Glen Campbell Dreams of the Everyday Housewife

Aldabruzzo · 2020-12-22T18:47:43+00:00

She looks in the mirror and stares at the wrinkles

That weren't there yesterday

And thinks of the young man that she almost married

What would he think if he saw her this way?

She picks up her apron in little girl-fashion

As something comes into her mind

Slowly starts dancing remembering her girlhood

And all of the boys she had waiting in line

Oh, such are the dreams of the everyday housewife

You see everywhere any time of the day

An everyday housewife who gave up the good life for me

The photograph album she takes from the closet

And slowly turns the page

And carefully picks up the crumbling flower

The first one he gave her now withered with age

She closes her eyes and

Touches the house dress that suddenly disappears

And just for the moment she's wearing the gown

That broke all their minds back so many years

Oh, such are the dreams of the everyday housewife

You see everywhere any time of the day

An everyday housewife who gave up the good life for me

Read it and weep - the lament of the beta bux married to an alpha widow. She "gave up the good life" for a beta bux. She secretly reminisces fondly of her past, where all the boys wanted her.

She remembers one in particular, who gave her things, made her feel things, but whom she couldn't have. He loved her, she loved him, he gave her mementos she has kept all these years.

But now... she's just an everyday housewife, who gave up her dreams to be with a beta bux, slowly crushing the life out of her day by day by day.

What I find interesting too is the timing of the song's writing and release. Written in the late 60s, Campbell's recording was the first and was released in July 1968 - a time of immense cultural and political upheaval in the USA. It was 5 years after The Feminine Mystique was released. The country was in the middle of the most widespread and radical sexual revolution the world has ever seen. MLKJr. had been murdered a few months before in April. Bobby Kennedy, the presumptive Democrat nominee for president, had been assassinated one month before. This song was released during the famous Summer of Love. The Democratic National Convention would be held in Chicago the next month amid massive rioting.

This can be read two ways: It is a red pill - shows what women really thought of their husbands and their lives. It is also a hearkening back to a simpler time, when women had those dreams, but willingly left them behind for the good men they chose to marry.

It is telling that women en masse chose not to be everyday housewives, and decided to chase their dreams. And now we are reaping the consequences.

jihocech · 2020-12-22T20:22:05+00:00

Well done, son of Feanor.

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