Repressed homosexuality? It doesn't have to be that, but it does fit. It wasn't a run-of-the-mill argument that led to the death, because we're told "not a single word was spoken." I'm thinking the childhood friend made some kind of sexual advance, made overt something that had been subtler between them ("We would run and hide"), and it was too much for the narrator, and he lashed out and he's always been guilty.
In the final verse, "I'm not saying if I did or if I didn't"...he's already said he must have pushed the boy to his death, so it isn't that. It would seem to be "I'm not saying if I did or if I didn't [love him] / But like my shame that kind of love [between men] is always hidden."
This was written for Johnny Cash, whose "Folsom Prison Blues"-style recording is excellent.
Repressed homosexuality? It doesn't have to be that, but it does fit. It wasn't a run-of-the-mill argument that led to the death, because we're told "not a single word was spoken." I'm thinking the childhood friend made some kind of sexual advance, made overt something that had been subtler between them ("We would run and hide"), and it was too much for the narrator, and he lashed out and he's always been guilty.
In the final verse, "I'm not saying if I did or if I didn't"...he's already said he must have pushed the boy to his death, so it isn't that. It would seem to be "I'm not saying if I did or if I didn't [love him] / But like my shame that kind of love [between men] is always hidden."
This was written for Johnny Cash, whose "Folsom Prison Blues"-style recording is excellent.