I love this song. In his Bonzo days, I think Neil wrestled with a seemingly insurmountable sense of life's absurdity, such that... even though he certainly has a font of good will, he seemed to have trouble saying something warm, wise, meaningful, and connecting.
Well, here he weds that absurdity with a very deep, very profound wisdom.
This is a song about forgiveness and grace. It's a very, very clever little sermon about what it really means to "take the Lord's name in vain". He's saying that it's not the words; it's the attitude. It's the fact that cursing something or somewhat is a failure of the heart. And--true to the form he just prescribed--he doesn't turn around and cuss right back at the cusser; he doesn't want to join the cusser in his/her pit. He cleverly, sweetly, suggests that we can leave ol' Godfrey Daniel in peace, so he can go back to Ohio... or wherever he "belong".
He throws a couple of other bits o' wisdom into the mix: The swearing fealty to folk wisdom ("...bird in the hand...") is his way of alluding to the idea that wisdom is where you find it; not where you're supposed to find it.
And he seems to be closing with a Lennonesque resort to lewdness; like the "finger pie" in Penny Lane. It's (among other things, I suppose) a way of injecting a "disconnect" into the song. So as to avoid the accusation that he's being holier-than-thou.
One of my fave songs of all time. I can sing it and play it on guitar!
I love this song. In his Bonzo days, I think Neil wrestled with a seemingly insurmountable sense of life's absurdity, such that... even though he certainly has a font of good will, he seemed to have trouble saying something warm, wise, meaningful, and connecting.
Well, here he weds that absurdity with a very deep, very profound wisdom.
This is a song about forgiveness and grace. It's a very, very clever little sermon about what it really means to "take the Lord's name in vain". He's saying that it's not the words; it's the attitude. It's the fact that cursing something or somewhat is a failure of the heart. And--true to the form he just prescribed--he doesn't turn around and cuss right back at the cusser; he doesn't want to join the cusser in his/her pit. He cleverly, sweetly, suggests that we can leave ol' Godfrey Daniel in peace, so he can go back to Ohio... or wherever he "belong".
He throws a couple of other bits o' wisdom into the mix: The swearing fealty to folk wisdom ("...bird in the hand...") is his way of alluding to the idea that wisdom is where you find it; not where you're supposed to find it.
And he seems to be closing with a Lennonesque resort to lewdness; like the "finger pie" in Penny Lane. It's (among other things, I suppose) a way of injecting a "disconnect" into the song. So as to avoid the accusation that he's being holier-than-thou.
One of my fave songs of all time. I can sing it and play it on guitar!