Today’s Daily Prompt from The Daily Post is “Can’t Drive 55.” It reads:
“Take the third line of the last song you heard, make it your post title, and write for a maximum of 15 minutes. GO!”
You can see the prompt and other responses here.
Well, there is my line up on the title of my post. Do you know the song?
It’s Peter Gabriel’s In Your Eyes and here are my fifteen minutes of writing, freestyle. Setting the timer … NOW.
Seriously, can anyone who was alive in 1989 hear Peter Gabriel’s In Your Eyes without thinking about Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack) holding a boom box over his head outside of Diane Court’s (Ione Skye) bedroom window? Please. If you haven’t seen Say Anything find a way to see it. Now. You’ll love Lloyd.
I referenced Lloyd just yesterday to a friend. “I gave her my heart. She gave me a pen.” Except I substituted in “cupcake” for “pen” because that’s what the situation called for.
Lloyd’s the best. Like Jack Flacco who features a “Women Who Wow Wednesday” weekly post, I’m thinking of doing a “Magnificent Made-Up Men Monday” feature, and making Lloyd my Inaugural Man. Would anyone be interested in such a feature? Because I’m totally serious. Let me know in the comments.
Alright. The song. The verse is: Love, I get so lost sometimes. Days pass and this emptiness fills my heart. When I want to run away, I drive off in my car. But whichever way I go I come back to the place you are.
Sigh … what a lovely lyric.
As for line three- which I interpret as the driving line: I distinctly recall being in high school and “going for drives” for the sake of driving. I specifically remember one particular night driving my early 80’s brown Chevy Caprice (the same make and model driven by undercover police officers, lucky me), windows down, listening to Cheap Trick’s The Flame.
It’s odd the things we remember, no? This was over twenty years ago and I remember that ride– the way the air felt, the way the song sounded, exactly which traffic light I was stopped at (the corner of Van Houten and Clifton Avenue). I don’t remember anything in particular happening that had upset me and made me want to drive. I don’t remember being sad or happy or anything. I just recall that I was driving around with no destination for the heck of it. For something to do. To listen to the radio and feel the air through the windows and check out the town.
Like Lloyd spending his summer chasing Diane with no plan for his future, driving around with no destination seems like such a luxury of youth.
And on that note, my fifteen minutes are just about up. Watch Say Anything this weekend. Drive around without a destination. You can always go back home.
Quote: Lloyd Dobler: I don’t want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don’t want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don’t want to do that.
(Credit: http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0013024/quotes)
Waiting on a Word 
Wow, drive without a destination is like a totally foreign concept to me. Going to try it this weekend.
Also, Lloyd’s sell, buy, process speech is one of my movie favorites!
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Great song! Great movie! Excellent post!
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Love that movie and love Lloyd!! Please do the magnificent made up men posts… I would so tune in!!
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My friend told me a story and it was one of those drive around with nowhere to go tales.
Anyway, he was upset and jumped in his car and was thinking about his problems. Took a left. Got out on the highway. Drove and thought and listened to music. Suddenly, the road ended. He reached the gulf. From Cocoa Beach to the gulf is about 3 hours and some change. That is a drive!
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So pleased to find out you don’t actually feel like running away!!
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I can’t believe I’ve never seen Say Anything… Considering I’m a Cameron Crowe fan, this is a gem I will now have on my To Watch list!
Oh, and to be compared to a character is and honor! Thank you, Jess! And thank you for the honorable mention as well! You. Made. My. Day! 🙂
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Adore this song, though it was a bit before my time. But just speaks to the lasting power of good music – I wonder what the songs that evoke memories of high school car rides for me will mean to other who hear them now (though to be fair there was a LOT of Britney and Kanye. Possibly why I turned to 80s music so much…!)
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Love the song and like you I can’t help but think of the movie Say Anything. I also really like the movie as I was in H.S. and could relate to it.
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Love that song!! And your post!
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I just love that movie. Wish i knew how to drive, but have managed t never get a drivers license
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You’re better off without a driver’s license! It’s a headache driving. I loved it when I was 17 and it was “fun” and now that I’m driving kids around in a minivan, it feels like work.
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I love that movie! I have contemplated locking my husband out of the house and refusing to let him back in until he holds a boom box over his head at my window, blasting Peter Gabriel.
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Hahaha! Excellent idea. EXCELLENT! Please write a post about how it goes.
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