Dissecting "The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia" Lyrics

Cafe Society
1

OK I looked them up with various Google searches, and I know you can’t print lyrics here in full so I’ll ask about parts of it. I was kind of wondering what parts of it mean.

Here’s the first question —>

“He was on his way home from Candletop”. I assume this is some sort of place? Is this correct? If so then we don’t know what it is? Or does it have a meaning?

The next part —>

“Been two weeks gone and he thought he’d stop
At ??? and have him a drink.”

Now what should the ??? be? I’ve seen it listed as Web’s or Williams and various other thing?

As a side question, this would mean Webs or whatever that word is, is some sort of bar right?

The next part -->

"Andy Wolloe said “Hello”
And he said “Hi, what’s doin’, Wo?”

Now I am assuming the “Wo” line is short for the last name Wolloe? Is this correct? If not what is the wo for? Or is it just to make the song singable?

The next part—>

"Since you been gone she’s been seein’ that Amos boy, Seth "

Is this correct? What the heck is an AMOS BOY? Maybe it should be nieghbors boy?

I still can’t figure out the narrative of the song.

Can someone explain that? I mean who is doing what to who.

2

Humbly submitted for your perusal

3

In the south, Amos is a common surname. It’s also not common to refer to younger people by their family name, and only add the first name if it matters (like in this case, you wouldn’t want someone killing the wrong person, so you’d specify ‘Seth’).

I don’t know why people do this… I think it just sounds a little less direct than ‘Seth Amos’… it adds just a hint of ambiguity. As if you had to ponder it a little, that the person’s name has never been on the top of your mind, and that you haven’t been carrying a piece of juicy gossip around for days just waiting to break the story. And more importantly, that you could claim a mixup if it turned out not to be true… “well, I knowed it was one of them Amos boys, anyway”. That’s my theory, anyway.

4

You are correct in your assessment. The subject of the song was in a correctional institute at Candletop. Probably a prison, or at least a jail.

The subject then proceeded to the local bar known as Webb’s. At this drinking establishment, he met a familiar face. The gentleman’s name was Andy Wolloe, but to his friends, he was known as Wo. Calling people by their nick-name is not uncommon in local bars.

Andy reports the news that the subject’s wife has been seeing a young man by the name of Seth Amos. Get it? The male child of the Amos family.

As to what happened following the subject’s departure from the bar known as Webb’s will be left to the listener to parse for himself.

SSG Schwartz

5

FWIW, another source for the lyrics:

http://www.lyricsdownload.com/vicki-lawrence-the-night-the-lights-went-out-in-georgia-lyrics.html

Candletop=a place, I’d assume.

I thought it was “Wink’s” but I assumed it was a bar.

“Wo”=some sort of nickname, implying a friend/familiarity.

Amos could be a first name, but in this case, it’s a last name. It’s a small town thing: give the family name first (one of those Smith boys, because you know they’re all alike), then tell which one you mean (Billy). Full name in this case: Seth Amos.

The synopsis, as I interpreted it:

A guy was coming back from somewhere—prison, ok, I didn’t think of that but it makes sense. Most importantly, he was out of town. Rather than go directly home to his wife, he stopped at a bar. He finds out that his wife has been sleeping around—even with friends of his. Apparently his wife is just too hot to be left alone, and that’s when he discovers that she’s been whoring around. Why he’s stopping at a bar (before learning that she’s a ho) is pretty perplexing, but anyway:

He goes home, finds a gun, and thinks about killing. Maybe he’ll kill his cheating wife or someone she’s doing, e.g. the bar owner. So he goes to the barkeep’s house, but when he gets there the bar owner is already dead.

He somehow knows the Georgia patrol is on their rounds so he fires a shot to get their attention and they conclude that the shot that they heard killed the barkeep (Andy). And (due process, yadda) that’s how he gets hung.

Except little sister don’t miss when she aims her gun. I.e. the sister killed Andy the barkeep (on behalf of her brother). Unfortunately she couldn’t tell the authorities before her brother yodeled his last.

That little sister (perhaps later) planted the adulterous wife in the ground as well, though she was careful to conceal this.

How exactly a power outage is required for this to happen, I don’t know. The corrupt judge…maybe the little sister bribed with some nookie.

That’s all I’ve got.

6

A cover version with a music video.

7

The power outage is because when the brother is electrocuted, the power drawn to the chair causes the other lights in town to dim/go out.

This isn’t accurate, but it’s a common enough trope. I suspect it originated in old prison movies, where dimming the lights in the rest of the prison was an easy shorthand for “condemned man just died.”

8

One little point; doesn’t she sing, “That’s the night they hung an innocent man.”? I doubt they had electric gallows back in them days!?

9

I think you’re right, Ivan: the electric gallows came later, just before the wood-burning radio IIRC. :smiley:

But seriously: I always thought the point of the lights going out was that it provided something along the lines old crime/detective film scenario. The lights went out, shots were fired, the lights came back on, someone’s dead…so whodunit?

I.e., my interpretation: although the lines about the lights being out and a man being hung are together in the song, they’re not supposed to be the same night. If you wanted to get the Georgia patrol’s attention, would you fire a shot? Maybe…if the lights were out. And if you were stupid, because they might think you were shooting at them and return fire.

I’m not disputing Punkyova’s notion, however. Lame mistakes have been made in songs since forever ago. I suspect that like many songs, this one doesn’t quite make sense no matter how you interpret it.

10

:slight_smile: Yep, but they finally got somewhere with the gas-powered oven, so ‘Yippee’ for progress.

11

I guess the old hack writers’ “It was a dark and stormy night” is 2/3 present here. The lights being out for a time would allow the sister to kill both the whoring wife and the rat bastard bartender and escape, but the brother…well, you know.

Candletop must not be a prison b/c it says he’d been gone two weeks. Could be a jail; could be he was just outta town on bidness. But that gave his wife time to nail half the town.

12

I always assumed the lights going out to be less than literal - as in, the metaphorical hope and trust that light can be (lighting up your life, for eg.). This is going to be lost in Georgia as a result of a corrupt system and hasty execution of an innocent man.

13

Plus the singer allowed her brother to die for a murder she committed.

I think there may be some issues in that family of origin.

Regards,
Shodan

14

Dave Barry says he was once on a program with Vicki Lawrence, and took the opportunity to ask her backstage what the song was about. She said she had no idea.
Right.

15

In this video of Reba and Vicki, right before they sing the song together, Vicki says, “I hope I remember all the words, they never did make any sense”.

I don’t think this song is as deep as the OP thinks it is.

16

I will add upon seeing that vid, that Reba has a wild glint in her eyes entirely appropriate for this song. :slight_smile:

17

I think that just illustrates the folly of trying to make sense out of words that weren’t composed or connected as carefully as we might assume. It’s a little like analysing Winnie The Pooh or Alice in Wonderland for deep psychological meaning – the analysis takes on a meaning of its own.

Exactly.

18

It’s because she was taking pleasure in totally pwning Vicki at singing.

Vicki even addresses this. The song was written by her then husband and, after having been heard by Sonny ( of Cher fame) said that the lyrics would need to be rewritten so as to not offend all of the south. To which the Vicki’s husband repsonded that he didn’t care enough about the song to rewrite it. It went on to become Vicki’s greatest hit as written.

19

She does have the kind of voice that could make the telephone directory sound interesting, though. I think that’s more the luck of genetics than hard practice.

20

I’ve always thought there was a hint of incest in the song, which would fit in with its “murder ballad” roots.