Today is Day 2 of the 365 Days of Music project and the song I’ve chosen to feature today is “James” by The Bangles.

In 1984, I was musically obsessed with New Wave and Girl Groups. The Bangles were, and still are, one of my all-time favorite girl groups. The kind of love my teen, music-loving heart had for The Bangles was a two-part kind of love. I loved the music, but I also wanted to be part of the music. I wanted to be in a Girl Group. I wanted to be a Bangle.

“I knew it’d turn out like this,
I’m keeping one foot on the train.
And, I must be a masochist,
to ever take up with you, James.”

“James” by The Bangles
from the album, All Over the Place (1984)
365 Days of Music – Day 2 – May 2, 202

Not in the mid-’80s, but in the early ’90s I had an on-again, off-again thing with a boy named James. He was flaky and unreliable, always coming and going when it came to me, and playing things hot and cold, always one or the other extreme. I never knew what to think or feel, or make of him.

For a spell his charm, and music taste, were enough to keep me hanging on. Eventually, though, all that wore thin and yeah, I couldn’t take his shit any longer. This song reminds me of how it felt to be with him, and to be free from him.

It’s also way fun to dance around and sing into a hairbrush microphone to.