First off, freakin' incredible song! The version I listen to is Europe '72, and nuts to you if you have a problem with that. Go get it.
There are three entities singing this song to you. The first is the narrator (we can share... catch the detroit lightening... leaving Texas...), the second is Jack Straw, aka Shannon. Disclaimer: this is my badass opinion, nothing more. The third is the innocent whose eyes are hurt and ears are burned ominously at the beginning of the song, and who is murdered at the end. The narrator is Phil and Jerry singing in harmony. Jack Straw is sung by Jerry. The innocent is sung by Phil.
The song is more or less self explanatory. Jack Straw, the murderer and consummate criminal has an alias as Shannon. He's a drifter with no past and no prospects making it day to day. The innocent is too naive or too much the victim to realize with whom he has taken up company. Inevitably, he gets burned by this.
This is the only song I am aware of that has a narrator, dialogue, foreshadowing, and tragedy.
F**k all that though. The song is laden with complex chord progressions and vocal harmonies. That is all trumped by the song's climax in the guitar solo before the "Jack Straw from Wichita cuts his buddy down" business. The guitar weeps and wails as he cuts his buddy down. It ascends as dirt is shoveled from the grave. And it sounds a low note as the body is laid down. It is sheer brilliance. Art in one of its highest, most distilled forms.
First off, freakin' incredible song! The version I listen to is Europe '72, and nuts to you if you have a problem with that. Go get it.
There are three entities singing this song to you. The first is the narrator (we can share... catch the detroit lightening... leaving Texas...), the second is Jack Straw, aka Shannon. Disclaimer: this is my badass opinion, nothing more. The third is the innocent whose eyes are hurt and ears are burned ominously at the beginning of the song, and who is murdered at the end. The narrator is Phil and Jerry singing in harmony. Jack Straw is sung by Jerry. The innocent is sung by Phil.
The song is more or less self explanatory. Jack Straw, the murderer and consummate criminal has an alias as Shannon. He's a drifter with no past and no prospects making it day to day. The innocent is too naive or too much the victim to realize with whom he has taken up company. Inevitably, he gets burned by this.
This is the only song I am aware of that has a narrator, dialogue, foreshadowing, and tragedy.
F**k all that though. The song is laden with complex chord progressions and vocal harmonies. That is all trumped by the song's climax in the guitar solo before the "Jack Straw from Wichita cuts his buddy down" business. The guitar weeps and wails as he cuts his buddy down. It ascends as dirt is shoveled from the grave. And it sounds a low note as the body is laid down. It is sheer brilliance. Art in one of its highest, most distilled forms.