We went to lunch at the Lock Spot Cafe, where After the Catch is filmed. It’s a real fisherman’s hangout.
Anyway, the song, Draggin’ the Line by Tommy James and the Shondells was on the jukebox.
Listening to the lyrics, it sounds like it’s about being a choker setter on a logging crew.
A choker setter hooks choker cable on the logs to be dragged out after they’re cut. It’s the bottom of the food chain in logging jobs.
Am I just making it up? Does anyone know if Tommy James ever worked in logging?
I can’t find anything that says he was. He started playing music at a very young age (he had his first hit at age 19), so he might not have been old enough/strong enough to be a logger.
Also, while “draggin’ the line” might be a loggers’ term, it also sounds like one of those lines that’s used just for the way it sounds…if you try singing other phrases to the same melody, they don’t work quite as well.
