My Johnny and Mary
I knew them, and Mary was no doormat!
Johnny & Mary
80’s hit song written and performed by Robert Palmer
As I came to the surface from my dreams this morning, the first verse of this song was in my head
Johnny’s always running around
Trying to find certainty
He needs all the world to confirm
That he ain’t lonely
Mary counts the walls
Knows he tires easily
— but oddly enough I could not dredge any more of the song from my memory banks, so I had to consult YouTube.
Songs which I heard in my teens and twenties usually have the strongest hold — that’s when I formed my music taste and allowed my life to be influenced by my favourite pop icons, how they dressed or styled their hair. I doubt I am alone in that.
This morning I’ve played the song, read the lyrics and watched the video but, as often happens, the reality doesn’t quite match the picture I had in my head. Let me run my version by you:
Johnny is a complete hound dog, undeniably attractive and he knows it. He charms the birds out of the trees and the knickers off the girls. When he spies a pretty young thing, he can’t resist making a play for her, alternately confident and self-effacing, he flatters her. Johnny uses the ultimate weapon: he acts as if he needs to hear what she has to say, what she thinks about things. He values her opinion while openly admiring her pert breasts or her lithe legs.
Johnny goes out on one or two dates with a girl, working his charm until he has her in the palm of his hand, the back of his car, or curled up in his rumpled sheets. Now Johnny, who enjoys the thrill of the chase, makes like a ghost. “Pouf!” He won’t call again. If the girl sees him, he’ll be flirting with another bright young thing, using all the same tricks to reel in this latest one.
To Johnny, girls are like sushi on a conveyor belt: his appetite is voracious but he discards most dishes after a few bites from each.
What of Mary? She’s there in the background and has been Johnny’s girlfriend for years, but theirs is a fiery relationship. Mary is top dog: A spoiled rich girl, and Johnny flutters around her flame like an eager moth, getting close sometimes, but just as often falling away with his wings scorched.
Mary has plenty of friends, a job, a gymkhana hobby, and maybe even her own admirers — she doesn’t leave much time for Johnny. He has to beg for crumbs of her attention, often helping her care for her horse when that’s the only time she can spare him. Mary treats him mean and it keeps him keen.
I couldn’t tell whether Mary knew about the other girls and didn’t care, or if the callous way she treated Johnny, and the amount they argued, was symptomatic of her resentment of his infidelity. The Mary I knew did not sit at home and count the walls. No! She was out having a great time for herself, leaving Johnny to wonder exactly what kind of fun she was having.
Mary knew Johnny would always come back to her; she could always reel him in because, as the song said, he tires easily.
Image of a couple holding hands is from Adina Voicu on Pixabay
Posy writes fiction about relationships, this songstory first appeared on Medium