wellRED podcast - BUBBA SHOT THE PODCAST: "The Night The Lights Went Out in Georgia"

Episode Date: April 15, 2022

We are joined today by amazing country singer and songwriter Wade Sapp to discuss my Mama's favorite Reba song - "The Night The Lights Went Out in Georgia." We go full-in on the justice system, the good ol' boy system, and discuss the, uh, interesting choices made for the music video. We may have also uncovered some of the mystery of song's main family. And while you're at it, Wade's new song "Keep On Truckin" is out now and you can check it out on his youtube page here - youtube.com/wadesappmusic. 

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There are two cast members of the Carol Burnett show who were on every season. One is, of course, Carol Burnett. The only other one is Vicki Lawrence. Vicki Lawrence was so successful on the Carol Burnett show that she actually had a spinoff show called Mama's Family. Mama's family ran for six seasons on CBS, and again, as far as I know, the only spinoff show from a sketch show that led to a sitcom that actually worked.

Miss Lawrence won numerous Emmys, made a lot of money and got very famous on this show. So famous, in fact, that when her husband, songwriter Bobby Russell, couldn't find anyone to take his song, the night the light went out in Georgia because country people said it wasn't country enough and pop people said it was too dark. She said, you know what, Bobby? Fuck it. I'll record it myself. And that is how we got the song, the nights the light went, la la, the night the lights went out in Georgia into the zeitgeist, recorded the first time in 1973. but of course today we're talking about 90s country we're going to talk about a much more famous version of the song i can't wait welcome to bubble shot the podcast then i will cut all that and wait i will intro you and bring you on in just a moment okay i can't hear you but i can hear me and i can see you so cool right here we go only flubbed one line we're keeping it welcome to bubba shot the cop what the fuck is happening with me i think i'm drunk Welcome to Bubba Shot the podcast.

Gentlemen, first, the facts. The night the lights went out in Georgia is a Southern Gothic murder ballad written in 1972 by Bobby Russell, first recorded by his wife, as I've already mentioned, Vicki Lawrence. It went number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in that year and led to several other renditions of the song, none of which were hits except for our girl Reba McIntyre's hit for her album for my broken heart in 1991.

Her version, though, only peaked at number 12 on the Hot Country songs and on the billboard didn't do as well. I'm going to start right there. Does that surprise you, gentlemen? Yeah, I think I've actually said on a different episode of Bubba just randomly that I had just been like looking through songs that I knew that I wanted us to do. And of course, you know, I want to do a ton by Reba. and this is one of my favorite of her songs, and I saw that.

And yeah, it absolutely went upside my head. I was like, how at one point were there 11 songs better than this? Because, you know, it's really great. So, yeah, that blew my mind. Yeah, I didn't know. I knew that it was a cover, but I didn't know that whole backstory either. Me either. That's pretty wild.

So Vicki Lawrence hadn't done any singing. She was just an inter-time. She was certainly a triple threat. Like, right. Yeah, right. Old school type entertainers can do it all. But like she hadn't put records out and shit. And her husband, a songwriter, had a song, nobody else wanted.

So he was like, hey, you just do it. And then it was a number one hit and an iconic all-time jam. That's pretty goddamn wild. Could be wrong. But the way I read it, he wasn't like, hey, you just do it. She just did it. Yeah. She was like, baby, they keep telling you, you don't hit.

I think you do it. Now, he was accomplished. Don't make it out like he was desperate. and she gave him this one shot. But as best I could tell from reading, no, she just, like, did it. And she got the wrecking crew to do it, which if you're not familiar with recording studio lore,

the wrecking crew was the top group of musicians in L.A. at that time. They have, like, 400 Billboard hits between and among them because they were on everyone's album. So she went out and did it properly. I almost feel like it was like a gift to them or something, you know? Yeah, I mean, she's badass. Like, I don't know why she wouldn't have thought she could just do something and make it hit, which clearly, you know, she did.

But now I had no idea. Definitely depends on what kind of old boy he is, though. Like you got this song, you're trying to give it to famous people. Share, almost said yes, then rejected it. And then your wife's like, I'll just do it. Share. It's great to have that wife to do that. But like, dude, I'm now thinking about Cher doing this.

That would have banged, son. Tushar, is this song, were you familiar with it? I was not. Yeah. Yeah, I'm obviously familiar with Reba McIntyre, but this song specifically I'm not. And we'll get into it, but this lady that you have freeze framed on freaks the shit out of me. I have forgotten about the video and how haunted it was. Yeah.

