Lyric discussion by MorningStar 

Cover art for Jolene lyrics by Cake

Umm i'll have to just take a wild stab in the dark here, but i have always thought of jolene as someone that the speaker has wanted to save from the tiediousnous (spelling?) of her life. "like she has done 100 times before"

He wants to save her image as she is now, throw you out into space, cast your face in lead, those lines show that he wants to save her, as innocent, as taken care of.

But this is an off the cuff interpretation. So i am welcome to any other thoughts or views.