For a very long time, until someone on this very board disabused me, I thought he was going to leave South Boston behind, making the song even more nonsensical because who has horses in stalls in South Boston?
Thank you…I cut out some but tried to keep the critical parts, but obviously not enough.
Mounted police? 
For [del]years[/del] decades, I thought the phrase was, “We’re gonna leave some questions behind.” :o
It’s about pop music having no recognizable standards.
It’s more fun to picture the “killing frost” as an attack by Caitlin Snow on the rampage!
“Killing frost” makes me think of this Far Side cartoon.
Thank you, all that is what causes me to be confused. I do like the song, but it always leaves me muddled.
I found this on the Web where they were interpreting the Reba McEntire version:
This song is about a man who finds out his wife had an affair with his best friends. Goes over to his friends house at night to kill him, but finds his friend already dead. The sheriff is patrolling so the man fires his gun to signal the sheriff. The sheriff thinks the shot he heard is the killing shot so the sheriff arrest the man who is innocently executed later.
The shooter was actually his sister who is narrating the song.
I didn’t know enough to understand it at the time, but now I can see that it’s about when the WiFi failed during bad weather, and she’s calling up the ISP and yelling WiFi and he’s never been able to hook up with her after the WiFi dropped out and
That’s all well and good - but I thought someone shot the deputy?
He shot the sheriff, not the deputy.
Of course, later he fought the law and the law won.
Go on, take the money and run.
Take it easy…
Someone shaved my wife tonight.
Might as well JUMP
Regarding “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia”, songfacts.com https://www.songfacts.com/facts/vicki-lawrence/the-night-the-lights-went-out-in-georgiahas a number of posters positing that the his (the brother’s) wife was sleeping with the Judge and the lawyer also, so it was in their best interest to find Andy guilty to prevent their affairs being exposed. She may even have been with the defense attorney also, who wouldn’t listen to Andy’s sister’s confession. Yes, it’s a stretch, but even Andy (the brother’s best friend had been with her).
The trial and execution didn’t take place overnight, but any effort for the sister to confess was stymied or never given. After all she killed the woman who was with numerous powerful men and they either wouldn’t listen to her (opening the way for their affairs to be exposed) or would prosecute both her and Andy to keep the both quiet.
Also, if you listen to the Reba McEntire version, it’s clear that “he” (the brother) is never referred to by his first name.
It’s clearly “He said, sit down…” and “that Ames boy, Seth”*. Less clear in the original version.
*There may have been multiple brothers in the Ames family and Andy wanted to be clear which brother it was. It may have been one that the unnamed protagonist of the song didn’t like, as Andy seems to be warning him (the protagonist), what a terrible woman his wife was.
That’s interesting, but it still doesn’t fit. Unless the point is little sister wants her brother dead, too? That’s she’s just a psychopath. Because little sister confessing that she shot [del]the sheriff[/del] the wife doesn’t make the other affairs come out any more than if brother shot her. If little sister knew about those, she’d have killed the judge, the sheriff, the defense lawyer, and anyone else.
And if the trial took a reasonable amount of time, little sister could still go tell brother that she did it, even if she didn’t publicly confess.
Or, presumably, a friendly Bard can cancel the effects of an “earworm” spell?
(Actually, ‘earworm’ sounds like something from the original Monster Manual… )
Those’re ear seekers, tiny worms that burrow into dead wood, and happily burrow into your ears when you listen at the door they’re living in. That’s why you add a mesh-covered ear cone to the 10-ft pole you packed. And a hireling, to use 'em both.
But not the deputy.