Music Review: Bryan Adams "Run To You"

Bryan Adams

Run To You

Album: Reckless

Year: 1984

           Bryan Adams cheats on his girlfriend in the  conflicted   “Run To You.”

         An entranced guitar opens the single, setting a rebellious tone. She said ok and they can go out on Monday instead. Then, she told him she loved him before hanging up the phone. Earlier in the day, she had given him a card “just because.” In it, she had written she thinks he’s a wonderful man who means so much to her. He has a part of her heart that can be ever be replaced.

          He rolls over in the bed and nuzzles his other girl’s shoulder. She giggles and kisses him. The card is somewhere in his drawer beneath a yellowed spiral notebook and outdated magazines. So far, she doesn’t seem to be suspicious. He’s only been with the other girl for about three months now. His girlfriend says flowery phrases to him all the time. There isn’t any emotion behind them. He’d prefer to keep his other girl a secret. The only way he’d tell is if she backs him into a corner and doesn’t have choice. Otherwise, he reasons, she doesn’t have to need to know right now. (“She says her love for me could never die/But that'd change if she ever found out about you and I/Oh, but her love is cold/It wouldn't hurt her if she didn't know, 'cause.”)

            In the pre-chorus, his parents are waiting to hear if he about his prosceptive internships to majorNew Yorkfirms. His friends are only concerned about buying apartments in the upper class areas and trying to social climb. As the conversations go on around him, he starts searching around for her in class.  (“When it gets too much/I need to feel your touch.”)

          In the chorus, she’s a free spirit and thinks his crowd is vapid. She’s the escape from the privileged world he grew tired of years ago. (“I'm gonna run to you/I'm gonna run to you/'Cause when/the feelin's right I'm gonna run all night/I'm gonna run to you.”)

             He figures his girlfriend is studying with some of friends, gossiping while reviewing the material for their latest test. She’s a sweet girl – her professors love her, the girls within their crowd mock her for being nice to the geeks. On paper, she’s the perfect girl. However, she’s the safe option. With her bohemian style and unconventional good looks – the qualities his world rejects – excites him. Sex wasn’t ever a major discussion that had to be picked apart and happen at the appropriate length of the relationship. He kissed her one day and it was as though they melted into each other. (“She's got a heart of gold she'd never let me down/But you're the one that always turns me on/You keep me comin' 'round/I know her love is true/But it's so damn easy makin' love to you.”)

             In the pre-chorus, he spots her in the dorms, sitting on the chair reading. He whispers to her that they can get together tonight. (“I got my mind made up/I need to feel your touch.”)

                The chorus is sung again.

               Adams sings part of the chorus to end the single. (“Yeah, I'm gonna run to you/Oh when the feelin's right I'm gonna run all night/I'm gonna run to you.”)

              Adams, full of resentment for his girlfriend, comes alive once his secret girl is brought up. It’s important to him that she doesn’t see herself as simply being on the side. It’s a complicated situation. He’s trapped and doesn’t know how to break the rules he’s been taught to follow.

            The compelling “Run To You”  is clawing to get loose, prepared for the messy end.