Mick Hartley

Politics and Culture

recent posts

email me

The Killer

Here’s Jerry Lee Lewis (via RWB) performing “She Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye”. Like fellow rock’n’roll pioneer Elvis, he’s a Country boy at heart.

Maybe too much of one. Inspired by “She Woke Me Up…” I checked out more Jerry Lee on YouTube. This came up next: “The Closest Thing to You”. It’s another great performance – but listen to those lyrics. Here they are:

She’ll listen as I climb the stairs and know the shape I’m in /
Cause every time I’ve had a few Lord I’m at her door again /
Well it’s not right and it’s not love but she’s here most anytime /
And she’s the closest thing to you that I can find

I’m sure this wasn’t what the songwriter had in mind, and maybe the Jerry Lee child-bride history isn’t helping any here, but I can’t somehow shake the incestuous connotations that the lyrics seem to call up. Father comes home drunk, but mother’s not having any (“Don’t Come Home A Drinkin With Lovin On Your Mind“) so it’s a trip up the stairs to daughter’s room…

Yes, that’s unfair, and I really don’t want to perpetuate those old Deliverance stereotypes, but these lyrics strike me as being a little too close to the bone.

Well, they say Country music tells it like it is…

Posted in

4 responses to “The Killer”

  1. Dom Avatar
    Dom

    Nooooooooo. It’s just a prostitute.

    Like

    Reply
  2. Mick H Avatar
    Mick H

    Well maybe, but lyrics like “So we’ll talk awhile and then she’ll smile and finally she’ll give in” don’t suggest a prostitute to me. I imagine the songwriter had in mind some old flame who knows she’s lost the battle but still holds a candle for our hero.

    Like

    Reply
  3. Dom Avatar
    Dom

    You should read Enderby’s End? Enderby changes Hopkin’s poetry into a Hollywood movie. In one poem, when a nun is certain of death, she cries out “Oh Christ, Christ, come quickly.” Enderby has her say that when she is being raped.
    When it is done, Enderby can’t read Hopkins again without finding hints of pedophilia. “Too huge godhead” … “mansex fine” … “kentish knock”. It’s hilarious.

    Like

    Reply
  4. Jerry Lee Ryen Avatar
    Jerry Lee Ryen

    If you listen to the version on youtube, you’ll notice that he (as always) twists the lyrics a bit. I believe that the lyrics, both original and jerry’s version, portray a man who once had a woman he loved so strongly, that he’s searched for, and found, a woman hwo lookes just like her. Only he doesn’t love her, he just uses her to make him feel like he’s with that “love of his life” again. And she knows it, but has a weakness for this man. (sounds like the story of my life…)

    Like

    Reply

Leave a comment