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My Gen X Playlist: I Melt With You – Modern English

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Daily writing prompt
How have you adapted to the changes brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic?
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This silly question assumes we were given a choice. I don’t think there was a conscious decision to adapt. It’s just something that happens when in survival mode. I remember the days of stocking up on groceries and then wiping everything down when we got home. In the early days, we stayed indoors for days, avoiding human contact. I didn’t like wearing masks, but it was a small price to pay given the situation. In time, things eventually eased up.

I still say holy shit when I think about the enormity of it. The entire world endured a pandemic. The entire f-ing world! And I know endured is not the right word to describe it. I initially typed survived the pandemic, but the fact is, not everybody did and it didn’t seem right to phrase it that way. A once in a lifetime catastrophe? Let’s hope so. But I have a not so funny feeling that this is not guaranteed.

Modern English released I Melt with You in 1982. This was a quintessential 80’s new wave anthem. I thought it was just a love song with a cool beat. It turns out, it was a little bit more that.

“I’d gone home with some of the music being made for ‘I Melt with You,’ … and I wrote the lyrics in about three minutes sitting on the floor stoned in my house …” Grey said. “I just wrote these words down on a scrap of paper really quickly.”

You can listen to “I Melt with You” a bunch of times, get to where you can sing along to all the words, and still never quite latch onto the meaning. And it’s not like it’s that hard to parse once you really look at the lyrics. But the breezy momentum of the music, the ebullient refrain, and some of the more playful elements of the production (including the unforgettable a cappella, humming breakdown that Grey delivers before the return to the chorus) hide it all in plain sight: It’s a song about two people making love during a nuclear war.

“It got missed for years until somebody asked me what it was about,” Grey says. “I think everybody just thought it was a straightforward love song. It was almost like a metaphor for that time. Using a relationship and people making love as an example of something good against something so dark in the background.”

The narrator of “I Melt with You” embarks on a mission to enjoy his final moments on earth with his beloved. He races to get to her, even as time is running out on him

– americansongwriter

The pandemic is definitely a different type of catastrophe than a nuclear war. But both pose a dire threat. There was an unintended consequences of Covid’s shelter at home.

Birth rates tend to decline during economic recessions or disasters, so many experts predicted that the COVID pandemic would prompt people to have fewer children. A recent study of fertility trends in the U.S. from 2015 through 2021, however, reveals there was actually a baby bump.

– Scientific American

I guess that’s what you get when locked up in the house with the future unknown. A spike in babies. Looks like Modern English wasn’t too far off.

–

For a complete playlist, please click here.

For the Spotify playlist, please click here.

Moving forward using all my breath 
Making love to you was never second best 
I saw the world crashing all around your face 
Never really knowing it was always mesh and lace 

I'll stop the world and melt with you 
You've seen the difference and it's getting better all the time 
There's nothing you and I won't do 
I'll stop the world and melt with you 

(You should know better) 
Dream of better lives the kind which never hates
(You should see why) 
Trapped in the state of imaginary grace 
(You should know better) 
I made a pilgrimage to save this humans race 
(You should see why) 
Never comprehending the race has long gone bye 

(Let's stop the world) I'll stop the world and melt with you 
(Let's stop the world) You've seen the difference and it's getting better all the time 
(Let's stop the world) There's nothing you and I won't do 
(Let's stop the world) I'll stop the world and melt with you 

The future's open wide 

The future's open wide

(Let's stop the world) I'll stop the world and melt with you 
(Let's stop the world) I've seen some changes but it's getting better all the time 
(Let's stop the world) There's nothing you and I won't do 
(Let's stop the world) I'll stop the world and melt with you 

The future's open wide 

Hmm, hmm, hmm
Hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm 
Hmm, hmm, hmm
Hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm 

I'll stop the world and melt with you 
(Let's stop the world) You've seen the difference and it's getting better all the time 
(Let's stop the world) There's nothing you and I won't do 
(Let's stop the world) I'll stop the world and melt with you 

(Let's stop the world) I'll stop the world and melt with you
(Let's stop the world) I'll stop the world and melt with you
(Let's stop the world) I'll stop the world and melt with you
(Let's stop the world) I'll stop the world and melt with you

24 thoughts on “My Gen X Playlist: I Melt With You – Modern English”

  1. I think that song is the quintessential song of the 80’s. Growing up in the 80’s meant living under the constant threat of nuclear war. I feel like a lot of songs referenced it. I remember when I discovered that “The Future’s So Bright” song was really about a nuclear blast.

