Let’s Begin

Song Meaning

Anita O’Day's "Let's Begin" is a masterclass in post-coital ambivalence, a tipsy tightrope walk between desire and dread. The initial verses establish a state of pre-encounter emotional neutrality, almost scientific in its detachment: "Before I met you no one attracted me / No love thoughts worried or distracted me." This isn't romantic longing; it's a clinical assessment of the before and after. The shift occurs with surgical precision: "Until you started in preempting me." The use of "preempting" is crucial—it suggests a forceful, almost unwelcome intrusion into her carefully constructed emotional fortress. The heart of the song meaning lies in the anxious questioning that follows. "Now that you've got me going, what you gonna do?" O'Day perfectly captures the vulnerability inherent in surrendering control. It's a query loaded with expectation and fear, a demand for accountability wrapped in coquettish charm. The subsequent lines, "Is it up to me? Is it up to you? / What kind of game is this we've begun?" reveal a desperate need for definition, a craving to understand the unspoken rules of this new dynamic. Is it a fleeting dalliance, "just for fun," or something more substantial? The final verse accelerates the descent into uncertainty. The blunt admission, "We have necked, till I'm wrecked," is both humorous and unsettling, highlighting the disorienting power of physical intimacy. The litany of binary choices—"kiss and never tell," "folly and farewell," "heaven or maybe hell"—underscores the high stakes involved. The concluding lines, "Which is it going to be, love or gin? / Wife or sin? Let's begin," are a defiant, almost reckless, embrace of the unknown. It's a toast to the intoxicating possibilities and potentially devastating consequences of surrendering to desire, a decision made, perhaps, under the influence of both love and gin.