“I might like you better if we slept together  

I might like you better if we slept together  

I might like you better if we slept together  

But there's something in your eyes that says maybe 

That's never, never say never” 

Debora Iyall, the lead singer of 80’s band Romeo Void, sang this chorus of “Never Say Never” on radio and the heavily rotated MTV video.  It was catchy, #17 on the dance charts and many of us repeated the persistent chorus as a snark or sarcastic pickup line.  I was 17, it was before the HIV epidemic got our attention and the concept sounded pretty good to me. 

Debora and the guys were from San Francisco, and they often played in the city.  But I’m a bit fuzzy on when/if I ever saw them perform.  Their set list venues in the early 80’s certainly coincide with venues I’d go to at the time (with my fake ID), but it’s all lost in a foggy haze of pot smoke.  There’s a blurry memory of either the Kabuki or Mabuhay Gardens: Robin Williams was there for sure but was it Romeo Void or Missing Persons that performed?  Maybe both.  Maybe it was a dream.  Warning, kids: this is the result of being a ”wake and bake” in your late teens. 

Romeo Void had one more hit in 1984, their biggest, peaking at #35 on Billboard and #11 on the dance charts with “A Girl in Trouble (Is a Temporary Thing)”. 

Now, “A Girl in Trouble” could be interpreted as the unfortunate result of what happens after “I might like you better if we slept together”.   

Since the lyrics of “A Girl in Trouble (Is a Temporary Thing)” also say  

“there's no time for her to be afraid 

so instead 

she takes care of business 

keeps a cool head” 

Is this a woman’s self-empowerment statement or a Roe v. Wade issue? Oh, that’s right, the states get to decide now.  So maybe NOT so temporary.