I mean, she's literally reading lines over the song. I did not hit for me. I was about to say, yeah, okay, I didn't know when we were going to get into the video. I didn't recall this is like this song, All-Timer for me. Reba McIntyre's got two of my probably top three or five favorite covers of all time between this and fancy. I fucking loved this song, but I didn't remember the video at all and also watched it in preparation for this. And they made a lot of wild choices that I do not agree with. Me either.

Especially, like you said, it's a music video. Yeah. And they're doing lines over. the song's playing some of the hitness parts of the song I have a few theories we're going to get into it I'm going to bring in our guest and get into the lyrics before we break this

video apart too much further so I have a list of friends most of whom are musicians who I want on the show and I send them out you know text or whatever I'm like hey you want to be on the show here's the songs we've already done because I've found if I don't do that they request the ones

we've already done so I'm like here's songs that we've thought about doing and you want to talk about a quick reaction when that list went out to wade uh Wade was like not the lightsman in Georgia that's what I want we're doing it uh welcome to bubble shut the podcast Wade sat what's up buddy howdy what's up y'all first of all let me say the cool wild lighting you got going on makes you look like rube of McIntyre in this video and that hits for me this is an

Elizabeth Cook lighting special I borrowed just for this purpose so it looks like I'm very beautiful with long striking bond hair that's why. So you're saying Elizabeth Cook uses filters, and that's not true. I've seen her in person. What's up, buddy? How are you doing? You there in your workshop?

Yeah, this is the garage and where I get most of my thinking done. So this is a big thinker song, you know, I want to be prepared. Yeah, sure. You've been on the road a little bit. How's that been going? It's been the road. Yeah. Did you do the Outlaw Cruise?

I sure did, man. It was awesome. I got to basically swim in the waters of Belize with Ray Benson, and I found a starfish while passing him a joint. It was like, it was that big, I swear to God, man. What a fucking moment that you had. Yeah, me and Andy were thinking about doing that, but it was too expensive.

I'm certain that you got paid to be there. Well, we appreciate it, man. The way we do things, we're going to dive right in on these lyrics and start breaking them down, and we'll kind of bounce around, so be prepared for that. But, you know, folks out there listening, I always try to tell you guys the week before, get ready and watch the video.

Go watch this video right now. If you have not watched it recently, it will help you in this episode. But I'm going to go over the lyrics for you. 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 before he went home to her.

Andy Wolo said hello He said hi what's new And Wos said sit down I've got some bad news that's gonna hurt Said I'm your best friend And you know that's right But your young bride ain't home tonight Since you've been gone

She's been seeing that Amos boy Seth Now he got mad and he saw red And Andy said boy don't lose your head Because I'll tell you the truth I've 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. Don't trust your soul to know Backwood Southern Lawyer

because the judge in the town's got bloodstained on his hands. We're going to pause right there. What a great fucking open and verse. What a phenomenal scene setting. Everything, even the way that they use the chorus, which is kind of the end of the story in some ways. I guess it's not really the end of the story. The foreshadowing.

God damn. Yeah, I was going to say, like, obviously, I've loved every single song that we've done on this podcast, but I think it's inarguable that none of them have packed as much information into an opening verse as this one did. I mean, there's a shit, there's a lot of stuff there. Yeah, it's so much. And there's so many characters that you've got to grapple with all at one time.

They even mentioned a place called Candle Top. I love the specificity of that. And webs, which I guess is a bar. And then it's Andy Wolo. In the lyric sheet, it's W.O. L.O. as if it's a nickname, like his last name is Wollinsky and, you know, you know, how Southerners be. We ain't saying that. So we'll say Wolo. Yes.

So far, what we know is he's been cheated on. He just found out his best friend told him and said, before you get too mad at Amos, I too have been fucking her. Yeah. Let's not blow this out of proportion here. Right. And, oh, whoa, oh, whoa here. He's got an interesting approach. I don't know if it's like the guilt is just too much.

He's got to come clean or what. But he's like, well, I'll break the news by telling him she's fucking his other dude first. Yeah, you know. Get him real good and mad. Yeah, right. And then maybe I'll try to slip in there, the other part. Like, yeah, it's a bold strategy. Seems like it didn't play out.

It's funny to think about him slipping it in, like you said. I mean, it seems like he just came out and said it. But it's funny about him like, there's a whole list of them. John, and he reads his own name. Like, he don't even say maybe. Olo. Randy. Wade, I want to throw to you as a songwriter.

