"What in this world keeps us from tearin' apart?"

Our '80s summer traditio continues this week with Cyndi Lauper's I Drove All Night. We move away from songs pre-1985, though we may return. This song, written in 1987 for Roy Orbison, was recorded by Lauper in 1989. It is a great song, one very well suited to Lauper. Orbison recorded it 1992.

Have you been away from the person you loved and yearned to be with them so much that no sacrifice seemed too big to make in order to be with them, no obstacle too insurmountable, like driving all night? As Huey Lewis observed, That's the Power of Love. The strings add poignancy to the song, plus I love her little Orbisonisms in this live VH1 version.

The kind of longing about which Cyndi sings with great passion is utterly insatiable and so goes well with my dear friend Kim's Flannery Fridays QOTD, in which she takes up much the same theme, albeit in a different mode. These indications force a couple of questions: Is human life futile or hopeful? Is fullfillment fleeting, forcing us to grab it where, when, and with whomever we can, seeking a few passionate moments of transcendence, unity, being loved, or is our dissatisfaction, our return to earth after these fleeting moments, a sign that we are made to be fully satisfied? If we are made to be fully satisfied, what or who makes this happen and how?

Cyndi has plenty more songs that I really like: True Colors, Time After Time and, of course, Girls Just Want Have Fun.

She is still very cool because she is comfortable in her own skin, being herself, which is always attractive, whereas Lady Gaga strikes me as being quite more than a little insecure.