    Living through the pandemic was a very emotional time for me. I don’t like to think about it. I’m just thankful that my family and I survived.

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  2. “A spike in babies” I’m glad! At least some people enjoyed the shutdown!

    A lot of other things happened during COVID! Sad things!

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  3. Love that song. And I have the same response whenever I think about the plague. Holy shit, we… the whole world… went through a pandemic. Damn.

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  4. You’re right – the pandemic was such a monumental disruption. Interesting that so many 80s songs referenced nuclear holocaust. Between that and AIDS, there was a lot of existential dread. I’m glad there was a baby boom during Covid, that seems hopeful.

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  5. since i worked in healthcare during the pandemic, i never got any time off, or to work from home (it was 5 days reporting in-person, per usual). so, in a way, i felt like i never got a break from the stress (stress from the pandemic, or stress from working in healthcare). i do remember being out of toilet paper 4ever. and since the world had me convinced i was gonna die, i remember stripping off my scrubs in the garage after work, and then immediately showering head-to-toe b4 having any contact with family members. i don’t miss those days. i’m not sure i’ve “adapted” … but i am alive. so there’s that! GREAT SONG 🙂

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    1. I’m not sure how healthcare workers did it. The hours, the uncertainty, the stress. Healthcare workers made HUGE sacrifices for the entire country. Thank you for everything and I’m so glad you and your family are safe.

      Miss your daily posts, Ren. Hope you are well and enjoying springtime!

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  6. I hadn’t thought of it at the time but there do seem to have been many songs during the ‘80s about the use of nuclear weapons. This is a terrific example.

    Covid was such an awful and weird time, when selfishness reigned supreme. I was so glad not to be working and felt such gratitude for frontline folks working everywhere to ease the lives of others. Wiping down everything… I remember that.

    Fortunately my whole family made it through fine, including two grandchildren born during the pandemic.

    Thanks for the thought-provoking post and superb song!

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    1. Great to hear your family made it through Covid. It was such a strange time when I think back on it. The whole world shutting down. And yes, the frontline deserves more gratitude than we can ever give. They are truly heroes.

      I’ve stumbled upon a number of 80’s songs that were inspired by the fear of nuclear war. I had no idea. But maybe being clueless to this fact was a good thing for a kid.

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  7. I never knew that song was about nuclear war. I know every single word and I never put it together. I know there were several other songs about nuclear war. Probably my favorite one is 99 luftbalons (99 red balloons). I named my first blog 100 red balloons as a salute to that song.

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  8. I wasn’t as careful about things because I was out there working in a people-intensive area. Luckily, I have a very strong immune system. Until this year when I had symptoms of Covid for a day (headache – my wife got it a couple days later), I hadn’t been sick in a couple of decades. Still, I was worried. As people I knew died, I worried about my wife dying. I stopped working at a deli a couple months into the pandemic and worked for my wife for six months so our risk was reduced.

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    1. The whole Covid pandemic was shocking. But then you learn about someone you know dying from it and it brings the pandemic to a whole nother level. Glad you and your wife made it through ok. Sorry to hear about the loss of people you knew. So sad.

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  9. I remember hearing this song for the first time at the end of the movie Valley Girl.

    A covid memory for me was right at the beginning of March 2020, before everything was shut down. We were in this state of flux, unsure of what was going on. My husband sent me a video of our local Walmart’s cleaning aisle shelves, which were empty. My heart sank. I was terrified because I knew something was coming. I just didn’t know what.

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