I just heard this song today for the first time a long while. I remember thinking when it was first released that because the singer was a hippie and society’s rules didn’t seem to apply to him, that at the end of the song when he’s in church and they’re passing the collection plate that he helped himself to some of the offering.
However, today’s listening doesn’t support that (directly). It says that when they passed the plate, he was broke and instead of money he wrote his own sign thanking the Lord.
Did he also dip into the collection and enrich himself, or just leave a thank you note?
here are the Legal Lyrics provided by the Group themselves. http://www.fivemanelectricalband.ca/ scroll down the left side and you will see Signs Lyrics.
I think at most he might have misrepresented his appearance, considered trespassing and caused a slight amount of damage to someone’s personal property… but no snitchin’.
I remember when the original came out. I never heard a hint or mention of the narrator taking any money, and nobody in any press or commentary even suggested such a thing.
There was some talk about the disassociation of god and religion, which was very much a hippie issue in those days before the fundamentalist revival. But a thief? Never.
Nothing to do with the OP, but I used to hear a clip played on the radio that started with the line "The sign said, ‘Anybody caught trespassing will be shot on sight.’ So I jumped the fence and yelled, 'Hey, wha – BAM! BAM! BAM! (<—shotgun blasts).
I would just like to point out that there are six guys in the picture of the Five Man Electrical Band.
I guess math was not their strong suit in school.
OK. I’ll be by myself on this. But, upon further review, it still seems that the lyrics are ambiguous enough to allow this.
I’m picturing a free-love free spirit guy in his fringed leather vest travellin’ and-a livin’ off the land (maybe accompanied by a dog named Boo). He goes into a church, not a penny in his pocket. A plate full of money drops into his lap. I can see him grab a handful of the green and replace it with a note to the Big Guy saying “Thank you Lord for thinkin’ about me.”
That’s always how I figured it, too. The “thinkin’ about me” suggesting that he was presented with a little bounty in exchange for his own little sign, so he offers up thanks. Unless being presented with a collection plate was something to be thankful for.
That’s because you (guessing wildly) probably weren’t a free-spirited child of the 60s. You’re probably an 80s me-decade post-modern ironic cynical type.