I’ve been listening to some old Jerry Jeff Walker lately, mostly Viva Terlingua! One of my favorite cuts off that album is Backsliders Wine. (The complete lyrics can be found here.)
It’s a great song that opens with haunting lines, “As the rain ruins my alibi I’m down to tellin’ you my red-eyed mind.” I’ve wondered about that line down through the years but could never really figure out it’s meaning. What’s his alibi, and why is the rain ruining it?
I guessing, due to the context of the song, he’s making excuses for drinking again. Is the rain washing away his tears?
The song was written by *Michael Martin Murphy. He’s not really known for writing nonsense lyrics so I’m thinking he had something in mind.
While we’re at it, there’s another line from that song that I don’t quite get either,
“Fight for your rights
But, son don’t fight for right”
*Michael Martin Murphy fun fact: I used to live in Taos years ago, same time as MMM. Frequently, as I was dropping off my GF’s kid at school, I’d often see him dropping off his - In full concert regalia.
It seems more to me like he’s confessing in the opening and closing. So I would interpret “ruining his alibi” as meaning he had to come clean. The first image in my head was that of a drunk who came home late, who claimed he’d been home the whole time, but he was wet, meaning the rain gave it away.
However, thinking about it more metaphorically, perhaps the rain is his tears, and his red eyes and tears are what give away that he’s been out drinking and crying.
I think you need the whole verse to get the meaning:
As the rain ruins my alibi
I’m down to tellin’ you my red-eyed mind
It’s not the sun bright path
That called me from my home
It’s just that fine Backslider’s wine
He’s going to the bar to get drunk (finding himself face down on the floor of the bar is mentioned later in the song). If it were sunny, he could pretend he was going out for a nice walk. But it’s raining, so that excuse won’t fly - he must come clean about why he’s going out.
The title Backsliders Wine is a tip off that he’s drinking and shouldn’t be. I always assumed, though, that his alibi was was something he was trying to pass off after the fact. But maybe, you’re right, he might have been looking for a reason to go out.
It’s quite explicit isn’t it? He can’t pretend that he was lured out by a lovely sunny day because it’s raining. So he has to admit that he only went out drinking.
I’ve listened to this song probably a hundred times and, amazingly, never connected the rain part with the sun bright path part. I always heard that part a metaphor - drinking as place he goes when he’s in a dark mood.
But re-reading, I can see that you are right. His reason for leaving her was to do something you would do on a sunny day - not in the rain.
