I'm going to play your game
I want to play with fire
I want to breathe your air, yeah
Baby, going to take you there
If you lay your cards on the table, ooh yeah
I'll lay my love on the line
'Til you're mine
This song was also on that CD compilation I gave Larry for an early 40th birthday gift. It also had the distinct honor of using one of it's lyrics to title the CD it was on.... the title "Try to Stop this Thing Coming". Why that lyric? Well, just like I told Larry in 2010- "Looking back I really don’t think we could have stopped it if we had wanted to but I’m glad neither one of us wanted to."
I also told him "All in all this song like no other really sums up the very beginning of our relationship to me." Because to me it does. Two people not looking for anything but finding it anyway and against the odds they make it work and they make it last. It is also one of those songs that takes me instantly back.
Here is the rest of that write-up...
Stand Up Kick Love Into Motion – When we got together this is what I think we did, we stood up and kicked love into motion (even though we didn’t know it at the time). “If you lay your cards on the table, I’ll lay my love on the line till you’re mine.” Which is also something I think we did, put it all out there and gave love another try. “ “You couldn’t get it much better. You never had it so good.” I know that rings true for me and I truly hope it does for you too.
Larry’s Perspective:
For me personally, Adrenalize lives in the pantheon (a group of illustrious or notable persons or things) of albums that immediately transports me back to when I met Shannon.
It's curious, because it had been five years since Def Leppard had put out Hysteria, which had been four years since the release of Pyromania. The question was - could this album be a three-peat?
Kind of, but not really.
Maybe that's all just a matter of perspective. Pyromania came out in 1983 when I was 13 and in Junior High. Hysteria came out in 1987 when I was in High School. Adrenalize came out in 1992 before I had met Shannon.
So those first two albums came out while living the easy life at home at very impressionable ages. That last album came out when I had left home and was facing the harsh reality of fending for myself in life with no money. Remember my OSU credit card story from So Hard? I probably used that new card to buy this album, because I had no physical cash. Oh, America, god bless the banking industry.
Yes - there were some good songs on the album - but nothing stratospheric like Photograph, Too Late for Love, Foolin', Rock of Ages, Women, Rocket, Animal, Love Bites, Pour Some Sugar on Me, Armageddon It, Hysteria and Love and Affection.
So nothing jumped out at me from Adrenalize. Let's Get Rocked was everywhere the Summer of '92 and it's a fun song, but to me it's a bubble-gum song. It always felt like it was just made for the masses, i.e. to make money. Not art for arts sake.
But then a special girl walked into my life. Who obsessed over music as much as I did. As we fell in love together, we fell in love with this song.
During those early moments meeting each other, I know each one of us felt this lyric: There's an empty look in your eyes
We both thought we were in love with different people but we both saw that empty look in each others eyes and knew that is not what we wanted for ourselves.
So we did take it easy. We did take it slow. What a way to go...
Stand Up (Kick Love Into Motion)
Def Leppard
I got to know right now
It's got to be this time
I want to show you how
Going to make you change your mind
There's an empty chair at my table, yeah
There's an empty look in your eyes
Ooh, that's right
I just happen to be a man
And you happen to be a woman
We happen to be together
Try to stop this thing coming
Stand up, kick love into motion
Take a little love and shake it all around, stand up
Stand up, kick love into motion
Take me in your arms and throw me to the ground
Down to the ground, baby, come on
Stand up, stand up for love
I'm going to play your game
I want to play with fire
I want to breathe your air, yeah
Baby, going to take you there
If you lay your cards on the table, ooh yeah
I'll lay my love on the line
'Til you're mine
I just happen to be a man
And you happen to be a woman
And we happen to be together
Try to stop this thing coming
Stand up, kick love into motion
Take a little love and shake it all around, stand up
Stand up, kick love into motion
Take me in your arms and throw me to the ground
Down to the ground, baby, come on
Stand up, stand up for love
Yeah
You couldn't get it much better
You never had it so good
Stand up together
And when you're ready to
You're going to get what you should
Little by little
Like a fine wine
My love is like a motor
Running all the time
Step by step
Easy and slow
On the stairway to heaven
What a way to go
Stand up, kick love into motion
Take a little love and shake it all around, stand up
Stand up, kick love into motion
C'mon, take me in your arms and throw me to the ground
Stand up, kick love into motion
Take me in your arms and show me what you found, stand up
Stand up, kick love into motion
My love is like a motor running all the time, stand up
Stand up, yeah, kick love into motion
I said step by step
Go easy, go slow, stand up
Stand up, kick love into motion
On a stairway to heaven
What a way to go
30th Anniversary
Our Story - Shannon's Perspective
Our Story - Larry's Perspective
Ghost of a Chance (Rush) and why?
Ghost of a Chance 