About the time I really started being interested in girls, I also started to leave my radio on all night. I was living in a suburban South Jersey town. The time was 1988,1989. The major powerhouse in Top 40 radio was a station called Eagle 106. The 10-2 in the evenings DJ was Danny Bonnoduce, who at the time was only known as Danny Partridge and not the almost psychotic reality? star that he is today. He had that gravely smokers voice, and just out of rehab edginess that as a wussy 7th grader who could barely muster the nerve to say hi to a girl in the hallway would be inspired by. He had confidence, and these Phildelphia girls would call up in between songs and he would fearlessly dispense advice to them.
At the same time all music, except for church music, would invoke in me a theme of unrequited love, not that at the time I knew what unrequieted love was. Anyhow Danny Bonnoduce would start his show every night with Wild Wild West by escape club. So sometimes as I am getting ready for work, and the field is long gone I put on the music channels of our Cable system. This morning I put on the 80's channel to hear Wild Wild West. And music does trigger so much and at that time, I was infatuated with one girl. Jen. Anyhow here is a verse by verse as best I can remember it, my interpretation of what Escape Club was singing about circa 7th Grade. And its amazing that I a can't remember that the field told me to pick up the dry cleaning, but I can remember this song's meaning almost 20 years ago.

Wild Wild West
Forty-seven dead beats living in the back street
North east west south all in the same house
Sitting in a back room waiting for the big boom
I'm in a bedroom waiting for my baby
So here the first three lines I didn’t really understand. But the last line made perfect sense, because I was in my bedroom about to go to sleep and I was waiting for my baby, Jen. CHORUS:
She's so mean but I don't care
This girl Jen was in my Kindergarten class and was very mean then went to Catholic School and came to our public middle school and was not mean, but did ignore me.
I love her eyes and her wild wild hair
Jen as I remember it had extremely blue eyes, and unlike most girls in the 7th grade she had already taken a big interest in her appearance, including having manicured fingernails.
Dance to the beat that we love best
I wasn’t a dancer, I hated the thought of dancing, but in my mind the second a cute girl expressed interest I was going to be Travolta or Swayze and I would turn into a hero. I blame Footloose.
Heading for the nineties
This was the late 80’s so that made sense.
Living in the wild wild west
Jen, lived on the west side of town, I lived on the east side of town (might as well have been West Side Story)
The wild wild west

Mandy's in the backroom handing out Valium
I misheard this lyric up until googling it this morning. I always thought Mandy was handing out Valleys which never made sense to me.
Sheriff's on the airwaves talking to the D.J.'s
Sherrif was another artist of that era that sang, When I’m with you, at the time which for another time had other great unrequited love lyrics
Forty-seven heartbeats beating like a drum
I still don’t understand the 47 reference again.
Got to live it up live it up
Have fun as two 13 year olds in love.
Ronnie's got a new gun
I thought this was an offhand reference to President Reagan, but didn’t understand why.
CHORUS

Now put your flags in the air and march them up and down
Jen was a cheerleader, of course.
You can live it up live it up all over the town
She was on the west, I was on the east. Our relationship would cover all of the municipality
And turn to the left, turn to the right
Jen sat directly in front of me in Reading (we had both English and Reading in 7th Grade) so if she turned either direction she would see me.
I don't care as long as she comes tonight
I always thought of this referring to her coming to a dance.

CHORUS
Heading for the nineties living in the eighties
Screaming in a back room waiting for the big boom
Give me give me wild west
Give me Jen’s interest
Give me give me safe sex
Safe Sex was kissing, and I would have loved to have kissed her
Give me love give me love
Give me Jen’s interest, Give me Jen’s interest
Give me time to live it up
And let it happen soon so the rest of the dances in the school year I am not sitting around with the guys pretending to be cooler than I am.