Hey Pretty

Life has its many little coincidental moments. Last year, I was visiting a friend in Los Angeles. One warm winter evening, I was driving around Mulholland Drive and the song, Hey Pretty (Drive-by Mix 2001) by Poe started playing on my IPOD through the random shuffle. I pulled over at the next scenic view point, started the song over and let the words settle in me.

I am not sure of the legend or history of the song, but from what I've learned it is performed by Poe and her brother Mark. Mark wrote the poem/story and reads it in the song and Poe does the singing.

This song is so sexual and powerful for me. Listening to it lets me remember sensual parts of my life yet starts an itch in my thoughts, my body, all of me to do it again.

For some reason, these lines haunt me and distills these sexual moments to its barest essence.

We never even kissed, or looked into each other's eyes, our lips just
Trespassed on those inner labyrinths hidden deep within our ears,
Filled them with the private music of wicked words
Hers in many languages, mine in the off-color of my only tongue,
Too bad dark languages rarely survive..."

Here are the full lyrics.

Hey Pretty(Drive-by 2001 Mix)
by Poe

Mark:
Kyrie suggested we go for a drive in her new 2-door BMW coupe
In the parking lot, we slipped into her bucket seats
Kyrie took over from there.
At nearly 90 miles per hour she zipped us up to that windy edge
Known to some as Mullholland, that sinuous road running the ridge of the Santa Monica Mountains
Where she then proceeded to pump her vehicle in and out of turns
Sometimes dropping down to 50 miles per hour, only to immediately gun it back up to 90 again
Fast, slow, fast fast slow
Sometime a wide turn sometimes a quick one she preferred the tighter ones
The sharp controlled jerks, swinging left to right before driving back to the right
Only so she could do it all over again until after enough speed, and
enough wind, and more distance than I had been prepared to expect
Taking me to parts of the city I rarely think of and never visit...

Poe:
Hey pretty
Don't you wanna take a ride with me?
Through my world

Hey pretty
Don't you wanna kick and slide
Through my world

Mark:
I can't remember the inane things I started babbling about then, I know it didn't really matter, she wasn't listening
She just yanked up on the emergency brake, dropped her seat back, and told me to lie on top of her
On top of those leather pants of hers, extremely expensive leather pants
mind you, her hands immediately guiding mine over those soft, slightly oily folds
Positioning my fingers on the shiny metal tab, small and round, like a tear
Then murmuring a murmur so inaudible that even though I could feel her
lips tremble against my ear, she seemed far, far away
Pinch it, she said, which I did, lightly, until she also said pull it,
which I also did, gently parting the teeth, one at a time, down under
and beneath, the longest unzipping of my life...

Poe:
Hey pretty
Don't you wanna take a ride with me?
Through my world

Hey pretty
Don't you wanna kick and slide
Through my world

Hey pretty
My pretty baby
Rock it through my world (through my world)

Hey pretty (Hey pretty)
My pretty baby
Rock it through my world (my world)

Mark:
We never even kissed, or looked into each other's eyes, our lips just
Trespassed on those inner labyrinths hidden deep within our ears,
Filled them with the private music of wicked words
Hers in many languages, mine in the off-color of my only tongue,
Too bad dark languages rarely survive..."


Sadly, the video does not capture the spirit of the song. It also leaves out Mark's whole last part of the song ending with "Too bad dark languages rarely survive..." At least you will get a flavor of the song.