I always thought this went down like so: The narrator planned a bank robbery with a close friend (stocking face, gun) and thought of himself as just stealing money (a good clean game), not hurting anyone. But shit goes down, his buddy Michael is shot and he's down on the floor freaking out trying to revive him, which obviously fails. The promise might have been "no one gets hurt" or "we split the money" or "we'll go to South America". He either escapes to South America or the robbery was in South America because he drove straight through. "Turn the light off, keep your shirt on" is to me that he's still on the lam and either talking to himself or whoever else was in on the score who escaped. IE, turn the light off so the cops don't see us, and keep your shit together. I wish I understood the William Wright part. I don't know if "I saw him laid to rest" refers to Wright or Michael, but I sort of hope the latter because it makes more sense to me--he sneaks back to go to the funeral but has his plane ticket to get out of town again before he's caught. Great song.
I always thought this went down like so: The narrator planned a bank robbery with a close friend (stocking face, gun) and thought of himself as just stealing money (a good clean game), not hurting anyone. But shit goes down, his buddy Michael is shot and he's down on the floor freaking out trying to revive him, which obviously fails. The promise might have been "no one gets hurt" or "we split the money" or "we'll go to South America". He either escapes to South America or the robbery was in South America because he drove straight through. "Turn the light off, keep your shirt on" is to me that he's still on the lam and either talking to himself or whoever else was in on the score who escaped. IE, turn the light off so the cops don't see us, and keep your shit together. I wish I understood the William Wright part. I don't know if "I saw him laid to rest" refers to Wright or Michael, but I sort of hope the latter because it makes more sense to me--he sneaks back to go to the funeral but has his plane ticket to get out of town again before he's caught. Great song.