I Got a Letter

Song Meaning

The narrator receives a passionate love letter, filled with urgent desires and declarations of devotion. The opening lines, "darling you're driving me out of my mind," immediately establish a tone of intense, almost overwhelming affection. This isn't a casual note; it's a plea for closeness, a longing to be "hold[ed]" and "squeeze[d]," culminating in the anticipation of a day when the recipient will finally be declared "mine." The central tension arises from the letter's anonymity. Despite its fervent declarations, the crucial detail "wasn't signed" transforms the ecstatic anticipation into a maddening mystery. The narrator is left to cycle through possibilities – "Lulu," "Mary," "Jane," or even someone "hardly knew" – each name a potential source of this overwhelming affection, yet none confirmed. The craft here hinges on the stark contrast between the letter's effusive content and its missing signature. The repeated questioning of the sender's identity, especially the insistent "baby, baby, baby, Was it from you?" highlights the narrator's desperate need to connect the intense emotion to a known person, possibly the very person they are addressing. This ambiguity makes the narrator's own "lovin" feel both desired and terrifyingly out of reach. This creates a unique emotional effect: the thrill of receiving such a potent love note is immediately undercut by the anxiety of the unknown. The narrator is driven "crazy" not by a lack of affection, but by an abundance of it from an unidentifiable source, leaving them paralyzed and unable to respond, asking, "Someone tell me who I'm going to write to."