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Mother Lyrics
They killed a man for doing wrong today
When all he ever did in life was look the other way
And with his verdict someone heard him pray
The crowd gathered round to see the look on his face
Will they ever know the last words he spoke?
He cried, "Mother!" as the people stood and stared
He cried, "Mother!" but no one seemed to care
Barely 25 years to his name
Only the good die young is too hard to say
With a wife and child living back at home
Far from here where he dies all alone
Will they ever know the last words he spoke?
He cried, "Mother!"
Ask the people who were there
When he cried, "Mother!" it sounded like a prayer
They killed a man for doing wrong today
When all he ever did in life was look the other way
And with his verdict someone heard him pray
The crowd gathered round to see the look on his face
He cried, "Mother!" as the people stood and stared
He cried, "Mother!" but no one seemed to care
Only the good die young is too hard to say
With a wife and child living back at home
Far from here where he dies all alone
He cried, "Mother!"
Ask the people who were there
When he cried, "Mother!" it sounded like a prayer
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This song's meaning is pretty obvious and Jack Savoretti is very good at this.
This song is merely about a young man who was a father and husband who may have been blamed/committed for/a crime."They killed a man for doing wrong today"
"Will they ever know the last words he spoke? He cried, "Mother!" as the people stood and stared He cried, "Mother!" but no one seemed to care" - This quote suggests that the time set was before the 20th century when Public Executions existed and people came to watch.
This song is one of the most saddest song's in Jack Savoretti's 'Harder Than Easy' Album.
I take from it that he's either in one of the middle Eastern countries where they still hold public executions and he's inadvertently broken one of their laws whilst working away from home or he's a soldier from a past war, captured and executed publicly.
'they killed a man for doing wrong today', 'far from home where he dies all alone' and 'only the good die young' suggest he is innocently caught up in something that makes him culpable to others.
I'd love to know what Jack Savoretti's reasoning was behind this song.