For one reason or another, (which I won't go into here, it not really being that kind of blog), I'm vaguely incapacitated for a while, and this song has been going round and round my head. It's Wreckless Eric's best known and probably best one, the one that's guaranteed a place in the Rock and Roll Louvre, if there is such a place. I hope there is.
His debut single, from 1977, and featured on his eponymous first album from 1978, it defines him, as Only Ones', Another Girl, Another Planet and Patrick Fitzgerald's Safety Pin Stuck in my Heart define them, despite all three having plenty more strings to their musical bow. In Eric's case this is because, in addition to being a fine song, it established and perfectly carved out his persona, that of lovable, New Wave romantic. An apparent outsider and loser, but not one to be underestimated.
Whole Wide World skirts the realms of novelty of course. A mother who tells her son he has only one real shot at love in life and it's highly, highly improbable that he'll ever achieve it. A son whose response is that he's damned well going to get there. It's four minutes and one second long and a perfect example of why Punk and New Wave were so important. Because it gave a voice to those who'd previously been denied it. It gave the geek a chance with the beauty, as demonstrated perfectly below.
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