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In my previous article titled The Song "This Overload" by Alfie Zappacosta, I interpreted that song's lyrics as not matching the scene. The song accompanies the scene where Johnny Castle intends to drive Baby Houseman out to the countryside but finds that his car key is locked inside his car and so he uses a post to break in a window of the car.
The song's lyrics indicate that Johnny is obsessed with lust for Baby. The song's ending:
Obsession's taken hold of me?I argued, however, that Johnny felt no such lust when that scene took place. Rather, he intended just to perform with her at the Sheldrake Hotel and then terminate his relationship with her.
All because of you.
You've got to see me through.
I can't take another night alone without you.
Honey, it's true.
I am so hung up on you
What I really need, Baby, is a little of your company.
You got me on my knees.
I burn throughout the night ...
That scene is followed by the "Hey, Baby" scene in the countryside. If Johnny felt any lust for Baby, then this isolated setting would have been a perfect setting for him to seduce her if he had wanted to do so.
I argued further that the song's lyrics expressed the obsessed lust not of Johnny, but rather of Baby. She projected hew own passions onto Johnny. She projected these passions retroactively in 1987, when she was narrating her story about what happened in 1963.
The song did not exist in 1963. The song was commissioned for the movie in 1987.
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Now I will propose a different interpretation of the song. Since the song was commissioned in 1987, we can suppose that the movie's producers told the musician Alfie Zappacosta to compose a song that expressed Johnny's obsessive lust for Baby. In other words, the producers wanted the song to communicate to the movie audience that Johnny felt such a passion.
In other words, the interpretation that I argued in my Part 1 was completely wrong.
Johnny did feel obsessive lust for Baby already in that scene, although he still concealed and suppressed his emotions. He felt anger because Max Kellerman forbade him to involve himself romantically with female guests. He felt sexual excitement and frustration from dancing closely with Baby. He felt anxious from worrying about Penny's abortion and about the imminent Sheldrake Hotel performance.
All these various, suppressed emotions exploded violently when he found that his car keys were locked in his car. He reflexively grabbed a post and broke in his car window.
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Johnny's sexual frustration was symbolized by the car key inside the car. Because Max had forbidden Johnny from romancing the female guests, Johnny was prevented from sexually penetrating Baby.
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| Johnny could not put his key into Baby's lock |
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| Johnny using his large, hard pole to unlock Baby. |
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| You're wild ! |
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| You're wild !! |
When Johnny had become angry with Baby and had decided to take her out to the countryside, he had intended to sexually seduce her in that isolated setting.
As he takes her to his car, the music had featured a strong drumbeat.
However, the experience of violently breaking in his car window had released all his anger. Therefore, when he and she were in the countryside, they interacted not sexually, but only playfully.
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In the countryside, there was another large, hard pole. Johnny invited Baby to dance on the pole, but she was initially inhibited from doing so. Eventually she relents to do so, and she has fun. Both of them are relaxed and playful. The long-hard pole is only vaguely symbolic, and the music is merely melodic, without a strong beat.
Johnny's passion has been symbolically satiated by breaking in the car window, and so Johnny does not attempt to seduce Baby in the isolated countryside.
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This article will continue in Part 3.
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