A memory connected to the song Superfreak by Rick James

A song connected to a memory that would now be called a learning curve.

It was 1981 I was 16 years of age on holiday in Benidorm, Spain with two of my friends. We’d done the usual thing; drinking ourselves stupid at the Talk of The Coast and then onto the Talk of the Town were the doorman, who was actually the Spanish weight lifting champion, would toss girls over his shoulder for fun. We ended up walking across to Valentinos Disco and as we walked in this beautiful healthy young sprig pulled me onto the dance floor to Super Freak by Rick James…. And to cut a long story short she asked if I’d like to go for a moonlight swim.

Zooooooooooooooooooooooom!! We’re on the Levante beach at 4.00am in the morning, were she quickly strips down to her knickers and starts bounding towards the sea.

I recall boxing shorts being vogue of the day; unfortunately I was not in vogue or remotely connected to it. My mother prior to us going on holiday had bought me fourteen pairs of light blue flannelette underpants with a striking dark blue ‘Y’ on the front, with matching trim around the waistband and leg holes.
Anyway, as she pranced toward the Mediterranean she glanced gracefully over her shoulder to see me still standing there fully clothed; stick thin and starting from my feet upwards; a pair of Green Flash pumps, fetching white tennis shorts, with a brown checked short collar shirt, finished beautifully by a look spread across my face that could only be described as a ‘grool’ that’s a cross between a grin and a drool… Then she blinked… And I was naked, apart from my undergarment of the day… You guessed it, my shiny new fluorescent blue flannelette ’Y’ fronts; now thoughtfully, cunningly even, disguised as a wigwam.

I will always remember her smile turning quickly upside down as both my wigwam and I sprinted toward her ‘Carl Lewis stylee’ leaving plumes of sand in my wake and my wigwam now drumming its own rendition of Cosy Powell’s; Dance with the Devil on my stomach.

If I remember it right, I don’t recall her even getting her feet wet and nor did I. She disappeared into the night and my wigwam disappeared about three days later. What a song!