I find it difficult NOT to hear this song as related to the song that immediately precedes it on the record - "Sides." That song (Sides) presents us with the story of a young man struggling to come to terms with his own sexuality in a world in which (at least some) people hate him for who he is. He is suicidal. He turns to a pastor and a church who initially say "I'm on your side" and "We're on your side" only to show him the door when they learn that his sexuality is something they deem sinful. The song closes with the narrator saying "There's still something I half believe, that's why I'm leaving this world behind me. See my sexuality don't have nothing to do with my integrity. When I get into that land, I'll lead with the one who wears the crown." It's not clear whether the world the singer is leaving behind is this mortal incarnation (as in, he's preparing to take his own life) or (more likely, I think) the world of organized religion, which conflates his sexuality with his integrity (and morality).
Sides is immediately followed on the record by Ring Out, which doesn't feel like a meaningless coincidence. It's placement on the record colors my view of Ring Out, which (to me) feels like a continuation of Vernon's examination of his own struggle with his personal relationship with "JC" on the one hand (good?) with the damage that the purportedly faithful do in JC's name (definitely bad) to those (specifically, LGBTQ people in the context of "Sides") who don't conform to their views.
Ring Out is lyrically sparse, so it's difficult to determine exactly what's happening with Vernon's personal struggle. The first few verses seem to set up that struggle - in the first verse a "tough guy's running his mouth" and Vernon is "getting in the way" That language feels to me like Vernon is listening to someone preaching an incorrect, intractable version of what he personally thinks JC was all about. When he says he is getting in the way, he's either pushing back or, more literally, just standing in the path of the preacher's saliva-spewing invective; he is being lectured and it's not sounding true. The second verse feels to me like Vernon's inner monologue - he's telling himself, wait a minute...you know better than this. You are free to shine the your own proverbial light - you don't have to believe all of this. And that's what's tough - holding/owning all the things about his religion that he used to buy into - maybe some of the same things the preacher is yelling about that feel just wrong to him now. But since JC is always willing to give him another chance, he'll "ring out" his own, kinder understanding.
But he's still at a crossroads with all of it. I don't hear "Somewhere deep inside the coat" -- instead, I hear "Somewhere deep inside Dakota, I am weathering. Wishing somehow you were near, 'cause I am withering alone." This feels like a description of what it feels like to have disconnected himself from whatever faith community he used to be a part of. He's isolated in a desolate place, weathering and withering. He wishes he could figure out how to find some spiritual sustenance - how to be closer to JC now that he's away from that old faith community.
And then he meets someone - maybe a brief encounter with a stranger, maybe a lover, but someone who seems to him to embody every good thing he needs. Someone who shows him the face of his god. Someone who helps him understand something important that he hasn't been quite able to see either in his faith community or his personal relationship with his god. And it's tough to hold onto that "grace" because it involves taking a hard look at things you once believed that don't feel like truth anymore. But he is trying like hell - he is wringing this person out (trying to take in absolutely all of the good things they have to teach him) and ringing them out (trying to pass on the new understanding that feels so crucial to him).
I find it difficult NOT to hear this song as related to the song that immediately precedes it on the record - "Sides." That song (Sides) presents us with the story of a young man struggling to come to terms with his own sexuality in a world in which (at least some) people hate him for who he is. He is suicidal. He turns to a pastor and a church who initially say "I'm on your side" and "We're on your side" only to show him the door when they learn that his sexuality is something they deem sinful. The song closes with the narrator saying "There's still something I half believe, that's why I'm leaving this world behind me. See my sexuality don't have nothing to do with my integrity. When I get into that land, I'll lead with the one who wears the crown." It's not clear whether the world the singer is leaving behind is this mortal incarnation (as in, he's preparing to take his own life) or (more likely, I think) the world of organized religion, which conflates his sexuality with his integrity (and morality).
Sides is immediately followed on the record by Ring Out, which doesn't feel like a meaningless coincidence. It's placement on the record colors my view of Ring Out, which (to me) feels like a continuation of Vernon's examination of his own struggle with his personal relationship with "JC" on the one hand (good?) with the damage that the purportedly faithful do in JC's name (definitely bad) to those (specifically, LGBTQ people in the context of "Sides") who don't conform to their views.
Ring Out is lyrically sparse, so it's difficult to determine exactly what's happening with Vernon's personal struggle. The first few verses seem to set up that struggle - in the first verse a "tough guy's running his mouth" and Vernon is "getting in the way" That language feels to me like Vernon is listening to someone preaching an incorrect, intractable version of what he personally thinks JC was all about. When he says he is getting in the way, he's either pushing back or, more literally, just standing in the path of the preacher's saliva-spewing invective; he is being lectured and it's not sounding true. The second verse feels to me like Vernon's inner monologue - he's telling himself, wait a minute...you know better than this. You are free to shine the your own proverbial light - you don't have to believe all of this. And that's what's tough - holding/owning all the things about his religion that he used to buy into - maybe some of the same things the preacher is yelling about that feel just wrong to him now. But since JC is always willing to give him another chance, he'll "ring out" his own, kinder understanding.
But he's still at a crossroads with all of it. I don't hear "Somewhere deep inside the coat" -- instead, I hear "Somewhere deep inside Dakota, I am weathering. Wishing somehow you were near, 'cause I am withering alone." This feels like a description of what it feels like to have disconnected himself from whatever faith community he used to be a part of. He's isolated in a desolate place, weathering and withering. He wishes he could figure out how to find some spiritual sustenance - how to be closer to JC now that he's away from that old faith community.
And then he meets someone - maybe a brief encounter with a stranger, maybe a lover, but someone who seems to him to embody every good thing he needs. Someone who shows him the face of his god. Someone who helps him understand something important that he hasn't been quite able to see either in his faith community or his personal relationship with his god. And it's tough to hold onto that "grace" because it involves taking a hard look at things you once believed that don't feel like truth anymore. But he is trying like hell - he is wringing this person out (trying to take in absolutely all of the good things they have to teach him) and ringing them out (trying to pass on the new understanding that feels so crucial to him).