We pack so much into, how important is the first lines of a country song? It's the most important part. And I'm glad you asked me that, because that's, this song in particular, I've always been like, well, of course, she's cheating on the motherfucker. He's at the bar. He's been gone for two weeks, but he's like, I better pull in and get a beer real quick.

It's all there, first line. It's all there, first line. I don't want to, well, we'll get right into the video. Again, please, if you're listening right now, go and watch this fucking video. It opens with Riba as, well, at this point, I guess we're not sure who, if we're playing along in real time.

She looks like Chris Elliott from the scary movies. She's an older lady, she's looking back. She's telling us the story of this trial, and we know that she has some involvement, but we're not sure what yet. If you were watching this video for the first time in real time, you wouldn't yet know who she is. So my main thing with this video is,

I feel like this song famously, like they literally had a whole thing in reservoir dogs about it. This song famously, has a lot of information going on. Exposition out the ass. There's like a lot of story in this four minute long song that you got to pay attention to to follow. So then to add on extra spoken lines of dialogue that play simultaneously with the lyrics.

Yeah, like if you're going to pause it. It's like that's just a wild choice, man. I know what this song is about and I had trouble following this video because of that. Like it's just way too much. Two or three extra parts of the story that are in the song. They added shit. Yeah. Yeah.

I would also like to point out that for the past like four weeks, we have been like, man, I'll tell you what, they just don't make. Well, whatever. For a lot of this podcast, we've talked about how wild it is, that they just don't, some of these country songs ain't got videos to it. And then we finally get to one that does and we're like, well, this fucking sucks. You know, like we finally got what we want. All right, so I have a theory on that.

This is 1999's when this song came out. I was trying to forget when the video came out. I can't find, like, concrete evidence, but seemingly a bit later. I think Reba's recognizing as a young performer the value of a music video that others are kind of poo-pooing in the 90s in country music, A, and B, making her play here to be an actor. I think Reba was good in sitcoms. is horrific in this fucking music video. This is some of the worst acting I've ever fucking seen. I also

wondered if it had something to do with Reba also having ambitions as an actor as well. But I think like I feel like this video is just, it's overly ambitious. It's just too much. Right. It's almost like a young diva getting everything she wants who's trying to prove. It wasn't

lazy or there was no budget or they just shit something out or whatever. It was the opposite. It's like overdone, overproduced, over ambitious and it's way. too much and it just don't work. The song fucking rules, but the video, I thought was a pretty big misfire. Yeah, if they'd just made like, if they'd been like,

all right, we're doing a special here, and they'd made this video 10 minutes long and they've done all this stuff, but they had paused the song, done this, and then gone back to it. To me, I still would have been like, well, the song itself is good enough to not do this, but that would have been way better. But like you said, like, and I've got like sensory overload issues as it is, but I almost had to stop watching this shit.

I was just like, dude, I can't, everything's coming at me too quick. That's interesting you talk about sensory specifically, and you were talking about the budget, tray. I can remember as a kid, this particular, like, this scared me. Like, seeing this video and seeing these images, the black and white and the dark, Riba did a pretty good job when she wasn't talking as a young potential actor. It's when she's the old lady to deliver. in the lines that she needed some work. And again, she did improve.

I think Reba did a great job on her sitcom. For sure. But I think, you know, you're right. They overdid it. I don't like the video. But specifically the tone of it, the budget, whatever you want to say, like how good it looked. That was effective. This was a memorable song to me.

Yeah, but her as Maimaw Pennywise just ain't it. Yeah. Miss have some ham. That joke was for eight people. Who was the mom in the culture, guys? What was her name? That lady that talks real funny? Yeah, that's what that image reminds me up.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's get back to the lyrics real quick. Quick question. To the second, to the last first, that's the night they hung an innocent man. That's a chorus. That's why I read it. Right, right. I guess I don't understand the complete story yet,

because to Trey's point, when I was watching the video, it's like, what the fuck is going on? Like, the video's distracting from the actual song. So, Too Sharp, you weren't familiar with this song. Was your introduction to it watching the video? I actually oddly started the video without audio, and I couldn't get my headphones hidden.

And like, the first fucking 30 seconds are wild in this video without audio. Because they are wild. If that's the case, dude, I'm sure you don't have a fucking. clue what's going on. I don't know what's going on, man. Don't surprise me. What's happening? Well, you will find out then as we read these lyrics. That's great. We'll have some real, I'm reaction. I guess before I move on, let's go back to some of these lyrics, though. Let's talk about them from a craft standpoint. And we'll bring Wade in on that. I really love,

I really love, well, I already talked about how I love Wolo, that they just give them a nickname. It's a very country music song. I can't believe some people, said it wasn't country enough. I can understand Cher being worried that it's too country. I don't know if Cher can get away with saying Andy Wolo and boy sat down, let me tell you what, you know what I mean? Boy, sit down, let me tell you what.

