From: et472@ncf.ca   
      
   On Wed, 25 Sep 2013, Joel Polowin wrote:   
      
   > I've enjoyed listening to Arlo Guthrie's "Ring-Around-A-Rosy   
   > Rag" for a long time; it's upbeat and catchy.  But I've never   
   > been able to figure out what it's really *about*.  (Not the   
   > nursery rhyme, which according to incorrect folklore refers   
   > to the Black Death; Guthrie's unrelated song.  "Ring around,   
   > ring around Rose / Touch your nose and blow your toes /   
   > And mind after doin' the Ring-Around-A-Rosy-Rag.")  Can   
   > anyone here help?   
   >   
   I always figured it was just a nonsense song, kind of like some of Woody's   
   children's songs.  Musically I like it, so maybe Arlo was trying other   
   things musically; I'm not sure it sounds like the rest of his recorded   
   work. So maybe the lyrics didn't matter.   
      
   Of course, maybe it's a reference to drugs, something that just occurs to   
   me in looking up the lyrics.   
      
       Went in the park late at night   
       And he put a lot of people over eighty up tight   
      
   KIds often hung around in the park at night, and older people would be   
   upset.   
      
   The Motorcycle Song off the same album makes more sense, but still is   
   pretty vague.  I assume the pickle is in there becuase it sort of rhymes   
   with motorcycle.   
      
      Michael   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)