Vicki Lawrence (1972)
Reba McEntire (1991)
*That’s the night that the lights went out in Georgia
That’s the night that they hung an innocent man
Well don’t trust your soul to no back woods southern lawyer
Cause the judge in the town’s got bloodstains on his hands
*
So, it’s a song about small-town corruption and a miscarriage of justice, right? Not the way I see it. It’s about a woman who stands by and watches her brother get executed for a murder she committed!
*Well they hung my brother before I could say
The tracks he saw while on his way
To Andy’s house and back that night were mine
*
Really?? Presumably, you were there at the trial. Even if they hung him immediately afterward, there was no chance for you to stand up and shout “I did it!”?? Bullshit!
Little Sister seems to have no remorse whatsoever that she has sent her brother to the end of a rope, instead preferring to blame it all on the lawyer and the judge. In fact, she goes on to brag about how well she hid her sister-in-law’s body! What a bitch.
Other questions: After Andy told Brother that his wife was “seeing that Amos boy Seth” and then “he got mad and he saw red,” why the hell would he go on to add, “to tell you the truth I’ve been with her myself”? What an idiot!
But it might not have made any difference, because he then went home and quickly got snuffed. But wait. Did Little Sister already know that Andy was nailing the wife, or was she there at the bar and heard them talking? Did she follow Andy home, or was she waiting there to ambush him?
And, perhaps most perplexing of all, whatever happened to that Amos boy Seth??