music, books, love and kindness

Found my old copy of The Pointer Sisters' Greatest Hits tonight and am really enjoying re-discovering their music.


I was in the fifth grade when "He's So Shy" first started getting lots of airplay on the radio and I was simply mad for it. Somehow I got it in my head that it was an anthem for shy people everywhere and it gave me this ridiculous amount of hope (and a little thrill) whenever it caught me off guard with it's familiar opening notes.

A few years later the trio's very very popular album Breakout came out and "Automatic" caught my ear. I was only in middle school at the time and just liked it for its awesome sounds, but now I realize that it captures how love (or at least, lust) truly feels (inside) more than any other song.

Look what you're doing to me
I'm utterly at your whim
All of my defenses down
Your camera looks through me
With its X-ray vision
And all systems run aground
All I can manage to push from my lips
Is a stream of absurdities
Every word I intended to speak
Winds up locked in the circuitry
No way to control it
It's totally automatic
Whenever you're around
I'm walking blindfolded
Completely automatic
All of my systems are down
Down, down, down
Au-to-mat-ic (automatic)
Au-to-mat-ic (automatic)
What is this madness
That makes my motor run
And my legs too weak to stand
I go from sadness
To exhilaration
Like a robot at your command
My hands perspire and shake like a leaf
Up and down goes my temperature
I summon doctors to get some relief
But they tell me there is no cure
They tell me
No way to control it
It's totally automatic
Whenever you're around
I'm walking blindfolded
Completely automatic
All of my systems are down
Down, down, down
(Automatic)
(Automatic)
Au-to-mat-ic (automatic)
Au-to-mat-ic (automatic)
Au-to-mat-ic
Au-to-mat-ic
Au-to-mat-ic
Au-to-mat-ic (automatic)
Look what you're doing to me
I'm utterly at your whim
All of my defenses down
Your camera looks through me
With its X-ray vision
And all systems run aground
All I can manage to push from my lips




































Is a stream of absurdities
Every word I intended to speak
Winds up locked in the circuitry
No way to control it
It's totally automatic
Whenever you're around
I'm walking blindfolded
Completely automatic
All of my systems are down
Down, down
No way to control it
It's totally automatic (automatic)
Whenever you're around (automatic)
I'm walking blindfolded
Completely automatic (automatic)
All of my systems are down
Down, down


Breakout was definitely one of my favorite albums from the 80s...I love All Music's website review for it:

read here