The Charcter in the song comes out of Jail and starts trying to live the "Straight Life" but is finding it hard. Even Mary, who we can assume is his wife, seems tentative about him:
"Mary's smilin', but she watches me out of the corner of her eye
Seems you can't get any more than half free"
I think it paints a good picture of people who have been locked up for a long time and how hard it is for them to get a job, or even just be trusted in general.
As for what he's doing with the shotgun, ...He uses the hacksaw to saw off the shotgun, drinks some beer and kills himself "Sip of beer and thirteen inches of barrel drop to the floor" - No matter what he does he just can not seem to live the straight life, and everyone, including his wife still judge him on the past.
The last paragraph is used for symbolizm "Can't get the smell from my hands, lay my head down on the pillow and go driftin off in foreign lands" Can't get the smell from my hands means he can't change what hes done, and driftin off in foreign lands can refer to the afterlife.
-Another take could be that he did his time in jail, comes out but just finds it so hard to live "the straight life" (Got a cold mind, to go tripin cross that thin line, i'm sick of doing straight time"
Whatever it was that he did to be in jail for 18years, perhaps killing - he "trips across that thin line" and goes out and kills again, and he can't change what he's done "Can't get the smell from my hands"
The Charcter in the song comes out of Jail and starts trying to live the "Straight Life" but is finding it hard. Even Mary, who we can assume is his wife, seems tentative about him:
"Mary's smilin', but she watches me out of the corner of her eye Seems you can't get any more than half free"
I think it paints a good picture of people who have been locked up for a long time and how hard it is for them to get a job, or even just be trusted in general.
As for what he's doing with the shotgun, ...He uses the hacksaw to saw off the shotgun, drinks some beer and kills himself "Sip of beer and thirteen inches of barrel drop to the floor" - No matter what he does he just can not seem to live the straight life, and everyone, including his wife still judge him on the past.
The last paragraph is used for symbolizm "Can't get the smell from my hands, lay my head down on the pillow and go driftin off in foreign lands" Can't get the smell from my hands means he can't change what hes done, and driftin off in foreign lands can refer to the afterlife.
-Another take could be that he did his time in jail, comes out but just finds it so hard to live "the straight life" (Got a cold mind, to go tripin cross that thin line, i'm sick of doing straight time" Whatever it was that he did to be in jail for 18years, perhaps killing - he "trips across that thin line" and goes out and kills again, and he can't change what he's done "Can't get the smell from my hands"