Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
Look out, Mama, there's a white boat coming up the river
With a big red beacon, and a flag, and a man on the rail
I think you'd better call John
'Cause it don't look like they're here to deliver the mail
And it's less than a mile away
I hope they didn't come to stay
It's got numbers on the side and a gun
And it's making big waves
Daddy's gone, my brother's out hunting in the mountains
Big John's been drinking since the river took Emmy-Lou
So the Powers That Be left me here to do the thinkin'
And I just turned twenty-two
I was wondering what to do
And the closer they got
The more those feelings grew
Daddy's rifle in my hand felt reassuring
He told me, Red means run, son, numbers add up to nothing
But when the first shot hit the docks I saw it coming
Raised my rifle to my eye
Never stopped to wonder why
Then I saw black
And my face splashed in the sky
Shelter me from the powder and the finger
Cover me with the thought that pulled the trigger
Think of me as one you'd never figured
Would fade away so young
With so much left undone
Remember me to my love
I know I'll miss her
With a big red beacon, and a flag, and a man on the rail
I think you'd better call John
'Cause it don't look like they're here to deliver the mail
And it's less than a mile away
I hope they didn't come to stay
It's got numbers on the side and a gun
And it's making big waves
Daddy's gone, my brother's out hunting in the mountains
Big John's been drinking since the river took Emmy-Lou
So the Powers That Be left me here to do the thinkin'
And I just turned twenty-two
I was wondering what to do
And the closer they got
The more those feelings grew
Daddy's rifle in my hand felt reassuring
He told me, Red means run, son, numbers add up to nothing
But when the first shot hit the docks I saw it coming
Raised my rifle to my eye
Never stopped to wonder why
Then I saw black
And my face splashed in the sky
Shelter me from the powder and the finger
Cover me with the thought that pulled the trigger
Think of me as one you'd never figured
Would fade away so young
With so much left undone
Remember me to my love
I know I'll miss her
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From the first time I heard this song to 100th time I've always thought the gun backfired in his face killing him.
"Shelter me from the powder and the finger"
I've always thought the powder was the gun powder loaded in the gun. The finger was his own trigger finger. It takes both of those to have caused the mishap. Had he been sheltered from either, or both, the accident would never have happened.
"Cover me with the thought that pulled the trigger"
Upon his burial, as we cover him with dirt he asks that we cover him with the thought that pulled the trigger. The thought he had that caused him to pull the trigger. That thought being of his bravery, courage and his coming into his own in being a man by protecting his mother and homestead. His thought, his intent, was to do what his father, or Uncle John, would have done. Say those words about him at his burial.
btw... I don't know why I referred to "Big John" as "Uncle John". I guess it's because he always reminded me of my own Uncle John who turned to drinking over the loss of a woman.<br /> <br /> It's amazing how Young can tell so much of a story with only a line or two, and how easy it is to to relate to that line or two in one's own life and make it mean something personal.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br />
I think you're bang on. People keep referencing specific wars, or historical events - he's really describing the protagonist's crucial moment in his life, where he passes from boyhood to manhood by being the responsible one and protecting his family from those who, it is quite obvious, wish to do them harm.
Your interpretation was the same as mine. I have since doubted that...... after all bullets were hitting the dock.