"oh lordy, trouble so hard,
don't nobody know my troubles but God"
The expression "only God knows" means nobody knows. Nobody is inside his skin, so nobody knows how much it hurts him. Nobody truly knows what's been through, except for him... and the God, if you will, he's crying out to... and maybe the listener, if he can successfully empathize. For me, it's about the loneliness of suffering, and the suffering of loneliness.
I like the contrast between "stayed all day" and "didn't stay long". To find your brother dead, metaphorically or literally, is a powerful image for troubles nobody can really understand without experiencing them and surviving the experience with the memory intact.
Living in a mad swing between panic attacks and bouts of depression, that's how I see what the guy is talking about.
"oh lordy, trouble so hard, don't nobody know my troubles but God"
The expression "only God knows" means nobody knows. Nobody is inside his skin, so nobody knows how much it hurts him. Nobody truly knows what's been through, except for him... and the God, if you will, he's crying out to... and maybe the listener, if he can successfully empathize. For me, it's about the loneliness of suffering, and the suffering of loneliness.
I like the contrast between "stayed all day" and "didn't stay long". To find your brother dead, metaphorically or literally, is a powerful image for troubles nobody can really understand without experiencing them and surviving the experience with the memory intact.
Living in a mad swing between panic attacks and bouts of depression, that's how I see what the guy is talking about.