Blue Ridge Mountains

Ok... so I looked through these comments on what this song meant to people, and since I didn't see any comment that resembled what I really think this song means, I decided to create an account and put this up. That being said, I also want to say one more thing... This is simply my opinion, and I do not want to offend anyone or discredit anyone else's interpretation, because I really appreciate everyone else's well thought out points of view. Alright, onto my interpretation...

I think that this song is an allusion to a closeted homosexual encounter. To put it bluntly. I think this song is full of sexual innuendo, and since it is alluding to a relationship between two males, I think I am justified in saying it. I know that many people say that this is supposed to be addressed to the lead singer’s brother Sean, and that is a completely valid point to have. And I am in no way suggesting that this homosexual relationship is incest either, because, like I said, the song does not come right out and say that this is about a gay relationship, and perhaps it is addressed to the brother, but that does not mean that in the back of the writer’s mind that this fraternal brotherly love does not go beyond that and become something more. Saying this, I want to let potential readers and future interpreters know that I would hate to be thought of as someone who could interpret everything as queer, or see every plutonic relationship as somehow gay. I really do think these connotations are there, so please bear with me before you judge me too severely. Let me break it down the way I see it… First stanza, “lie down with me my dear…. Tell nobody.” My Interpretive Meaning: This is a secret love. Third stanza, “let’s drive to the country side / leave behind some green eyed look alikes… so no one gets worried, no.” My Interpretive Meaning: Let’s escape to the country side. I am guessing that the singer is coming up with a fantasy of leaving behind “green eyed look alikes,” so that they could go off and be with each other and so that no one will realize that they are gone. Of course, that is a basic, all encompassing interpretation, but it changes context when you think of it in terms of a romantic relationship. Fourth stanza, “but Sean don’t get careless / I’m sure it’ll be fine.” My Interpretive Meaning: Sean, the person that the singer is singing about / to is having hesitation to doing this, because of the secrecy that must be kept. “I love you… oh brother of mine,” I believe is part of this reassurance to Sean, also demonstrating that despite the secrecy, there is love there. When the singer says “brother,” I do not believe he is speaking literally, but instead he is using it in more of an intimate and fraternal bond. They are more than friends, but because of their secrecy they are not lovers, even if they love each other. Therefore they must take on the more heteronormative masculine relationship label of “brother.” The fifth stanza refers to a snowed in cabin (wooden nest) in the woods. However, my argument does suffer from the literal brother flaw in line three when the singer says “OUR good grandfather.” Saying this though, I like @Troup ‘s interpretation that the place that they are going is something that they do not share as literal brothers, but instead a place that was built for them by someone from a past generation meant for a future generation. Continuing on, this stanza is one that I find the most visual and the most romantic. A snowed in cabin in the woods with our two male figures this song presents us with. “And the yellow moon glowed bright / Till the morning light,” sounds to me like that glowing light could be referring to romantic love that glowed bright all night. Either way, both of these men must have been up all night to realize that the yellow moon glowed bright till the morning light, anyways. The final stanza, “Terrible am I child? Even if you don’t mind / no,” refers to the singer’s feelings of regret. Now, this regret could come in several different forms I think. What I like to believe is that this regret is in regards to the singer asking Sean, who is younger (referred to as a child, but not literally so), if he should feel bad about what has happened. I think that “no” is Sean’s answer, which I think that means that this is a fraternal way of returning the “I love you” to the singer, by saying that this was not something he (Sean) regrets. The second form of regret I believe could be looked at as a sort of rhetorical perspective. The singer is rhetorically asking us if what he did was bad. Even if we don’t mind… meaning even if we don’t mind if he was attracted to this man. And the no is also rhetorical in the sense that the singer is gathering a rhetorical answer from all of us saying “no, it doesn’t/shouldn’t matter.” The third form of regret I believe comes from the perspective that, if we read “terrible am I child” without a question mark, we have a statement that says is the singer admitting he feels like he is terrible, which continues on to “even if you don’t mind,” saying that even if Sean does not mind what has transpired, he still is terrible for what he has done. With the song finishing by saying “no,” we as listeners must think about whether or not this context is the singer answering or stating that “no, actually I’m not terrible,” or if it is Sean saying “no, I don’t mind,” or if it is used in a similar context as in the third stanza in the lines “so no one gets worried, no.” “So no one gets worried, no” is spoken as to say, “we are doing this so no one gets worried, no one will get worried.” In that sense, the last two lines of the final stanza would be “even if you don’t mind what has transpired, no you don’t mind what has transpired.” In this sense, the third interpretation is similar to the first sub interpretation of my third interpretation of the final stanza… Yeah, that last line was a mouthful, hah ha. Soooooo, what do you think? I know there are plenty of interpretations on here already, and I really like some of them, especially the ones that you can tell were done by a person who really took the song to heart and took a good portion of time to write a response. Hopefully who ever reads this finds my interpretation worthwhile, even if you do not agree with it. Thank you for your time!