This Charming Man

This is the only comment worth reading on this entire page.<br /> <br /> Just because he calls a man charming doesn't mean its about homosexuality. <br /> I wish some people would stop trying to make everything about homosexuality.

It could still be that the charming man is a homosexual. I think that's what makes this song so fantastic. It's a story with an open end. Is the charming man telling him to return the ring because he is jealous that the boy has fallen in love with a girl? Totally agree that waxinglyrical's comment is the best on this page though.

            I agree that there's nothing explicitly homosexual but anyone that's 'been there' will read between the lines. It does describe a pretty typical sugar daddy interaction.   <br />

<br /> I don't think at any point the charming man confronts the protagonist. When he describes himself as a 'jumped up pantry boy' I think it expresses his own self doubt and insecurity. <br /> <br /> As for "return the ring" well... I don't think it means 'give the ring I gave you back'.... might be referring to a different sort of ring there.

I think the ring here is a phone call (people from the UK would spot this easier than Americans).<br /> "return the ring" could mean phone him back, implying that the charming man has left a message for the protagonist after their car ride, probably to ask him out! (this also possibly implies that our 'poor' protagonist is living in a group house or boarding house with a shared phone).<br /> <br /> so who advises him to "return the ring"?<br /> "a jumped up pantry boy…" (etc)<br /> what does this refer to in Sleuth? Michael Caine, who plays a hairdresser.<br /> ok either totally wrong or about to blow minds here!<br /> <br /> my hairdresser friend says phone him back<br /> he knows so much about these things<br /> <br /> (the hairdresser friend has experience with sugar daddies and says don't pass up a good thing - especially considering how the charming man made our protagonist feel with his compliments about his handsomeness)<br />

@waxinglyrical and others<br /> <br /> I say this with no judgement at all, emotions are universal regardless of whom you are attracted to, but I do think it is a man+man relationship of some sort or another, and I would say it does matter to the overall theme. The line that makes me wonder the most is "I haven't a stitch to wear". Sure, stitch means clothing but it also is what you close wounds with. So this makes me think of a few possibilities - either he can't go out and can't engage with this person at all because he is still wounded from a past trauma, or that this man or someone else in his life is physically abusive and he can't go out because he is embarassed by the bruise. Obviously the emotional wound is more generally human and it is the one I believe is alluded to here. But there is that line referencing his physical beauty and "why should someone so handsome care?". So this alludes to a literal scar of some kind as well. Doesn't make it so, but its there to be interpreted. <br /> <br /> FWIW I believe that even though songwriters, poets and authors have an overt reason for their words, they also have some meanings hidden or intended to have a double meaning, and sometimes even the author isn't aware of every meaning possible but is releasing it from his mind without even knowing - at least at first.. Of course, once it is out there its up to the reader who has his/her own filter through which it is interpreted. As we see in these comments, some people didn't understand "return the ring" to mean "call me back", its a turn of a phrase. Which brings me to my final point and how you can see greatness at work. The writer has to fit this into a song. Its not free prose or poetry, it generally has to have a symmetry to the music accomopanying it. So some phrases get truncated, or idioms are employed that are regional and not universal ('return the ring' or 'give me a ring' is uniquely British, Americans generally use the word "call" not "ring" but that's also what makes these interpretations so fun. It conjures up meaning to some audiences more than others. Return the ring also, to me anyway, has an almost Tolkien feel to it. Was that intended? Maybe, maybe not. But even it it wasn't intended doesn't mean that it isn't there to be read into).

@waxinglyrical you make a lot of sense , <br />

@waxinglyrical so true bae i wrote the song

@waxinglyrical I find myself coming back to read your analysis from time to time. I can't say I fully agree with it, but I appreciate the reasoning behind it and it was illuminating to find out about the source of the "jumped-up pantry boy" line, because that always threw me off. You sort of lose me with the last paragraph though, but I do think you're onto something with the class commentary.<br /> <br /> @jgb0893 I have to agree that as someone who has also "been there", to me this song is unambiguously about a homosexual encounter of some form or another, although I think it's mixed in with class commentary. You cracked me up with the, "might be referring to a different sort of ring there" bit though! I personally don't think it's referring to anything that perverse, but then again this appears on the same album as "Reel Around The Fountain" so anything is possible I suppose. <br /> <br />