Life Goes On
COVID-19 marked its one-year anniversary as a global pandemic on March 11, 2021. And on March 17, it will be one year since I’ve been working from home because of the dread virus.
There have been a lot of Groundhog Days during that time but the song that’s been playing in my head isn’t Sonny and Cher’s “I Got You Babe.” It’s “Just a Gigolo.”
For some reason, I started thinking that as bad as the pandemic has been on the rest of us, it must be a grind — okay, bad Freudian pun-slip there — for the sad and lonely gigolo.
So when I received a prompt from a magazine editor to write something on the theme “Life Goes On” in 50 words, either a poem or ‘flash fiction,’ I could not resist.
The result is here — 50 words exactly if you include the title, “Life Goes On.”
Louis Prima was the primo,
a gigolo
whose youth passed away
back in the day
Flash forward to life and love
in the time of Covid
social distance dance
masking our romance
Life goes on, rough
just like David Lee Roth
sad and lonely
ain’t got nobody
And here, for your musical entertainment, are the two versions of Just a Gigolo still ringing in my ears.
Louis Prima’s first popular version of “Just a Gigolo,” which he paired with “I Ain’t Got Nobody,” was in 1956. Click here.
For David Lee Roth’s 1985 cover, check this out. Or, if you want to skip the long introduction, it starts here.
Claudio D’Andrea has been writing and editing for newspapers, magazines and online publications for more than 30 years. You can read his stuff on LinkedIn and Medium.com and follow him on Twitter.
