Call Me

Pop Song Anatomy™ Part of the JC’s pop songs and the law™ series →Go uptown Call Me by Blondie (Enjoy the lyrics, at your own risk, here) Index: Click ᐅ to expand: Pop song Tell me more Sign up for our newsletter — or just get in touch: for ½ a weekly 🍺 you get to consult JC. Ask about it here.

Unusually for a pop song this uses the same legal concept into quite different contexts. The first is neatly metaphorical, personifying Love itself, as some kind of furtive criminal, stealing around in the shadows, perpetrating its nefarious designs on innocent, law-abiding goddesses of rock.

Emotions come, I don’t know why
Cover up Love’s alibi
Call me (call me) on the line
Call me, call me any, anytime
Call me (call me) I’ll arrive
When you’re ready we can share the wine —
Call me.

By the refrain we see that Love has had its disreputable way, and our heroic Rock Goddess has caved in, submitted to the scheme, and is now utterly complicit. It is not Love, now, but the singer herself who is offering an alibi, tempting the world at large, through the agency of we, the listener, into this sordid conspiration d’amour:

Call me, call me in a sweet design
Call me (call me), call me for your lover’s alibi
Call me (call me) on the line
Call me, call me any, anytime.

We also note in passing and with lament the demise of the traditional business telephone call. It might have seen the idea in 1983 from Ms. Harry to ask someone to call her; nowadays she would have to settle for a Teams slot in the calendar for half an hour, Tuesday next week.

See also

• The one thing, very vital, lacking from Mrs. Pinterman’s account thus far, and that is the aleebee.
• Call, don’t email
• Conference call anatomy