Came across the album "Highways and Heartaches" by Hammertowne couple of days ago . One of the songs from the album particularly caught my attention, while I was looking through the lyrics. The song is called "Carolina Waits" and tells us a story about a man, who has a farm and a loved one in the foothills of Carolina but has to move to another state of West Virginia to work in a coal mine, trying to earn some for paying his bills. However, the story ends tragically, when an accident occurs in the mine, leaving no survivors:
The late news broke the story - no one made it out in time,
All his dreams of going home were laid bare in that West Virginia mine.
The southbound train is rolling, taking him back home to stay
To the hills in the Carolina foothils, where Carolina waits.
However, in spite of the song's obvious beauty and clarity, I felt like its ending is kinda open, not quite understanding the man's fate. If he did survive the mining accident (which I'm pretty sure he did), then why can't he return home to Carolina ("all his dreams... were laid bare")? And if he didn't manage to survive, then who is going home on "the southbound train"?
Thanks in advance!
I'm pretty sure "deciphering" songs ain't my forte, but I figure he died in the accident and it's his body that's "going home."
I wonder if the "laid bare" can be chalked up to poetic license .... maybe in this case interpreted as "evaporated / up in smoke."
Now you have me interested, so I hope others chime in with their take(s) on it.
Hopefully there's more to it than when I inquired about Long Journey Home 'way back: "It means whatever you want it to mean." 
I take it that he died ("no one made it out in time") and the casket with him in it is on the train, as Owen opined,,, "taking him back home to stay” signifies to me that he’ll be buried there, never more to roam over to the coalfields
Edited by - chuckv97 on 11/13/2024 13:18:52
There are several old songs about caskets on trains.
"The Charming Young Widow I Met One the Train" is about a man who gets scammed by a woman who CLAIMS that her husband's body is on the train.
= = = = = = =
Speaking of deciphering songs:
In "Long Black Veil", the woman "...stood in the crowd, and shed not a tear."
I imagine that a woman who was watching her husband's best friend be hanged, might shed a tear that her husband was going to be losing a friend, OR that she was going to be deprived of a friend...a very VERY good friend!
"... discretion expected and assured." ????
Originally posted by mike gregory
Speaking of deciphering songs:
In "Long Black Veil", the woman "...stood in the crowd, and shed not a tear."
I imagine that a woman who was watching her husband's best friend be hanged, might shed a tear.... "
More perplexing for me is/was the line, "Nobody knows but me." While puttzing around over it earlier today, I came across this recording of LBV by Lefty Frizzell and an "answer song" .... My Long Black Veil by Marijohn Wilkin. Didn't know 'til today that an answer song, or Ms. Wilkins for that matter, even existed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyRgLcx_eYY [For some time, I've wanted to come up with an additional verse ... maybe: where there's life, there's hope??]
Edited by - Owen on 11/15/2024 11:34:49
Change just one line, and:
"The scaffold was high, and eternity near... she cheered on the crowd, and she bought them each a beer!"
The affair was OVER, and she HATED him for keeping her busy while somebody else killed her OTHER boyfriend.
In HER dictionary, "monogamy" and "monotony" were synonyms. 
Sorry for the thread hijack!
But, thanks for the "Answer" song.
Nice to hear both sides of the story.
Never heard of the answer song before. Thanks for posting it.
quote:
Originally posted by Owen
Originally posted by mike gregory
Speaking of deciphering songs:
In "Long Black Veil", the woman "...stood in the crowd, and shed not a tear."
I imagine that a woman who was watching her husband's best friend be hanged, might shed a tear.... " More perplexing for me is/was the line, "Nobody knows but me." While puttzing around over it earlier today, I came across this recording of LBV by Lefty Frizzell and an "answer song" .... My Long Black Veil by Marijohn Wilkin. Didn't know 'til today that an answer song, or Ms. Wilkins for that matter, even existed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyRgLcx_eYY [For some time, I've wanted to come up with an additional verse ... maybe: where there's life, there's hope??]
Marijohn Wilkins was one of the writers of "Long Black Veil", so I guess she's qualified to write the "answer" song (although it seems a bit strange to write an answer to yourself).
