"Shut Up And Kiss Me"? How Rude!

We were cruising along through the countryside on our way to Hau Hin some time back; somewhat overly full after lunch at a roadside eatery, me feeling a bit drowsy and thankful my friend was driving. One of the homemade CDs I'd brought him from home was in the car player, and he was, as usual, singing to most anything he felt he could join in on.

Most of it was new to him, but that didn't stop him. He'd had some time in the USA during his school days - he's very well educated - and while I like to widen his musical horizons a bit I often bring music and songs from those years. He'd lost almost all of the music he'd brought back with him (long story) so the look of surprise on his face when he recognizes something and really joins in with it makes all of the effort worthwhile. He can't sing, but who cares? It's still fun.

I've long been a fan of Mary Chapin Carpenter, and soon enough the song from the above clip came booming from his nice auto stereo system. I'd pulled the audio off of the DVD, so we were hearing the actual recording you hear when you play the clip up top, but that afternoon you'd have heard me singing along. Consider the fact you can't hear me singing it to be a late Christmas gift to you from me. Tapping my foot, I was watching the long rows of flowering plants along the highway when the song got to "It's been too long since somebody whispered 'shhh... shut up and kiss me'".

"Wait... what?" my friend said, glancing over my way. "That's very rude!" At first I thought he was just making a good-natured joke about the phrase, but then I realized he didn't understand what the meaning was behind the usage and thought it was actually the command "shut up!", which is not the case.

He said, emphatically "A polite Thai would never say such a thing!" I tried ten ways to breakfast to explain it to him, citing movies, television shows and all sorts of other playful examples, but there was no swaying him. He kept saying "A Thai wouldn't say that," and it was one of those rare occasions where we just had to agree to disagree.

"I guess you'll just have to skip over that track when you play this disc," I offered "or just toss the disc in the trash, if you want. I won't mind - the media didn't cost hardly anything."  He thought about this for a moment and then replied "I will think about it."

As we were parking in Hua Hin and carrying our bags up the stairs at the hotel I heard it: his voice, somewhat off key, quietly singing "shut up and kiss me".  I smiled and have never mentioned it since.