"Carolina Rain" as written by and Ryan Adams....
Rose lived on the south side of town
Until her landlord showed up with two hundred dollar bills
A notice of eviction on the other hand
Now she don't live there no more
And everyone thinks he drowned
I pulled into Mecklenburg on them trains
Into a station that got flooded when they opened up the dam
And broke their connections to the railway lines
So they could blast into the quarry
And for every load of granite
We got a ton of worry
One night at the diner over eggs
Over easy she showed me the length of her legs
But that gold plated cross on her neck, it was real
And you don't get that kind of money from pushing meal
I should've told him that you were the one for me
But I lied, but I lied
To most any drifter whose looking for work is too weird
I met your sister and I married her in July
But if only to be closer to you, Caroline
Percy and I moved down the street
Until we lost two pretty girls
One was seven and one was three
Alderman and Caroline owned the house right up the hill
Where we laid those babies down
So they could still see our house
Suspicion got the best of old Alderman Haint
He owned an auto parts store off the interstate
But the lord took him home in July
And then Rose spilled the beans on the day that he died
We was in trouble
I should've told him that you were the one for me
But I lied, but I lied
Tied up to concrete at the bottom of the quarry
With a tattoo on his heart that spelled out "Caroline"
He was silent but his rosary
Well, it drifted into the custody
Of a sheriff that was just deputized
And I was down at the banquet hall
When two guys came up, pretty angry and drunk
And I'm still here at the banquet hall
At the banquet hall
Where the gun went off in the Carolina rain
In the Carolina rain
In the Carolina rain
Oh, Caroline
Until her landlord showed up with two hundred dollar bills
A notice of eviction on the other hand
Now she don't live there no more
And everyone thinks he drowned
I pulled into Mecklenburg on them trains
Into a station that got flooded when they opened up the dam
And broke their connections to the railway lines
So they could blast into the quarry
And for every load of granite
We got a ton of worry
One night at the diner over eggs
Over easy she showed me the length of her legs
But that gold plated cross on her neck, it was real
And you don't get that kind of money from pushing meal
I should've told him that you were the one for me
But I lied, but I lied
To most any drifter whose looking for work is too weird
I met your sister and I married her in July
But if only to be closer to you, Caroline
Percy and I moved down the street
Until we lost two pretty girls
One was seven and one was three
Alderman and Caroline owned the house right up the hill
Where we laid those babies down
So they could still see our house
Suspicion got the best of old Alderman Haint
He owned an auto parts store off the interstate
But the lord took him home in July
And then Rose spilled the beans on the day that he died
We was in trouble
I should've told him that you were the one for me
But I lied, but I lied
Tied up to concrete at the bottom of the quarry
With a tattoo on his heart that spelled out "Caroline"
He was silent but his rosary
Well, it drifted into the custody
Of a sheriff that was just deputized
And I was down at the banquet hall
When two guys came up, pretty angry and drunk
And I'm still here at the banquet hall
At the banquet hall
Where the gun went off in the Carolina rain
In the Carolina rain
In the Carolina rain
Oh, Caroline
Lyrics submitted by BlueAndStarry
"Carolina Rain" as written by Ryan Adams
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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But if only to be closer to you, Caroline"
favourite part.
The narrator is involved with Rose at the beginning of the song, and he helps her kill her landlord as revenge because he evicted her and is possibly bribing her? The landlord's body is dumped in the quarry which is why they "got a ton of worry" with every "load of granite." The narrator then meets Caroline at the diner and falls in love, but she's with rich guy Alderman Haint. Percy (Caroline's sister)and the narrator obviously get married and experience a great tragedy (two pretty girls) that seems unrelated as far as I can tell, but maybe is included to show the passage of time? Alderman becomes suspicious of the narrator's desire for Caroline, so the narrator kills him and dumps his body in the quarry. Rose knows the narrator is dangerous and has a motive for killing her since she knows about how he killed the landlord. She might even think he killed his daughters. How did they die? I don't know. Rose spills the beans to protect herself. Alderman's rosary eventually "drifts into custody" of the novice sheriff. Novice sheriff isn't trusted to carry out adequate justice which is why the two angry, drunk men kill the narrator at the banquet hall. They might even think he killed his daughters.
