This song is too beautiful to be subject to the FFL grinder. I looked up the original discussion and I mentioned the last verse when I sent the song originally with Mike Seager singing it, not when Emily posted the lyrics. I considered them interesting no matter what analysis you take, although now on closer examination, the whole context of the song makes the intention of the songwriter more clear. I was not sending Emily some dark message by pointing out the last verse for her comment. Mike mumbles his words a bit and I wanted to make sure I got her take on the verse to see if it matched my GFs. At the time it did.
Emily: "Interesting take from your girlfriend - I was curious as I wasn't sure how to interpret what I was reading and my first take was a more sinister nature. I prefer your girlfriend's thought and the last line = "try to tear my kingdom down" leaves room for exactly what she's talking about. Ha. Here is my take on the meaning of the lyrics: > > > > Roustabout Technical name of a job loading at docks. > > > > Oh you banjo roustabout > > When you goin to the shore > > I got a good gal on that other shore > > Baby don't you want to go > > > > If I had an old pairs of wings > > Like Noah's dove > > I'd sail from pine to pine > > Looking for my own true love Idealism and romantic/naive hope expressed in those two lines. > > > > I'd a listened to what my momma said I wouldn't be here today > > But me being young and foolish too > > women lead me astray This is the key to understanding why my GF's take was more reasonable than my initial take on the song. (In my defense I was a little caught up in mastering an old time banjo style, and that sucked up most of my neurons.) In this verse we see that he had gotten played by the woman, not that she was a victim. He is painting himself as a victim. > > > > Who's gonna shoe your pretty little feet > > And who's gonna glove your hand > > And who's gonna do your rockabye > > When your man's in a distant land Poor me, but when I leave you THEN you'll be sorry! > > > > My wife left home last night > > I'll tell you where I found her She left voluntarily. Think of how different it would be to say : I threw my wife out last night... She had an appointment. > > Lying down in the pines> "Lying down" lacks any sinister overtones. > > A gang of boys around her> This is probably what set me off in the wrong direction originally. I suspect that "gang" was equivalent to "group" and had none of the modern overtones back then. > > Some was higgin it > > Some was kissin it > > Some was huggin it I never heard any sexual assault start by describing the initial contact this way. News alert: The suspect proceeded to hug and kiss the victim... > > Some was kneeling down> I've seen some porn. (Always accidentally when I was a victim of a pop up ad, I promise.) This created an image and may have been more of why I misunderstood it initially. > > There more rascal hangin round > > Try to tear my kingdom down > > > > Oh my lord. He is the victim, not her. He is expressing his own angst at how she just served his ass with a big old bucket of a man's worst nightmare for a woman he loves. The songwriter brilliantly took a cuckolded spouse story and turned it into a Tarantino thrill-o rama. Here is another version Mike used to do that is more lighthearted: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwEdMRCP3sc I love the line: My old misses had a dog blind as he could be, but every night round supper time, I'd swear that dog could see! He downplays the ending and I think now I know why. I usually drop it out for my shows, unless I have an audience who is really engaged in the meaning of the lyrics, like the group I played for last night. I don't quiz them on their take at the end, but it definitely has their attention and they respond enthusiastically whatever their interpretation. It is very emotional to perform, this is trouble with a capital T anyway you cut it. I step away from the mike and stand in the middle of the room and let them hear it in the natural way it would have been performed decades ago.
