Carry Me Away

Album: Working Class Dog (1981)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • In this album cut from Rick Springfield's Working Class Dog, he's all cattywampus over a girl, but afraid to fall in love. He puts his heart in her hands, telling her, "take me to heaven or to lead me to heartbreak." Like most of his songs, Springfield wrote it himself.
  • Springfield inserted a swear word into the lyric, which was generally frowned up in pop songs around this time:

    I'm so tired of all this s--t that I feel
    Show me something real


    "We slipped a few things by," he said in a Songfacts interview. "I don't throw swearing in other than when I think it really fits."
  • Thanks in part to the smash-hit single "Jessie's Girl," the album Working Class Dog was Springfield's break-out success - despite being the fifth studio album he'd released, after nearly a decade recording. He did have four prior singles that charted, however: "Speak to the Sky" (#14), "What Would the Children Think" (#70), "American Girls" (#98), and "Take a Hand" (#41).

    The album art shows a bull terrier dressed in working-class attire and sitting at a desk. That's actually Springfield's own pet dog, named Ronnie, who passed away in 1994. This photo garnered the album a 1981 Grammy nomination for Best Album Package. Working Class Dog was re-released on CD in 2006 as a 25th anniversary edition with three bonus tracks.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Devo

DevoSongwriter Interviews

Devo founders Mark Mothersbaugh and Jerry Casale take us into their world of subversive performance art. They may be right about the De-Evoloution thing.

Waiting For The Break of Day: Three Classic Songs About All-Nighters

Waiting For The Break of Day: Three Classic Songs About All-NightersSong Writing

These Three famous songs actually describe how they were written - late into the evening.

Richard Marx

Richard MarxSongwriter Interviews

Richard explains how Joe Walsh kickstarted his career, and why he chose Hazard, Nebraska for a hit.

Corey Hart

Corey HartSongwriter Interviews

The Canadian superstar talks about his sudden rise to fame, and tells the stories behind his hits "Sunglasses At Night," "Boy In The Box" and "Never Surrender."

Rock Revenge Songs

Rock Revenge SongsMusic Quiz

John Lennon, Paul Simon and Lynyrd Skynyrd are some of the artists who have written revenge songs. Do you know who they wrote them about?

Colin Hay

Colin HaySongwriter Interviews

Established as a redoubtable singer-songwriter, the Men At Work frontman explains how religion, sobriety and Jack Nicholson play into his songwriting.