The government shutdown was a godsend for Trump, because it kept the media’s attention off those pesky Epstein Files. Pressure’s been building, though, because at this point a lot of people have gotten a look at them, and word is that no matter how bad you think they are for Trump, they’re actually worse.
According to various anonymously sourced reports, there are photos of young “half-naked” girls sitting on Trump’s lap. Given his history, this hardly seems shocking, but maybe some of his gormless fans will rethink their Q-inspired fantasy that Trump, of all people, would expose pedophilia among the rich and powerful, rather than partake of it with relish (or, given his tastes, more likely with ketchup).
When that comes out, I expect MAGAworld to pretend that there’s nothing creepy about it at all, the way in later years Gary Puckett maintained that “Young Girl,” widely considered inappropriate even when it was a hit for his band the Union Gap, wasn’t as creepy as it seemed.
The song, like the group, was the brainchild of Jerry Fuller, a Texas songwriter and singer who rose to fame penning tunes for Ricky Nelson in the ’50s and became a successful producer in the ’60s. Fuller discovered Puckett and his band playing at a San Diego bowling alley, dressed them in Civil War uniforms and turned out a string of six gold records for them in 1968. He wrote three of the songs himself, including “Young Girl,” which hit No. 2 in Billboard and No. 1 in Cashbox.
Fuller said he drew the song from his experiences during his years as a performer. They weren’t called groupies yet, but it was already common for young girls to doll themselves up and try to meet the musicians. As Puckett pointed out in interviews, the singer is pointedly not hooking up with the young girl in question. As everyone else notices, it’s still creepy, and even during the sexual revolution of the ’60s some radio stations refused to play it.
That didn’t mean people didn’t want to hear it, though. Titillation sells – why do you think the media loves the Epstein Files? – and British audiences proved it by making “Young Girl” a hit twice, in 1968 and again when it was rereleased in 1974.
Fuller wrote more than 1,100 songs and had a long career as a producer of tunes as varied as the Knickerbockers’ “Lies” and O.C. Smith’s “Little Green Apples.” But when he died last year at age 85, the song that got top billing in the obituaries was “Young Girl.”
