Isbell SOTW Week 3 - Grown

[adiantumpedatum]

Grown

Last night I heard the sirens' song and I followed it in the ditch.
Oh baby, I'm just carrying on. Far be it for me to bitch.
Last night I heard the distant hum of another damn hurricane.
Oh Sunnie tell me where you've gone. Are you still dancing to Purple Rain?

You took my little hand and took me to your room.
You taught me how to want something, so I learned how to move.

Oh, oh, you made me feel so grown.
Oh, oh, you made me feel so grown.

Last year I heard your momma had a little trouble with the thin red line.[youtube][/youtube]
You always knew that you could understand and not undermine.

You took me to your room. I let my eyes adjust.
You taught me how to want something and I learned how to lust.

Oh, oh, you made me feel so grown.
Oh, oh, you made me feel so grown.

All them years ago you took a nervous little kid
and showed me how to slow it down just a little bit…

Oh, oh, you made me feel so grown.
Oh, oh, you made me feel so grown.



This song really came home for me the first time I heard the tape from Jason's 1/27/2012 show at the Franklin Theater (link: http://thesteamengine.net/home/download ... lin-t.html). Besides it being an amazing show, coming right from the cusp of going into rehab, the story he tells before going into this song is terrific. I don't know why it matters, but I like that there really was a Sunnie, I like knowing that dancing around with a neighbor was the only thing going on in the summertime where he grew up-- I grew up much the same way, bouncing on my neighbor's trampoline listening to Michael Jackson and Mariah Carey.

To me, this song is about those friendships you have in that fuzzy space between childhood and teenager-hood, when you can still have innocent friends of the opposite sex but that innocence is eroding day by day. No one has any idea who they are in that twilight between being a little kid and being a grown-up, and yet you're bouncing off of other people just as confused as you are and somehow it all turns out ok.

This isn't a deep song at all, but that groove... oh yeah, that's nice.

I'm interested to hear all you SOTD lovers come out and voice your take on this one. You've been hearing this album a lot longer than I have. Discuss!

[Iowan]

I took it to be about your first sexual relationship.

I've always loved this song.

[adiantumpedatum]

I took it to be about your first sexual relationship.

I've always loved this song.

In the story from the show, Jason says something along the lines of, "In real life this was a whole lot more innocent than how it sounds in the song..."

[adiantumpedatum]

I took it to be about your first sexual relationship.

I've always loved this song.

In the story from the show, Jason says something along the lines of, "In real life this was a whole lot more innocent than how it sounds in the song..."

Correction: "This is one of those songs that sounds way less innocent than it is." Just listened to the song from the show; that's a direct quote.

It sure don't sound too innocent in the song...

[olwiggum]

Damn it, I still love this song. I wish it was still in setlists.

[rlipps]

Damn it, I still love this song. I wish it was still in setlists.

I love it too, along with tons of other stuff from SOTD and the S/t album. I'd go to many more shows if he'd dip into those for at least a couple tunes per night.

[Smitty]

anyone wanna explain the thin red line line?

[Iowan]

anyone wanna explain the thin red line line?

Seems like a throwaway line to me.

[adiantumpedatum]

anyone wanna explain the thin red line line?

Funny. The lyrics for Grown that I poached off AZLyrics or someplace had "thin blue line" which I had to edit before I posted the post. Oddly, thin blue line makes more sense-- that would've been the police.

Thin red line... debt? Just a guess.

According to good 'ol Wikipedia, "The Thin Red Line was a military action by the British Sutherland Highlanders 93rd (Highland) Regiment at the Battle of Balaklava on 25 October 1854, during the Crimean War." Unlikely Sunnie's momma is having trouble with that. Also found on the interwebs, the "thin red line" is generally used to refer to the point of no return, or the point past which safety can be guaranteed (auto racing, aviation).

[Smitty]

anyone wanna explain the thin red line line?

Seems like a throwaway line to me.

If so, thats a shitty place for a throwaway line and really diminishes the song.

[Clams]

anyone wanna explain the thin red line line?

Pregnancy test?

[lotusamerica]

anyone wanna explain the thin red line line?

Pregnancy test?

It's a psychiatric reference. Thin red line between sanity and madness.

[lotusamerica]

Here you go...

http://izquotes.com/quote/241467

[adiantumpedatum]

It's a psychiatric reference. Thin red line between sanity and madness.

Interesting. That kind of makes the next part make more sense, too-- Sunnie's become her mother's shoulder to cry on, maybe, since she's so empathetic. Which means the narrator is probably feeling a little guilty that he's been able to escape where he came from, meanwhile Sunnie's probably still stuck at home.

[Bantam]

I took it to be about your first sexual relationship.

I've always loved this song.

In the story from the show, Jason says something along the lines of, "In real life this was a whole lot more innocent than how it sounds in the song..."

I'd like to know how Sunnie felt about it when she first heard the song, especially if that's her real name. I hope she took with as much good humour as the girl from "Zip City," as I've heard that legend.

I remember the first time I ever heard this song riding with my brother up Highway 7 to Oxford. The first three Jason/Drive-By Truckers songs I ever heard were "Chicago Promenade," "Dress Blues," and "Grown." There was no going back from there.

I gotta say, that's the first time I've ever heard the subtext of the song was NOT overtly sexual--or at least, sexual consummation. I gotta say, that changes how I look at it now.

[jbshelton]

I took it to be about your first sexual relationship.

I've always loved this song.

In the story from the show, Jason says something along the lines of, "In real life this was a whole lot more innocent than how it sounds in the song..."

I'd like to know how Sunnie felt about it when she first heard the song, especially if that's her real name. I hope she took with as much good humour as the girl from "Zip City," as I've heard that legend.

I remember the first time I ever heard this song riding with my brother up Highway 7 to Oxford. The first three Jason/Drive-By Truckers songs I ever heard were "Chicago Promenade," "Dress Blues," and "Grown." There was no going back from there.

I gotta say, that's the first time I've ever heard the subtext of the song was NOT overtly sexual--or at least, sexual consummation. I gotta say, that changes how I look at it now.

If I'm remembering correctly, at the Franklin Theatre show, Jason said her name was Sunny Hayes, and her sister's name was Rainy Hayes. Along with something about their parents being hippies.