Hello all, and welcome back to Tuning Thursdays, where you can kick back, imbibe your preferred libations, and plan to plan what you’ll do for the rest of the day. Last week, we rolled around in Men at Work’s “kombi” van and considered its pros and cons in great detail. We’ve arrived at the conclusion that they’re great for two things: foreigners and hotboxing.

And here we are at another Thursday, this time with dear old Reba McEntire and her lustrous scarlet hair. The song is “Why Do We Want What We Can’t Have,” taken from her sixth studio album from 1983, Behind the Scene. McEntire was still a rising star at that point in her career, just two albums away from her first gold and four albums away from her first platinum.

You’re doing it wrong. Photo: Corvette Action Center

The song’s subject matter is not difficult to parse: mankind’s raging desires, the unstoppable force, and harsh reality, the immovable object. As related by the third stanza of the song, a young woman named Suzie found out firsthand how envy drove her into the rear end of a semi truck: 

“Well Susie was out driving her new corvette/She hadn’t made that second payment yet/She rear ended a Semi/But not by choice/She was a-rubbernecking a new Rolls Royce!”

An unfortunate lesson in the concept of desire and greener grass, to be sure, but not one that needed to be inflicted on a swanky new Vette. Hell, no one had ever “seen anything like this [Corvette] before.” Next time she’d do wise to steer clear of any scenic drives with potholes or schools with attractive teachers.

Thanks for tuning in this week, and we’ll see you next time. Until then, make sure your eyes stay glued to the road, especially when a new Camaro or Corvette passes you by.