Pretty woman, don’t make me cry
Pretty woman, don’t walk away, hey…okay
Roy Orbison
So I woke up with the song “Pretty Woman” stuck in my head this morning, and I later made the mistake of trying to make sense of the lyrics. That’s something I’ve never done before. I should have remained in the dark on the lyrics.
As I see it, there are two separate literal interpretations of the lyrics: the innocent-ish and the prostitution interpretation.
In the first option, innocent-ish, Roy is a lonely guy standing around on the street, watching the people walk by. One of these people happens to be a woman who is pretty. Roy decides that he would like to be romantically involved with said pretty woman, and proceeds to ply her with compliments such as “you look lovely as can be/are you lonely just like me?” Roy must have had a little insider knowledge about picking out the lonely, hot chick on the street, because just after he begs, (“Pretty woman, don’t walk on by/Pretty woman, don’t make me cry/Pretty woman, don’t walk away, hey…okay”) she turns around and comes back! While I don’t have much experience shouting backhanded compliments at attractive passers-by, I can’t really see this as a realistic retelling of an actual event. Then again, the song ends before she gets back to Roy, so maybe the real story ends with him getting slapped or kicked in the junk.
The second interpretation is informed by the Julia Roberts/Richard Gere flick of the same name. But with a twist.
I think it was Roy who was the prostitute, gigolo, if you will. In this second literal interpretation, I see Roy standing, again, on the street corner, but this time he’s on the clock. The repetition of “pretty woman” leads me to believe that he has been at this for a while, and has been soliciting every woman who walks by. Roy hasn’t had a customer all night. He’s ready to call it a night: “I guess I’ll go on home, it’s late/There’ll be tomorrow night, but wait.” Finally, just as he is ready to go back to his pimp in defeat, he gets a customer, probably won over by the “are you lonely just like me” line.
So Roy is either a creepy guy, or a prostitute. I think the gigolo interpretation is probably the most accurate.
