You know that song “You Light Up My Life” by Debbie Boone?
I used to think it was about Jimmy Carter.
Yeah, now know it’s about God, thanks to The Simpsons. But I used to think it was about Jimmy Carter.
I was really good at math when I was little, right around the time that Debbie Boone was singing this song I thought was about Jimmy Carter. And despite doing the mathetmatical substitution of “Jimmy Carter” for “You” I still didn’t see any problems with the song:
So many nights I sit by my window
Waiting for someone to sing me his song
So many dreams I kept deep inside me
Alone in the dark but now
Jimmy Carter’s come along
Jimmy Carter lights up my life
Jimmy Carter gives me hope
To carry on
Jimmy Carter lights up my days
and fill my nights with song
Rollin’ at sea, adrift on the water
Could it be finally I’m turning for home?
Finally, a chance to say hey,
I love Jimmy Carter
Never again to be all alone
Jimmy Carter lights up my life
Jimmy Carter gives me hope
To carry on
Jimmy Carter lights up my days
and fill my nights with song
Jimmy Carter lights up my life
Jimmy Carter gives me hope
To carry on
Jimmy Carter lights up my days
and fill my nights with song
It can’t be wrong
When it feels so right
‘Cause Jimmy Carter
You light up my life
Oh, sure, it sounds so very wrong now, but I was young and foolish then. (Yeah yeah yeah… let’s just complete the TMBG verse: “I feel old and foolish now”) Maybe Jimmy Carter gave hope to crazy people like Debbie Boone, but I didn’t know Debbie Boone well enough to think she was crazy or not. To think that Jimmy Carter lit up people’s day is also silly, considering that he was in favor of energy conservation. If anything, you turn off the lights during the day if you’re trying to waste less electricity.
But the thought of “Jimmy Carter filling my nights with song” should have been a clue, even to an ignorant and deranged seven year-old.
Nightmares of Soviet conquest of free democracies, Jimmy weakly tossing out symbolic gestures like boycotting the Moscow Olympics when stronger measures were needed, possibly. Waking up in cold sweats over the Presidential Fitness Tests, most certainly. But never song.
Why make up a new song when we first had “Jimmy Carter Says Yes”?
Nice to see we’re keeping current with politics here at IMAO.
But to play along:
Hi! My name is.. (what?) My name is.. (who?)
My name is.. [scratches] Jimmy Carter
Hi! My name is.. (huh?) My name is.. (what?)
My name is.. [scratches] Jimmy Carter
I’m cool too. Right?
I wonder if the hostages were singing this for all 400 some-odd days back in ’79-80. What was the first thing Komani did when he saw a cowboy come into office? Uhhh…all right…I guess we’d better let the American Satans go before Reagen kicks our butts…!
I remember singing a song while waiting in line to get gas during the Carter administration, but I don’t think it was “You Light Up My Life.” I think it was “Another Brick in the Wall.”
All I can remember of the song(I too am feeling old and foolish) is, Hey Carter, leave my cash alone.
I think the hostages were singing, Daydream Believer (in Carters honor- their mistake was he had no honor or backbone, to begin with)
Actually, I think Carter’s real theme song was “Nowhere man”.
I got free pears in the school cafeteria from ol’ Jimmy. They were wrapped in tissue paper with the Presidential Seal on them.
I didn’t like pears back then.
I do now. So, while I would have a use for his pears today, I still don’t have a use for him.
Jimmy Carter is the poster child for “Symbolism over Substance. The World sees him as this wise, caring humanitarian. Those of us who didn’t vote for him for president still see him as a coward, fool and nimrod, who never did get it right.
The more things change the more they stay the same.
He’s stil plenty of talk and not too much action. II wonder if that explains the pinched look that Rosalyn always had on her face.
Thank you…Thank you very much!