Yr Pop Questions Answered PART ONE

[mostlyconnect.livejournal.com]

I had an idea of doing a series of these? Let me know if it is unwelcome.

[Poll #907692]

(EDIT: I cannot edit the poll now but I meant the return train, w/ original boyfriend? Also plz to submit any other PRESSING POP QUESTIONS you can think of, LJ paid account has gone to my head)

Comments

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

i've only read the lyrics but surely the story is that she's living with her boyfriend, receives a letter from an ex-beau who’s moved away saying he’s visiting town (from Kansas City, presumably to return) – she doesn’t reply BUT she is going to meet him, ostensibly to show him her ring but it’s clear that she’s considering going off with him. So the options are: a) get on train to Kansas City and run away with ex-beau, b) be a Good Woman, meet him, show him the ring, maybe sob a bit, return home to fiance and always dream of what might have been. I wish she would do a) but I think in the context of the song she will do b) – but obv I cannot tick because I haven’t heard it sung! And that might make all the difference.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

The implication seems to be that he's not quite an ex, or at least that there's some reason he'd expect her not to have moved on.

Sung by the Shangri-La's the emphasis isn't really on either of the men she's choosing, it's about the existential horror of events catching up to you.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

It strikes me as being a kind of war widow type situation: she's assumed that for whatever reason (death?) that Beau 1 won't be coming back, that she is free to move on, and has done so, and that this letter from the past has come out of the blue.