Rose seems more like a "busy body" who probably knew too much about the nattor's involvement with Caroline. I think the line about "a ton of worry" just means the town grew fearful of the damage caused by the quarrey dig.
Now...there does seem to be at some point in the tale where Rose, Caroline and the narrator got entangled with some mess involving Aldermann - this part is extremely ambigious, but essentially Rose got spooked and narc'd on the narrator and/or Caroline.
The narrator definitely gets shot at the end of this tale, and as bluetangled mentioned I'm fairly certain his spirit is still lingering 'round the banquet hall', and there's an interesting lyrical homophone parallel happening between "Carolina Rain" and "Oh Caroline" which leads me to believe Caroline is shedding tears for her lost love.
Over the past couple months I stumbled across this tune thanks to Grooveshark, and have to say that not only is the songwriting musically poignant, but the story is so deep that it gives you a lot to sink your teeth into. Only further solidifying Adams's genius, in my mind.
I kinda wish he wrote more work like this, as it's brilliant.
Rose is down on her luck, and about to be evicted. Her landlord "shows up with two hundred dollar bills", so she knows he has cash, and she enlists the help of a "drifter who's looking for work" (the narrator), to travel by train to Mecklenburg and help her kill the landlord and dump his body in the quarry, splitting the cash down the middle.
The narrator would have left town by train afterward, but the station "got flooded when they opened up the dam". So he is stuck, and anxiously awaits its reopening, because "for every load of granite, we got a ton of worry", fearing that the body of the landlord would be discovered.
During this waiting period, the narrator falls in love with a woman in town named Caroline who works in a diner. He knows that she is taken by another man, because "that gold plated cross on her neck, it was real, and you don't get that kind of money from pushing meal". Whether or not he discloses his feelings to her is ambiguous. The lyrics quoted here are "I should've told him that you were the one for me", but i have also heard Ryan sing it as "I should've told her that she was the one for me". Either way, he makes the decision to stay in Mecklenburg because he is in love with Caroline.
Caroline marries the man who gave her the gold cross, Alderman Haint. The narrator marries Caroline's sister, Percy, in order to stay close to her. The narrator then settles down in Mecklenburg for a number of years, during which time he suffers a great deal, because not only is he forced to conceal his feelings for his wife's sister, but also fathers two children who both die before the age of 7.
So the narrator has concealed 2 secrets during the 7 years he has known Alderman Haint, one being the murder of Rose's landlord, the other being his affection for Haint's wife Caroline. At some point after the deaths of the children, "Suspicion got the best of old Alderman Haint". Which of the 2 secrets Haint uncovered remains ambiguous, but the narrator decides to murder Haint and dump his body in the quarry.
"He was silent but his rosary well, it drifted into the custody of a sheriff that was just deputized". Haint's body remains undiscovered, but his rosary becomes dislodged from his body and floats to the surface of the quarry, coming into the possession of an inexperienced sheriff. It is clear that Haint has been murdered, but the sheriff is thus far unable to pin the murder on the narrator, since the narrator is never taken into custody but is still "down at the banquet hall". Nevertheless, evidence is now in play, and the narrator is now quite nervous.
Rose, who has apparently remained in Mecklenburg as well, "spilled the beans on the day that he died", which means she knows about the murder of Haint almost immediately, presumably because the narrator confides his offense to her. Rose decides to turn on the narrator, her former partner in crime. She sees his desperation and feels threatened, because if the novice sheriff is able to figure out that the narrator is the murderer and arrest him, the narrator might confess to the original landlord murder as well, implicating her in the process. Preferring that the narrator die before he has a chance to blow her cover, she discloses to the townsfolk that the narrator is the culprit, and vigilante justice is carried out in the banquet hall by some angry drunken locals, "where the gun went off".
this is one of my top 3 from "29"