Throwback Thursday: Reba, ‘She Thinks His Name Was John’

Welcome to Throwback Thursday, a weekly series showcasing an album, single, music video or performance of a bygone era and its personal and/or cultural significance.

Current mainstream country doesn’t make songs like this anymore. Reba‘s “She Thinks His Name Was John” is a piano-built ballad meant to drain you, emotionally and psychologically. It’s a stunner, that’s to be sure, and it was a rather groundbreaking entry, not only in her catalog but the greater pantheon of music history. Written by Sandy Knox (who also wrote “Does He Love You” and “Why Haven’t I Heard from You”) and Steve Rosen (Neil Diamond), the song crashed the country world in 1994. Reba released it as the second single from that year’s Read My Mind album, a bold choice considering the generally conservative format is slow to address important social issues. Another country shaker Kathy Mattea led the charge two years prior, deciding to don three red ribbons for three youths whose lives had been snuffed by the disease, while the CMA was pushing green ribbons for an environmental initiative. Mattea and then Reba displayed refreshing compassion through using their platforms for real, conceivable change and awareness.

“She Thinks His Name was John” unravels a woman’s final thoughts of her life, framed around the harrowing facts she’ll never get married or have kids. Knox’s brother died from AIDS after a 1979 blood transfusion went awry, so the emotion is palpable in the songwriting alone. Even without Reba’s evocative and heavy approach, the lyrics are drenched in sorrowful resignation, detailing the narrator’s spiral down as she recounts that one wine-induced chance encounter that changed her life forever.  The song stalled at country radio, of course, because gatekeepers were (and still are) afraid of shaking up the status quo, in favor of hackneyed ideas and milquetoast products. The song parked at No. 15 on the country charts, but its legacy is strong.

Reba has often gone against the grain throughout her entire career, offering up thoughtful and moving stories that are based in real human struggles and triumphs. “She can account for all of the men in her past / Where they are now, who they married, how many kids they have / She knew their backgrounds, family and friends / A few she even talks to now and then,” she sings, opening the wounds right from the outset. “But there is one she can’t put her fingers on / There is one who never leaves her thoughts / And she thinks his name was John…”

The next verse walks the listener back through time to the moment, the encounter, the dalliance that sealed the woman’s fate. “A chance meeting, a party a few years back / Broad shoulders and blue eyes, his hair was so black / He was a friend of friend you could say / She let his smile just sweep her away / And in her heart she knew that it was wrong / But too much wine and she left his bed at dawn / And she thinks his name was John,” rings out over stark piano and a orchestral backdrop, Reba’s voice razor sharp. Even as I write this post, tears are welling up behind my eyes….

The bridge is even more chilling. “And all her friends say what a pity what a loss / And in the end when she was barely hangin’ on / All she could say is she thinks his name was John…”

AIDS is not nearly as damning as it was 20 or 30 years ago, but according to the CDC, just over one million people in the US were living with the disease at the end of 2015. In 2014, there were roughly 6,700 deaths attributed to HIV. The stigma is far from gone. We may never be fully rid of the disease, but we are getting closer day by day.

Watch below:

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