I get the sense that the narrator is talking to a friend rather than a son... only because of the tone and other small things like the way he says "my mother," rather than "your grandmother."
I think the friend has gotten in over his head in some kind of situation... I'm not sure that it's a relationship, it actually seems to be more like he's gotten himself into a social circle that may easily turn on him. ("Handshakes all around"... lots of references to "they" and "them" betraying him.) The narrator evidently thinks Phillip is being a bit naive and failing to see that they've "already traced a line across his throat" and are waiting outside his door with "sharpened knives."
I also get the impression that the narrator's warning comes after Phillip has slighted him in some way... perhaps he's excluded the narrator from this potentially treacherous social circle. I get this mostly from the line "no matter what someone did"... which is followed by the story of his mother reminding him to remember the innocence in people. He then ends that story by saying, "so I thought that I would." This seems to me to be the whole reason for the warning, and for the song's existence. That rather than just being mad at Phillip, he tries to remember that everyone has this innate innocence, which you should try to help protect even when they don't particularly deserve it.
I get the sense that the narrator is talking to a friend rather than a son... only because of the tone and other small things like the way he says "my mother," rather than "your grandmother."
I think the friend has gotten in over his head in some kind of situation... I'm not sure that it's a relationship, it actually seems to be more like he's gotten himself into a social circle that may easily turn on him. ("Handshakes all around"... lots of references to "they" and "them" betraying him.) The narrator evidently thinks Phillip is being a bit naive and failing to see that they've "already traced a line across his throat" and are waiting outside his door with "sharpened knives."
I also get the impression that the narrator's warning comes after Phillip has slighted him in some way... perhaps he's excluded the narrator from this potentially treacherous social circle. I get this mostly from the line "no matter what someone did"... which is followed by the story of his mother reminding him to remember the innocence in people. He then ends that story by saying, "so I thought that I would." This seems to me to be the whole reason for the warning, and for the song's existence. That rather than just being mad at Phillip, he tries to remember that everyone has this innate innocence, which you should try to help protect even when they don't particularly deserve it.