The WELL: deadsongs.vue.137: Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodleloo

#78: Robin Russell (rrussell8) Tue 2 Mar 10 05:21

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 05:21:00 PST

Not a connection I had made, very interesting. [Read entire topic]

#77: David Dodd (ddodd) Mon 1 Mar 10 13:48

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:48:00 PST

Yep, I've always made that assumption. ("Always" meaning ever since I read about that accident, probably in some interview you published, David.) [Read entire topic]

#76: David Gans (tnf) Mon 1 Mar 10 13:11

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:11:00 PST

"Lost my boots in transit/pile of smokin' leather" might be a reference to Jerry's famous car accident, in which Paul Spiegel was killed and Jerry was separated from his shoes. [Read entire topic]

#75: Robin Russell (rrussell8) Mon 1 Mar 10 12:31

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:31:00 PST

Yikes, sounds like a good reason to me. [Read entire topic]

#74: Gary Burnett (jera) Mon 1 Mar 10 12:18

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:18:00 PST

(Sorry to have been a bit snippy in my reply -- this damn broken kneecap makes me periodically grumpy for no good reason.) [Read entire topic]

#73: Gary Burnett (jera) Mon 1 Mar 10 12:18

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:18:00 PST

The New Mexico angle is interesting, for sure, especially in light of details like silver mines. [Read entire topic]

#72: Robin Russell (rrussell8) Mon 1 Mar 10 12:04

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:04:00 PST

Yes, Gary, I am also inclined to that reading.

My south of the border doubt is in respect of David's suggestion that it might have something to do with Hunter's homecoming from Mexico. [Read entire topic]

#71: Gary Burnett (jera) Mon 1 Mar 10 11:55

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 11:55:00 PST

I do, you realize, live close enough to Mississippi and have been there often enough to be very well aware that it's not "south of the border."

By the same token, the Rio Grande goes nowhere near Mississippi.

It's a pretty enigmatic song, even the title -- the words "Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodle-oo" all make sense individually, but don't really parse as a traditionally meaningful phrase (nor are they repeated in that order in the song itself). By the end of the song, we know that the south is involved somehow, that a departure from the south is taking place, that a half a cup of rock & rye factor in, and that the Rio Grande is being (or is going to be) crossed.

In the reading that I'm sort of pushing here, the protagonist, for reasons that are not known but that might have something to do with a crime, leaves Mississippi and heads south (and, obviously, west) to cross the Rio Grande into Mexico. [Read entire topic]

#70: Robin Russell (rrussell8) Mon 1 Mar 10 11:33

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 11:33:00 PST

Hmmm. Mississippi doesn't sound too south of the border, nor does rock and rye. [Read entire topic]

#69: Gary Burnett (jera) Mon 1 Mar 10 09:58

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 09:58:00 PST

Of course, the autobiographical is never the only vector of meaning in any of these songs. [Read entire topic]