Patsy Cline
Words and music by Kieran Barry Violet
Now I don’t sing minor
Like they do in Carolina
I’ve never been to Tennessee
And I know I never will
But when I hear a slide guitar
I close my eyes and it’s a honky-tonk bar
It’s an all night drive
With a thousand miles to kill
Have you ever been lonely?
Or ever been blue?
Is it so wrong?
Always
She’s got you
So we play the all night radio
And the station changes every hour or so
We sing along to them good old songs
From a thousand years ago
But when they play some Patsy Cline
And she falls to pieces one more time
A thousand hearts are melting
With the New York city snow
A thousand hearts are melting
With the snow
So what is the story of the song? Well, obviously it’s a tribute to the great lady herself, I’m still a massive fan of Patsy Cline but it’s by no means autobiographical. Our narrator is an individual who has grown up in rural Ireland and is steeped in the tradition of Irish emigration to the USA.
Aunties, uncles, cousins even siblings all leaving to make a new life in the ‘land of the free’ – mostly never to return. Under these circumstances, and from an early age, this has led to the formation of a highly romanticised picture of all things American, letters and Christmas cards home will all have helped to cement this view.
The song itself is also littered with cultural references, ‘all night drive’ – road movies, ‘the station changes . . .’ – travelling across multiple territories each served by a different local radio station, ‘slide guitar/honky-tonk bar’ – self explanatory, Carolina/Tennessee/New York City (especially under a blanket of snow) – to our story teller the mere mention of such places evokes a mixture of powerful feelings. This confusion of emotions it seems can only be eased by good old country music and in particular the beautiful, sad, empathetic voice of Patsy Cline.
If you don’t already know by the way, ‘Have you ever been lonely’, ‘Is it so wrong’?, ‘Always’, ‘She’s got you’ and ‘she falls to pieces one more time’ are all quotes/references to song titles made famous by Patsy Cline.
I hope I’ve done my subject matter justice . . .
KB
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