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I have listened to the song I’ve Never Been To Me (1977) by Charlene several times without really paying much attention to the lyrics.
A careful listen at the lyrics reveal a bittersweet note that goes beyond its catchy tune. This song is about a lady who lived her life to the fullest and looking back serves a warn to the younger ones.
Below is my breakdown of the lyrics.
The lyrics starts as a story-telling narrative of a lady (singer) telling a supposedly “discontented mother” and “regimented wife” of their unfulfilled dreams because of their choices to either marry or be a mother. She laments, wishing someone had talked to her earlier.
In her quest for freedom (“Because I had to be free”), she travelled across the world (“anywhere she wanted”), dated men, including kings and lived a seemingly wildly-adventurous life.
And at the end, she bemoans that her pursuit of “Paradise” of a single, independent, and adventurous woman turns out to be “a lie”.
The lady also ends up “crying for unborn children”, and regrets not having a child when she had the opportunity that would have “made her complete” but rather squandered on her adventures.
She, in turn, tells the mother (“that little baby you’re holding”) and the housewife (“that man you fought with this morning, the same one you are gonna make love to tonight”) that “love” is found in having to sharing it with someone. She further deplores them “Don’t just walk away” from their current lives.
When all the fanfare of music stops playing, she is all, but ALONE!
Despite the life spent travelling and the freedom she experienced, she concludes that the price of it “costs too much to be free“. She was so engaged in discovering the world that she never got to discover herself.
This song, in a way, touches on the existing perpetual debate between Singlehood and Family life.
Below is the lyrics of “I’ve Never Been To Me” (source: songlyrics)