Charlene's Never Been To Me is my favourite classic. I first heared in sang by mom in the karaoke when I was a kid and started singing it too. I never really understood what it meant by then, i just love the melody and most of all, it talks about places I fantasize - California and Greece (while sipping champaigne in a yacht - cool eh?). By then, the famous line "I've been to paradise but I've never been to me" was too deep for me to comprehend.
But now that I am a bit older, listening to the song gives me goosebumps. It's more than just going to places, it's more than just luxuries. In fact, it's a song of a woman who had "been there, done that" but realized that there's more to life than just "that".
You probably never heard of Charlene (or Charlene Marilynn D'Angelo), specially if you are someone from my generation, or later. She was a struggling artist of the 70's - 80's (the era of more popular stars like Karen Carpenter, Barbara Streisand and Cher), recorded a couple songs but never really got to the charts. Never Been To Me was initially released in 1976 but had very little success. And when it was re-released in 1982, it was then that it became a hit. Became No.1 in the charts and eventually became every successful, yet unhappy woman's theme song.
I see two women on the song. The woman who is singing and the woman she is talking to - it could be anyone, it could be me or you, if you will. But I guess she is refering to women in general, sort of an advise to women who are discontented with their lives and are wanting more than just being a simple mother and a wife. It got more personal when she said, "I wish someone had talked to me like I wanna talk to you".
If you listen to it and try to feel the song, she talks about her not having children and being alone, "Hey lady, don't just walk away, for I have the need to tell you why I'm alone today". She had chosen to keep on running from life, until she "ran out of places and friendly faces".
The spoken bridge says it all:
"You know what paradise is, it's a LIE! A fantasy we create about people and places as what we like them to be. But you know what TRUTH is? It's that little baby you're holding and it's that man you fought with this morning, the same one you're gonna make love with tonight. That's truth, that's life."
And this:
"Sometimes I've been to crying for unborn children that might have made me complete,
But I took the sweet life and never knew I'll be bitter from the sweet."
It's a very emotional song. A song advising women to stop seeking things in life that doesn't exist or are unimportant. The song may be from decades ago, but it totally matches today's generation. A generation where majority of people wants material things and travelling to every corner of the world more than anything. Prioritizing these things may lead us with no family, loss of precious time in gathering useless possesions and in the end - dying along and all by ourselves.
Oh wait, do I hear ladies complaining, "Hey not only women, men too can be like that". Well, you didn't let me finish. I got here a male version sang by a British performer Howard Keel. Still we got two characters, two men of course (no, not a Brokeback thingy!). The song tells about a beggar he met on the street asking for a dime for coffee. Telling him that he is racing hell like he used to do. And told him the story as to why he ended up "being alone today" - no wife and children. Almost same lyrics but more manly. He had "been to China and Siberia and to any ship that can sail" and "wrecked the country jail", trying to run and be free, he had been with a hundred women but realized that "only LOVE can set him free".
Check out his version here:
The song didn't say that we should not travel or we should not live a luxurious and comfortable life. You can have all that if your finances can suffice, of course. Just don't forget other things that matters more. Dont just take the sweet life for you'll never know you may get "bitter from the sweet".
And now I understand what it meant by the title line - she (or he) had been to a lot of happy places, experienced all the luxury life can ever give, but in the end it all turned out to nothing. Because she (or he) was not able to find herself and what can really make her (or him) a happy camper. "Ive been to pradise, but I'v never been to me."
