Now Playing: Ride Like The Wind - Christopher Cross
Topic: Songs
Why did Christopher Cross have to ride like the wind, and where was he going, and what was he riding?
I know he had to get to Mexico, or at least the border of Mexico, which would seem to indicate drugs. And while I suppose it's possib;e that Christopher Cross began his career as a drug-runner, still, it seems like he would have to be running out of Mexico with drugs. Unless he was the dumbest drug runner in history, and ran drugs from his own grow room in the US back into Mexico. And then write a song about what a dumbass he was.
He could have been a criminal trying to flee the country, but that's also hard to imagine, given how mellow and innocuous the rest of his music was. I can imagine Christopher Cross shoplifting or embezzling from the country where he works, but not spree-killing senior citizens or kidnapping for profit. Those are the kind of crimes I imagine people fleeing to Mexico for, and folks who do stuff like that sing about flirtin' with disaster or burnin' down the house, not sunsets and sailing and how much I love my dead girlfriend Laura.
Another possibility is that the song wasn't about Christopher Cross at all, but Michael McDonald, who co-wrote and sang back-up on the song. Michael McDonald has had a long and prolific career in music and has collaborated with some of the biggest names in the industry. But by all accounts, he was kind of a douche. He was temperamental and hard to work with, even while respecting his talent, no one liked him personally. So maybe the guys in Steely Dan were trying to kill him and he had to hide in Mexico.
