"Portions for Foxes" is a series of weekly posts, each about one song by a woman or a band led by a woman. See the introduction for more.
I've written about a lot of bad-love songs. They tend to be serious, even heartbreaking. But bad love can be fun in its horrible way, in the way a carwreck can be exhilarating if you come out of it untouched.
This week, I have a song by Elizabeth Cook, all about the very wrong guy at what must be the right time:
I know this guy; he's all wrong for me
He wears shirts that are trippin' on LSD
I must be high as a kite on diesel fumes
This is El Camino, a funky, funny little ditty about a '70s throwback who has a hell of a lot more game than the narrator of this song expected, so she's just going with it for now...but "for now" might not be all that long.
I told him your car is creepy man
But in a perv kinda way
And not in a gangsta kinda way
But even the wrong person can be fun.
After Saturday matinee roller derby
We went parking and things got blurry
I thought man I can't get much hotter
And then I caught a whiff of pina colada
Cook has a great smile in her voice as she sings all of this, that sense of "hey, can you believe this?" as the narrator semi-questions why she's doing any of this, but goes along with it anyway. It's a wonderful song for anyone who can remember the 1970s, or who wishes they could.
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