Not a Big Fan of Romeo and Juliet

I’ve been listening to this song by Akon, and in fact I am listening to it right now and so I thought you might like to listen, too. The first couple of times I heard it, I was in the car and I liked the song but…I’m too old for it. At my age, when I hear “Nobody wanna see us together” lyrics, I don’t think, “Yeah, old people are against young love! because old people are bitter and have never known what Real Love is! and so they don’t want to see anyone else happy!” anymore. I think, “Well, why don’t they want to see you together? Is it really a matter of young love, or is it more like outstanding warrants, or two pregnant ex-girlfriends, or that you’re all slumpy and disrespectful and can’t keep your pants up, or that you’re cheating on her incessantly and other people think that’s not a good sign even though you keep saying it doesn’t mean anything, or…?”

Then I was looking up the song online to see who it was by, and I discovered that the song is being picked up here and there as a gay love song instead of the teenage love song I’d been hearing it as. Seen in that light, I can love the song. Maybe not every lyric detail works out, but I sure am a lot more inspired by lyrics of facing opposition and of fighting for the right to be together if I’m thinking of, say, gay marriage, as opposed to high school romance.

3 thoughts on “Not a Big Fan of Romeo and Juliet

  1. janet

    I like the song, mostly just the chorus, because I feel it’s relevant to my situation, too. My husband and I are an interracial couple (asian american and african american). When I told my mother we were getting married she told me that the happiest day in her life would be when I would tell her that we were getting divorced. This from a woman who was disowned by her family (Japanese) for marrying a Marine. Never saw her father again, only saw her mother after her father died, disowned. My father is from south Georgia and his reaction was that I should do what I want but that I should know never to bring my husband home.

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  2. Misty

    Wow, Swistle. Thanks for the new perspective. Now I will always think of those Americans fighting for equal civil rights when I hear this song. A fight song, if you will. This has brightened my day. I must tell someone!

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  3. Mrs. M

    i cannot stand hearing that song. makes me want to vomit! YUCK! but i too feel the same way about the “outstanding warrants, preggo exes, etc.”

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