Michael Franks is one of my absolute favorite musical artists. I have every album he ever recorded. And while there are so very many great songs of his, I still fall back on this one, "Barefoot On The Beach", as my favorite one. The music alone grabs me, but the lyrics are right up my alley. I for sure am a beach lover, and have had the privilege of having been in some of the very best beaches in the world (but to be sure there are tons more that I have not been to!). Interestingly, even though I have been to several beaches in Florida, I have never been to Captiva. I think I am going to have to remedy that.
I am not sure what the situation is in this song, where a man has a beach bungalow in one place and is inviting his lover (or somebody!) to fly down and join him, but regardless, I love the idea of that. I remember one time when I was a senior at U.C. Berkeley and my girlfriend was a junior at U.C.L.A. and I invited her to fly up and spend a weekend with me in my dorm room. Being on the single bed was just fine! Later on, we did the same thing in reverse, I flew down to Los Angeles and spent a weekend with her in her dorm room (and then spent time on the beach in Redondo Beach making sand candles). Just that situation of being separated geographically but coming together in some glorious place is very romantic. There was a time when I put together a narrowboating trip in England and Wales for six of us, all of whom flew in from somewhere else. When the trip was over, one of the women said, "Anywhere in the world you want to go and would like me to join you, I will be there." Very wonderful.
Two things in this song I especially like. The first one is near the beginning when he says "I'm in!". I can just feel in my body that total surrender, just lying back with perfect relaxation into that delicious water. Mmmm, magnificent. The other one is my favorite rhyming lyric: "No attire is required, just a toothbrush, dear, 'cause here we don't wear much." Say that over and over again and make it happen for real.
12: Song name: Barefoot On The Beach
Artist: Michael Franks
Lyrics and Music by Michael Franks
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