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The ABC’s of MeR

 

Rick Springfield Baby!

 

Oh, how I loved this man.  Not in a real, mature love kind of way, of course.  More in the "Oh my gosh, Rick Springfield, eeeeeeeeeeek!" kind of way.  You know, when you paper your entire bedroom wall with pull out posters from Tiger  Beat and lay on your bed listening to the album gazing into his eyes.  When you and your best friend, Amy Collins, create a secret sign off code for your origami folded notes---RSLA (Rick Springfield Lovers Always).  When you buy a scrapbook from Walmart and fill it with every picture/article/mention of him, and caption each with "So Fine!"  And you plan to name your first born son Richard Lewis, because it was his birth name.

 

 And when you go to buy his latest album, you choose the record of course, because on the back is a big dreamy picture of him. 

And when he comes out with the lamest movie ever, "Hard to Hold," you and said best friend see it four times because in the scene depicted below, he is NAKED for a split second and the chance to see that tushy is worth the $4.00 and sitting through the rest of the movie.

 And you even talk your mom into taking you over the mountain to Birmingham to wait in line on a hard sidewalk at 4 in the morning so you can get tickets to his concert.  And when you finally go to his concert, you are so far away....and so in awe of being in the same room that all you can do is stand and stare.  And the second time you have tickets to see him, after you have moved away your senior year in high school, you are so excited you can't sleep for weeks.  Then, when on the way back to Alabama, your mom's car dies on the on-ramp to I-20 and you can't go, you fall into a deep depression and stay locked in your room for the weekend.

Ah, youth. 

This is Rick Springfield now.  Man.  He got old.

Depression, alcohol, spousal abuse have all factored in his life.

He's tried many a comeback, all without success.

Last I heard/read, he was taking part in the Rick Springfield Music cruises, no doubt thrilling many a forty year old woman.

I still think he looks good, in a scruffy kind of way.  I still get all stupid happy listening to his songs.  And I still think "Hard to Hold" was possibly the worst movie among a genre of bad movies.

Still,

RSLA Baby!