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The Man Who Would Speak True Lyrics
I had lover her name was Grace
She found me down in a lonely place
She dug me out with an old jaw bone
She dressed me up for to take me home
She fed me words that I could not taste
For I had no tongue it had been replaced
By a green and growing flower which grew
And I knew if I ever spoke I would speak true
We lived together in an old hotel
A broke down palace with a wishing well
The neighbor girl taught me how to spell
And how to steal what I could not sell
But I fed my tongue on the Devil's rum
In a roadhouse run by godless bum
On a drunken night with a stolen gun
I shot my lover as she made to run
The judge said "son, what've ya done?"
But I didn't speak a word, no I didn't speak one
And the judge sent me away
And they buried my Grace, yeah the very next day
They sent me out on a midnight train
In the rain rolling down through the dusty plain
Four men sitting with an old shotgun
Silver stars pinned on every one
They busted my mouth for to get at my tongue
To see just how this had all begun
So I opened my mouth like a dragon's breath
I only spoke truth but it only brought death
And I laid those boys to rest
For the truth, in truth, is a terrible jest
For there ain't no road but the road to home
There ain't no crops but the ones you've sown
And if you learn one thing from me
You better guide your tongue like your enemy
I came to ground in a one horse town
On the western rim where the sun go down
Where a branded man might start again
For to right his wrong for to lose his sin
But my tongue kept growing it would not cease
I grew quite weary couldn't get no release
So I went to the magistrate to turn myself in
Picked up a shovel and he made the grin
And they planted me by the sea
Now the birds of the air make nests on me
She found me down in a lonely place
She dug me out with an old jaw bone
She dressed me up for to take me home
She fed me words that I could not taste
For I had no tongue it had been replaced
By a green and growing flower which grew
And I knew if I ever spoke I would speak true
A broke down palace with a wishing well
The neighbor girl taught me how to spell
And how to steal what I could not sell
But I fed my tongue on the Devil's rum
In a roadhouse run by godless bum
On a drunken night with a stolen gun
I shot my lover as she made to run
The judge said "son, what've ya done?"
But I didn't speak a word, no I didn't speak one
And the judge sent me away
And they buried my Grace, yeah the very next day
In the rain rolling down through the dusty plain
Four men sitting with an old shotgun
Silver stars pinned on every one
They busted my mouth for to get at my tongue
To see just how this had all begun
So I opened my mouth like a dragon's breath
I only spoke truth but it only brought death
And I laid those boys to rest
For the truth, in truth, is a terrible jest
There ain't no crops but the ones you've sown
And if you learn one thing from me
You better guide your tongue like your enemy
On the western rim where the sun go down
Where a branded man might start again
For to right his wrong for to lose his sin
But my tongue kept growing it would not cease
I grew quite weary couldn't get no release
So I went to the magistrate to turn myself in
Picked up a shovel and he made the grin
And they planted me by the sea
Now the birds of the air make nests on me
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I follow the storyline, but I feel like there is some additional symbolism for the tongue that I'm missing. What does it mean when his tongue is replaced by a green and growing flower? What exactly happened to the police men escorting him by train, that he apparently killed? And there's got to be some meaning behind his lover digging him out with a jaw bone.
Perhaps the first stanza really belongs at the end. The "lonely place" is his grave, and the jawbone is what is left of his mouth after he is executed. (Thus the flower growing from his decaying remains.) Perhaps that is why he warns about "guiding the tongue." He was silent before the judge, somehow said something the free himself on the train, and was a free man after that. It was when he couldn't guide his tongue any more that he met his fate, and was "planted by the sea" by the authorities.
Perhaps the first stanza really belongs at the end. The "lonely place" is his grave, and the jawbone is what is left of his mouth after he is executed. (Thus the flower growing from his decaying remains.) Perhaps that is why he warns about "guiding the tongue." He was silent before the judge, somehow said something the free himself on the train, and was a free man after that. It was when he couldn't guide his tongue any more that he met his fate, and was "planted by the sea" by the authorities.
In...
In which case, the name of his lover (Grace) must have two meanings. The Grace he killed couldn't have dug up the flower that sprung from his corpse, so maybe he is referring to more a spiritual grace in the first stanza - followed by an account of how his tongue got him into trouble when he confessed to killing the woman Grace.
I still think there's more that I'm missing.
I am pretty sure the line:
You better guide your tongue like your enemy
should be:
You better guard your tongue like your enemy