This about a young couple. The girl, May, gets pregnant and when the boy doesn't step up she gives up on him and gets an abortion. The boy, who is the narrator, is hard on both of them. First her: "You live with all your faults", "Did you love the life you killed?" and then himself: "Don't supposed I'll ever know what it means to be a man. Somethin' I can't change, I'll live around it". He regrets not dealing with the situation, leaving her to make a decision on her own, a decision that alienates her family and her church. He knows he'll never be able to make up for his abandonment of pregnant May. This will affect the rest of his life and his sense of manhood. However, he still desperately loves May and wants to do anything that will make her feel complete now: marriage or just going off together. He asks nothing of her, as he's been such a disappointment already, he just "wants to wake up where you are", and will never reproach her for the abortion as he knows he was equally responsible: "I won't say anything at all".
I love this song (maybe mostly the singer), but I have my doubts about the boy. He loves May, but he found a pregnancy too much to deal with. Is he just as happy now that she's not pregnant? Would he act the same again if he had it to do over? Let someone else make your hard decisions? He sounds selfish.
PS I know a few couples who ended early pregnancies because of timing issues. None of them stayed together, even after having other children, but then most couples don't last anyway, do they?
PPS I get exhausted with people trying disappear the abortion at the center of this song. It happens. I don't know if this is Johnny's history. I don't blame him for saying May "considered" abortion on "Storytellers". What's he suppose to say in this country? And May did consider it and then acted on it. Scheesh!
in no way does this song even hint that he ran away from her pregnancy or didnt / wasnt there for her at all.....it only speaks of how SHE DISTANCED herself from him and everyone else....from the first line on.... ( could you whisper in my ear, the things you wanna feel) , she wont talk to him
in no way does this song even hint that he ran away from her pregnancy or didnt / wasnt there for her at all.....it only speaks of how SHE DISTANCED herself from him and everyone else....from the first line on.... ( could you whisper in my ear, the things you wanna feel) , she wont talk to him
This about a young couple. The girl, May, gets pregnant and when the boy doesn't step up she gives up on him and gets an abortion. The boy, who is the narrator, is hard on both of them. First her: "You live with all your faults", "Did you love the life you killed?" and then himself: "Don't supposed I'll ever know what it means to be a man. Somethin' I can't change, I'll live around it". He regrets not dealing with the situation, leaving her to make a decision on her own, a decision that alienates her family and her church. He knows he'll never be able to make up for his abandonment of pregnant May. This will affect the rest of his life and his sense of manhood. However, he still desperately loves May and wants to do anything that will make her feel complete now: marriage or just going off together. He asks nothing of her, as he's been such a disappointment already, he just "wants to wake up where you are", and will never reproach her for the abortion as he knows he was equally responsible: "I won't say anything at all".
I love this song (maybe mostly the singer), but I have my doubts about the boy. He loves May, but he found a pregnancy too much to deal with. Is he just as happy now that she's not pregnant? Would he act the same again if he had it to do over? Let someone else make your hard decisions? He sounds selfish.
PS I know a few couples who ended early pregnancies because of timing issues. None of them stayed together, even after having other children, but then most couples don't last anyway, do they?
PPS I get exhausted with people trying disappear the abortion at the center of this song. It happens. I don't know if this is Johnny's history. I don't blame him for saying May "considered" abortion on "Storytellers". What's he suppose to say in this country? And May did consider it and then acted on it. Scheesh!
in no way does this song even hint that he ran away from her pregnancy or didnt / wasnt there for her at all.....it only speaks of how SHE DISTANCED herself from him and everyone else....from the first line on.... ( could you whisper in my ear, the things you wanna feel) , she wont talk to him
in no way does this song even hint that he ran away from her pregnancy or didnt / wasnt there for her at all.....it only speaks of how SHE DISTANCED herself from him and everyone else....from the first line on.... ( could you whisper in my ear, the things you wanna feel) , she wont talk to him