In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
He was on his way from Candletop
Been two weeks gone and he thought he'd stop
At Web's and have him a drink 'for he went home to her
Andy Wo-Lo said hello
He said "He what's a doing"
Wo said "Sit down I got some bad news that's gonna hurt"
Said I'm your best friend and you know that's right
But your young bride ain't home tonight
Since you been gone she's been seeing that Amos boy Seth
He got mad and he saw red
Andy said boy don't you lose your head
Cause to tell you the truth I've been with her myself
Chorus:
That's the night that the lights went out in Georgia
That's the night that they hung an innocent man
Don't trust your soul to no back woods Southern lawyer
Cause the judge in the town's got bloodstain's on his hand
Andy got scared and left the bar
Walking on home cause he didn't live far you see
Andy didn't have many friends and he just lost him one
Brother thought his wife must've left town
So he went home and finally found the only thing
Daddy had left him and that was a gun
He went off to Andy's house
Slipping through the back woods quiet as a mouse
Came upon some tracks too small for Andy to make
He looked through the screen at the back porch door
He saw Andy lying on the floor
In a puddle of blood and started to shake
The Georgia patrol was making their rounds
So he fired a shot just to flag em down
And a big bellied sheriff grabbed his gun and said
"Why'd you do it?"
The judge said guilty on a make believe trial
Slapped the sherriff on the back with a smile
and said "Supper's waiting at home and I gotta get to it"
Chorus
They hung my brother before I could say
The tracks he saw while on his way
To Andy's house and back that night were mine
And his cheatin wife had never left town
And that's one body that'll never be found
You see litter sister don't miss when she aims her gun
Been two weeks gone and he thought he'd stop
At Web's and have him a drink 'for he went home to her
Andy Wo-Lo said hello
He said "He what's a doing"
Wo said "Sit down I got some bad news that's gonna hurt"
Said I'm your best friend and you know that's right
But your young bride ain't home tonight
Since you been gone she's been seeing that Amos boy Seth
He got mad and he saw red
Andy said boy don't you lose your head
Cause to tell you the truth I've been with her myself
Chorus:
That's the night that the lights went out in Georgia
That's the night that they hung an innocent man
Don't trust your soul to no back woods Southern lawyer
Cause the judge in the town's got bloodstain's on his hand
Andy got scared and left the bar
Walking on home cause he didn't live far you see
Andy didn't have many friends and he just lost him one
Brother thought his wife must've left town
So he went home and finally found the only thing
Daddy had left him and that was a gun
He went off to Andy's house
Slipping through the back woods quiet as a mouse
Came upon some tracks too small for Andy to make
He looked through the screen at the back porch door
He saw Andy lying on the floor
In a puddle of blood and started to shake
The Georgia patrol was making their rounds
So he fired a shot just to flag em down
And a big bellied sheriff grabbed his gun and said
"Why'd you do it?"
The judge said guilty on a make believe trial
Slapped the sherriff on the back with a smile
and said "Supper's waiting at home and I gotta get to it"
Chorus
They hung my brother before I could say
The tracks he saw while on his way
To Andy's house and back that night were mine
And his cheatin wife had never left town
And that's one body that'll never be found
You see litter sister don't miss when she aims her gun
Lyrics submitted by sleazye
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This is about the song's lyrics as well as Reba's video version. The sister's story is full of inconsistencies. 1)murder trial's even back then were allways a trial by jury so the judge could not hand down a guilty verdict prejudice or no prejudice because of his relationship with Raymond's wife. In Reba's version in the video the sister confesses to be the killer and that Raymond pleadeed guilty. If his plea was in fact a guilty one then in front of a jury he would have had to plead guilty and then the judge, if he accepts it, would tell the jury to deliver a verdict of guilty, and the 'backwoods southern lawyer' could not be called incompetent for allowing his client to plead guilty if he refused advice to plead not guilty. 2) After leaving the bar after Raymond Andy would have had to reach home meet and have sex with Raymond's wife, the sister would have then found them together, shot and killed them and get rid of the body and then come back to finish the job, all in the time it would take Raymond who left the bar first to get home, get a gun and take a short cut to Andy's house. how plausibile is this especially since Andy obviously knows that Raymond knows about the affair. 3) how do they even know that the wife is dead since in the song and the video the sister admits to killing her and getting rid of the body which no one has found. Raymond assumed that she left town, he does not even know that she is dead, so how could the judge's relationship with the wife affect his judicial decision when the only victim they have is Andy who never even mentions that the judge was also sleeping with the wife, I doubt the judge is Sam Amos. 4) Raymond plead guilty to save his sister so he knew that she was the one who made the foot prints (this is where the video differed from the lyrics, but to say she did not have time to tell Raymond that they were her foot prints they would not have allowed her to see him at any time after he was arrested.) Ther was absolutely nothing stopping her from confessing to the murders in the video since he would not be convicted immediately upon arrest. And what does trusting the lawyer have to do with the judge being guilty of adultery, there is no mention that the lawyer even did anything wrong. She should blame the hanging death of her innocent brother where it belongs, and that is upon herself, she was the only criminally guilty party and did absolutely nothing to prevent her brother's death. That is just my take on the song. Any comment on my comment is welcomed whether good or bad. P.S. Andy left the bar feeling so scared for himself because of what he told Raymond yet still went home to put some loving on the wife, get real.