Monday, August 15, 2005

Billy Ray

So can we talk about these lyrics? Because as a preacher's son, I rather like the idea of a woman singing about me as the only one who could reach her....hyuck...but seriously. I was playing this like 12 sundays ago (gotta love the adamic calendar) and my "office" adjoins my mother's office (she's the preacher man by the way) and it was all:

Her:
What is that?!

Me:
Cat Stevens? (**i didn't know**)

Her:
The son of a preacher man?? (with disdain, she quoted a few lyrics by heart)

Me:
Yeah, that's it...

Her:
Adam, it's Sunday, please try to be reverent.

Me:
????????

and so, a dozen sundays later, I wanna know what I done wrong!
read 'em and speak:

(I can use my imagination and figure out what the song means, but I wanna discuss it, and also hear if anyone knows the real history of the song.)


Son of a Preacher Man Lyrics from Dusty Springfield

Billy-Ray was a Preacher's son,
And when his daddy would visit he'd come along,
When they gathered round and started talking,
That's when Billy would take me walking,
Through the back yard we'd go walking,
Then he'd look into my eyes,
Lord knows to my suprise:

The only one who could ever reach me,
Was the son of a preacher man,
The only boy who could ever teach me,
Was the son of a preacher man,
Yes he was, he was, oh yes he was.

Being good isn't always easy,
No matter how hard I tried,
When he started sweet talking to me,
he'd come tell me everything is alright,
he'd kiss and tell me everything is alright,
Can I get away again tonight?.

The only one who could ever reach me,
Was the son of a preacher man,
The only boy who could ever teach me,
Was the son of a preacher man,
Yes he was, he was, oh yes he was.

How well I remember,
The look that was in his eyes,
Stealing kisses from me on the sly,
Taking time to make time,
Telling me that he's all mine,
Learning from each others knowing,
Looking to see how much we'd grown.

The only one who could ever reach me,
Was the son of a preacher man,
The only boy who could ever teach me,
Was the son of a preacher man,
Yes he was, he was, oh yes he was.

Thanks to hojo for the corrections

3 Comments:

Blogger jasdye said...

my reply's up above.

10:04 PM  
Blogger Revolt said...

Maybe it's cuz ummm...PK's tend to be like spiritual and freaky all at once. So like---what? I mean it's true! lol. It's ironic kidna, cuz like, the reason he could reach her is because he had that spiritual fervor that was able to awaken her from her wanderings in the doldrums...YET, there was something sexually appealing about him for that exact same reason...which allowed him to REALLY reach her.

I dunno..that's how I've always interpreted the song. My mind takes frequent visits to the gutter of heresy.

12:17 PM  
Blogger jasdye said...

i tend to think that the popular perception of pk's is not spiritual, although couched in religiosity.

there's some truth to that. pk's, in my experience, know a lot about God, but often have a period of rebellion. remember bart's one-time girlfriend, Rev. Lovejoy's daughter? she was the devil incarnate. i think that the juxtaposition is somewhat alluring to some people.

but i think more so, more of a probability, is that she was looking for love, for acceptance and was not able to find it in the church, in the pews or in the staid and irrelevant (blah!) message of the pastor. she found it through the touch of another dissaffected youngster, he of the other gender, he of a bit of a wild streak.

that's my real reading of it.

i still think (well, when I'm drunk, which is never) that pk's are whiny.

2:18 PM  

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