what it was about so I had to start the whole song over again.
It starts off with:
“I was tired of my lady, we´d been together too long
Like a worn-out recording, of a favorite song
So while she lay there sleeping, I read the paper in bed
And in the personals column, there was this letter I read”
Then cue the classic part about Pina Coladas. So, he’s already discussed that he’s tired of his partner. He reads the article saying to write and plan their escape if you like the things listed. What he does next is no surprise based off what we’ve already been told.
“I didn´t think about my lady, I know that sounds kind of mean
But me and my old lady, had fallen into the same old dull routine
So I wrote to the paper, took out a personal ad
And though I´m nobody´s poet, I thought it wasn´t half bad”
Is this guy serious right now? He just took out a personal ad to write to this other woman to “escape”. He is fully ready to leave his wife without saying a word to her about leaving. She’s just going to wake up and he’s gone and never come back. BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE.
After he writes back to the person in the ad saying he enjoys those things and adds on a few things he likes also. We find out he’s gone to a bar called O’Malley’s to meet this person. Super romantic place to plan an escape together by the way.
“So I waited with high hopes, then she walked in the place
I knew her smile in an instant, I knew the curve of her face
It was my own lovely lady, and she said, “Oh, it´s you”
And we laughed for a moment, and I said, “I never knew” “
After this, it continues on to sing the Pina Colada part again twice. Once from his point and once from her. Can we just quickly discuss that they were both going to up and leave each other and not say anything?
This song is crazy! They’re both crazy and I can’t believe they just laugh it off. I’d never realized what this song was actually about. It has kind of a bittersweet ending I suppose on how you look at it.
I miss good music like this that told stories instead of modern day pop. Stopping to actually realize what a song is about is a great past time.
Did you know what this song was about? How do you feel about it? It honestly kind of upsets me that they’d do that.
Toby Lopez 