Rick Springfield

Posted in From The Fanzine Vaults, Music, We Miss The Nineties |

By Less Lee Moore

[This piece was originally published in Smack Dab Fanzine #4, September 1995. With the exception of typos I may have corrected, all of the original text and formatting remain the same. I have also scanned the original artwork.—Ed.]

Everyone whether they like it or not, remembers Rick Springfield. After all, he was a teen idol: musician, soap opera heartthrob and movie star.

But what do you REALLY know about him? I’m not talking about his birthday or favorite food. I’m talking about the real Springfield, the man with a troubled spirit, the man who has pondered the deepest, darkest themes of all time: the themes of love and passion.

Let’s take a peek into the soul of the man with a look at one of his most cherished pop sensations, the album Success Hasn’t Spoiled Me Yet.

The album begins with a frenzy in the song “Calling All Girls.” Here Rick uses the analogy of a strong male figure, in this case, a law enforcement officer, to show that he will wield his desire for women like a tool via his authoritative position as a cop:

I got a message
Put it through emergency
I wanna see it on the video tonight
Calling all girls (if you’re looking for love)
Calling all girls (if you’re looking for a hot time).

What is disturbing about this man’s raging sexual appetite is his desire for what appears to be teenage girls:

She was young, but she was ripe.

What’s more, he sees these young girls as evil, even carnivorous creatures:

She was vicious, and she took a bite.

—yet he still desires them.

Rick delves deeper into the universal Madonna/Whore complex in the next track, “I Get Excited.” Here he sees the struggle with the sexual urge as a battle of near-biblical proportions”

I think this angel’s about to sin

AND

I get excited
there’s Heaven in your eyes tonight
the fire’s ignited
down below it’s burning bright

He continues to implore his would-be lover to stay using this pair of images:

I can feel your heartbeat
can’t you feel the heat
baby’s got the cold feet

Here the rhyming of heat and feet provides brilliant contrast.

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