Tuesday July 6, 2021 “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia” Vicki Lawrence

OK, for me this one hitter is also one of the wackiest story songs ever.

Follow me here: so the singer’s brother returns from a two week trip and runs into his best friend Andy when he stops at a local bar for a beer.  Well right off Andy tells him that ‘brothers’ wife has been sleeping with Seth and, oh yeah she has also been sleeping with Andy too, he proudly professes...and it’s only been two weeks, and this is his ‘best friend”!?

Well ‘brother’ gets mad and then he gets a gun and heads for Andy’s house only to find him already dead but luckily the sheriff is nearby so he stops by Andy’s house and arrests ‘brother’ and I guess in one of the swiftest courses of injustice, hangs him.

If you’re still with me here’s where it gets even more disturbing because the singer then acknowledges that she is the one that killed Andy and was apparently perfectly willing to let her brother hang for that crime and, ooops she also killed her brother's wife.

‘Brother’ really could have had a better best friend and certainly a more faithful wife and perhaps a more stable sister,  but heck he had been gone for two weeks.

This 1973 number one hit was written by singer Vicki Lawrence’s then husband Bobby Russell who also gave us that wonderfully sad Bobby Goldsboro tune “Honey”.

Stay safe and well...and welcome home ‘brother’!?!?

He was on his way home from Candletop

Been two weeks gone and he thought he'd stop

At Webb's and have him a drink 'fore he went home to her

Andy Wolloe said "Hello"

And he said "Hi, what's doin', Wo?"

Said, "Sit down, I got some bad news and it's gonna hurt"

He said "I'm your best friend and you know that's right"

"But your young bride ain't home tonight"

"Since you been gone she's been seein' that Amos boy, Seth "

Well, he got mad 'n' he saw red and Andy said "Boy, don'tcha lose your head"

" 'cause to tell ya the truth, I been with her myself"

 That's the night that the lights went out in Georgia

That's the night that they hung an innocent man

Well, don't trust your soul to no backwoods Southern lawyer

'cause the judge in the town's got bloodstains on his hands

 Well, Andy got scared and left the bar

Walkin' on home 'cause he didn't live far

See, Andy didn't have many friends and he'd just lost him one

Brother thought his wife musta left town

So he went home and finally found

The only thing Papa had left him, that was a gun

 And he went off to Andy's house

Slippin' through the backwoods quiet as a mouse

Came upon some tracks too small for Andy to make

He looked through the screen at the back-porch door

And he saw Andy lyin' on the floor

In a puddle of blood and he started to shake

 Well, the Georgia Patrol was a'makin' their rounds

So he fired a shot just to flag 'em down

And a big-bellied sheriff got his gun and said "why'dya do it?"

And the judge said "Guilty" in a make-believe trial

And slapped the sheriff on the back with a smile

Said' supper's waitin' at home and I gotta get to it"

 That's the night that the lights went out in Georgia

That's the night that they hung an innocent man

Well, don't trust your soul to no backwoods Southern lawyer

'cause the judge in the town's got bloodstains on his hands

 Well, they hung my brother before I could say

The tracks he saw while on his way

To Andy's house and back that night were mine

And his cheatin' wife had never left town

And that's one body that'll never be found

See, little sister don't miss when she aims her gun

 That's the night that the lights went out in Georgia, oh-oh-aah

That's the night that they hung an innocent man, ah-huh-unh

Well, don't trust your soul to no backwoods Southern lawyer

 FADE

'cause the judge in the town's got bloodstains on his hands