This one can fool you. Listening to the arrangement (standard sappy strings, mellow beat, piano) and paying attention to the lyrics gives one an impression that this is a late-60s self-realization song of the "explore yourself at all costs" variety. Not so! It was actually released in 1977, but it didn't make it onto the charts until 1982. Call it stealth sap.
What can we say about INBTM? It starts surprisingly as the diametric opposite of a housewife-regrets-dull-life song, and becomes oh so much more. The central phrase "I've never been to me" epitomizes 1970s pop psych (think EST). Rather than live a full and varied life, the singer wishes that she had the most conventional of existences. The song anticipated the neoconservativism that swept the USA during the reign of King Ronald, and the spoken bridge ("You know what truth is? It's that little baby that you're holding"), added in 1982, brilliantly exploited the zeitgeist. The idea that the best we can do is settle for what's easily obtained (a bad relationship and children), and that human fulfillment is a lie, is the essence of the go-along-to-get-along placidity that turns humans into cudchewers. This is not just sap, it's reactionary sap. It deserves a much higher position on the Sap List.
-- SAPster Half
Adding to the Sap factor for this song is the singer's breathy voice and slight Southern accent. And what's the deal with those lyrics:
"I've been undressed by kings, And I've seen some things That a woman ain't supposed to see"
Like what? The secret Man Handshake?
-- SAPster Randi