This article was originally published in “The Happy End of Elephant Factory”.
“Well she got her daddy’s car
And she cruised through the hamburger stand now
Seems she forgot all about the library
Like she told her old man now
And with the radio blasting
Goes cruising just as fast as she can now
And she’ll have fun fun fun
‘Til her daddy takes the T-Bird away”
These are the lyrics to The Beach Boys’ 1964 hit, “Fun, Fun, Fun”. Amongst all their hit songs, this is the one that I like best. The rhythm and melody are filled with joy, and the lyrics are extremely lovely. Listening to the lyrics alone is enough for your mind to recreate the exact scene. A girl with a ponytail, driving a red, 1964 model of Thunder Bird. Lying to her dad that she was driving to the library, she managed to borrow the car. She drove off immediately to impress her friends. All the girls gawked and stared at her with their mouths open. The guys leapt into their cars and began a racing match, but no one was able to keep up with the Thunder Bird. Just at this moment, her father found her out and the Thunder Bird was confiscated. The girl was very depressed because of this. However, to “me”, the development was something to be happy about, because:
“You’ve been thinking that your fun is all through now
But you can come along with me
‘Cause we gotta a lot of things to do now
And we’ll have fun fun fun now that daddy took the T-Bird away”
That kind of development.
The Thunder Bird Girl of 1964 should be over 35 years old now, I guess. What kind of life is she leading now? Perhaps she’s busy with Jane Fonda’s Routine Workout; or perhaps she’s living in one of those new residences we’ve seen off “E.T.”; or she could even be listening to Barry Manilow for all we know. Even until today, I still occasionally think of you and that red Thunder Bird.
