This song and its video are full of nostalgia for the 1940s. The swing dancing craze of the time involved tossing women in the air, flipping them overhead and underfoot. “Take your baby by the hand / And make her do a high handstand.” This acrobatic coordination required dancers to be in sync, or “so in phase.” Also so in phase was the wider culture, united by a bonding sentiment of patriotism engendered by WWII. This song celebrates everyone around you being united in thought and feeling. “I, you, and everyone we knew / Could believe, do, and share in what was true.” But there is a sinister undercurrent here, of course. “Take your baby by the ears / And play upon her darkest fears.” I see this in tandem with “You need her and she needs you” as an indictment of the domestic abuse which could and did flourish in a time when men and women were wholly dependent on each other. Single, unmarried adults were a rarity. Women could not obtain financial independence outside of marriage, and men were helpless without a woman to do the domestic work. When the culture is a monolith and women could not get away from a bad husband, they had no recourse but to smile and pretend everything was ok if he took a fancy to boxing their ears. I’m not sure what the gemstone lines refer to, except perhaps an allusion to women being placated by gifts of jewels….This song reminds me of David Lynch’s movie Blue Velvet - a slice of wholesome apple pie Americana underpinned by seedy characters doing shockingly violent and twisted things. That feeling is brilliantly encapsulated here in a tight, jangly, catchy four minutes.
This song and its video are full of nostalgia for the 1940s. The swing dancing craze of the time involved tossing women in the air, flipping them overhead and underfoot. “Take your baby by the hand / And make her do a high handstand.” This acrobatic coordination required dancers to be in sync, or “so in phase.” Also so in phase was the wider culture, united by a bonding sentiment of patriotism engendered by WWII. This song celebrates everyone around you being united in thought and feeling. “I, you, and everyone we knew / Could believe, do, and share in what was true.” But there is a sinister undercurrent here, of course. “Take your baby by the ears / And play upon her darkest fears.” I see this in tandem with “You need her and she needs you” as an indictment of the domestic abuse which could and did flourish in a time when men and women were wholly dependent on each other. Single, unmarried adults were a rarity. Women could not obtain financial independence outside of marriage, and men were helpless without a woman to do the domestic work. When the culture is a monolith and women could not get away from a bad husband, they had no recourse but to smile and pretend everything was ok if he took a fancy to boxing their ears. I’m not sure what the gemstone lines refer to, except perhaps an allusion to women being placated by gifts of jewels….This song reminds me of David Lynch’s movie Blue Velvet - a slice of wholesome apple pie Americana underpinned by seedy characters doing shockingly violent and twisted things. That feeling is brilliantly encapsulated here in a tight, jangly, catchy four minutes.