I have nothing relevant to the OP to post, but just wanted to say that it was years after I had first heard this song that it dawned on me exactly what sex act they had been doing.
I don’t care how much experience she has in the delivery room, no nurse can tell right away that a newborn is bad to the bone.
No matter what other songs come up in this thread, this one is going to be my favorite.
You paraphrased the actual lyrics. It’s “Making love in the afternoon, with Cecilia, uuuuUUUUUUUUHHHHUPPPP in my bedroom.” Not only is it clearly his bedroom, the way he emphasizes the “UUUUUUUP” makes it clear that it is on the second floor of the building - at the very least. Maybe it’s the third floor. Maybe he lives in a treehouse. He clearly wanted to emphasize the elevation of the bedroom, at any rate. (What relevance this has, I don’t know, but it’s worth pointing out.)
Also, as Simon and Garfunkel are singing the song in unison, it stands to reason that if we are taking the song literally, they were BOTH banging Cecelia. At the same time. In the same room. Actually, maybe the “I get up to wash my face and when I go back to bed someone’s taking my place” refers to the two of them…taking turns? OK, I’ve thought way too much about this.
Indubitably. Awoo!
Not only was there not an east side of Chicago, but Al Capone never called his gang to war in a single, pitched battle that didn’t end until the last of the hoodlum gang had surrendered up or died, but also leaving 'bout a hundred cops dead.
And nobody, nowhere, ever built a city on rock and roll.
And Neil Young never sat by the fire with Marlon Brando and Pocahontas, talking about Hollywood.
Some shit went down at the Shedd Aquarium. They took “sleep with the fishes” VERY literally back then.
So you’re saying it’s more of a buffet situation up in his bedroom?
This comes up as often as “south Detroit”, and just as wrong.
If the South Side (the baddest part of town) is to the south, the nort side is north, the west side is west, what do you call the part along the lake? I would call that the east side, seeing as it is not the north, south, or west side. You can call it “Lake Shore” or whatever you want, but it is most definitely the “east side”.
The rest of your post, about the Night Chicago Died, is, of course, true.
However, many cities are built on rock.
(When as a middle schooler I bought a book of sheet music for Simon & Garfunkel songs, this verse of Cecilia had the lyrics omitted and was marked “instrumental.”)
And never once has a city ever been on flame with rock and roll. Rock and roll doesn’t burn. It simply doesn’t.
Similarly, there is no disco inferno.
I’m highly skeptical about a number of claims in 'the Devil Went Down to Georgia":
“He was in a bind ‘cause he was way behind, and he was lookin’ to make a deal”
Who is imposing soul-gathering quotas on the devil??
“I’ll bet a fiddle of gold against your soul…”
A fiddle made of gold seems extremely impractical. I can’t imagine it would sound any good, and trying to hold up a gold fiddle to play it for any length of time would be exhausting, if not impossible. About its only worth would be its weight in gold, in which case, why not just bet (X) amount of gold coins / bricks?
Johnny says “it might be a sin, but I’ll take your bet, you’re gonna regret it…”
Yes, of course it’s a sin-- the sin of pride, at the very least. Not to mention, entering into any sort of transaction with the devil would probably be a mortal enough sin to lose him his soul anyway.
And Johnny must not have experienced any literature or popular entertainment about the devil, nor paid any attention in church or Sunday school, or else he would have known that the devil is the ultimate trickster and master of lies. All of his deals have loopholes. And yet…
“The devil bowed his head because he knew that he’d been beat”
A lot to unpack here. So the devil actually engaged in a straight, no-cheat bet and lost? Lucky for Johnny, but that is not the devil I know. Who did the judging for this contest anyway-- where would they find an impartial judge on such short notice? Actually, to be honest, I thought Johnny’s playing was ok but pretty bland and conventional, while the devil’s was spookily cool and avant-garde. I’d give the devil the win, myself.
Well, Ivana Trump had a gold coffin…
Johnny’s effort was hot garbage in comparison to what the Devil played, hands down. Satan dead-ass destroyed him in that competition. However - some of the credit also belongs to the “band of demons” that joined in.
Yeah, I know, right? The devil had ringers! The fix was totally in. And yet the devil still lost? I sense a Deus Ex Viola.
Ha! Good one.
That’s how badass the Devil was at fiddle. He mad a ridiculous instrument not only play, but (per the opinions in this thread) play better than Johnny’s conventional fiddle.
I thought it was a pretty accurate representation of a real event. I read that Ray Davies wrote it after seeing a friend hitting on a drag queen in a club and the friend didn’t realize they weren’t a girl.
Early morning, April four
A shot rings out in the Memphis sky
Free at last, they took your life
They could not take your pride
MLK was shot a 6 pm and not in the morning
Oh no. The devil’s fiddle can float.