There you go. No, I'm with you, Drew. When you said that earlier, I found it surprising that some people are like, oh, this ain't country enough. And I was like, is it just because I've always known and loved the Reba version? I don't hear that. But like murder ballads and all that stuff,

long, rich tradition. And like you said, there's a lot of little, fucking the small town sheriff and the southern logger and all there's a lot of tropes in here that i feel like are very super fucking southern slash country you know yeah it was a music thing because it was recorded in l.a by the demolition team you know it was not a country record when she vicky lawrence recorded it and i don't know way like would that be much of a problem now or do you think that's just like an excuse like i feel like now if you got a good song most people in Nashville are like, I can make it country.

Yeah, I mean, I don't want to talk about what's going on in Nashville right now. But I don't know. I'm still kind of laughing about you calling it the demolition. I know. Oh, the wrecking crew, my bad. That's awesome. The demolition thing. Now, that's who made the fucking video.

So I think it's more of the chorus than anything because it's very like power ballady. and at that point, I mean, when Vicki recorded it, there was not a lot of that kind of pageantry happening in country. I don't believe, not to my knowledge anyway. That makes sense. And, yeah, that music is, I would call it sweeping. Da-da-da-da-da-da. Yeah.

It sounds big. All right, let's get back to these lyrics then. Tushar, I'll go slow, not because you're done, but because you haven't heard this song. You've been listening to it without your headphones. Andy got scared and left the bar walking on home because he didn't live far you see Andy didn't have many friends and he just lost him one

brother thought his wife must have left town so he went home and finally found the only thing daddy had left him and that was a gun been there he went off to Andy's house so Andy left the bar and left brother whose name we don't know and he's upset with himself

He was walking home, and brother leaves the bar and goes home and finds his gun. Then brother went off to Andy's house, slipping 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 lying on the floor in a puddle of blood, and he started to shake. Now, this verse ain't over. This is a long verse. The Georgia Patrol was making.

their rounds, so he fired a shot just to flag him down, and a big-bellied sheriff grabbed his gun and said, why'd you do it? The judge said guilty, we're already, we've already skipped all the pageantry. The judge said guilty on a make-believe trial, slapped the sheriff on the back with a smile, and said, suppers waiting at home, and I got to 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 sold to no backwood southern lawyer because the judge in the town's got bloodstains on his hands. I love thinking about the sheriff listening to this song being like, you didn't have enough

words you had to throw in big belly there. You know what I mean? Like, God damn, man. And also, what was I supposed to think? I come upon this dude, he had a gun. He was like, hey, that guy that was fucking my wife is dead over there. Yeah, I didn't do it. And you're going to fat shame me.

Yeah, brother wasn't, you know, thinking ahead too awful much. feel like. I mean, I don't know. Back in this era in the South, you probably could fire a gun just to say, hey, what's up? You know, like it was just a common salute, even to the cops. You see the cops want to get their attention. You just pop off a few rounds. I mean, not for nothing. What's going on over there? Not for nothing. I hear gunshots all the time now and don't think anything about it. Right. But if a dude fires a gun off and you're like, oh, he must need something. Yeah. Oh, hey. Sorry, Terry. It wasn't paying attention. My bad. Yeah, right. I'll be right. there and then you get up there and the dude is standing by a gunshot corpse then you know you're going draw some conclusions for sure i got a bunch of questions on this part mostly for drew but i don't

know what else anybody else wants to say for we can follow down in that part yeah before you ask me i'll ask wait i'm going to put you on the spot a little bit here i think this song is incredible if i have to pick anything apart if i have to be anything as far as a critic and say anything negative about it verse is just taking me on such a long ride. It almost feels like they packed, and Trey, you alluded to it with, you know, in movies, they even talk about how much exposition is in this song. It's impressive how much they fit in. I don't know, Wade, defend the song or agree with me.

What do you think about the amount of exposition and how far we go in one verse here? I love it. I love detail, and I think it's done really eloquently with simple lyrics. I love the part where it's like suppers waiting and I got to get to it. Like the dinner was more important than this man's rest of his wife. Hell yeah. That's my favorite line. Yeah, it's definitely the case in the justice system.

In most cases, unless you have a shitload of money. Yeah. So they're putting a lot in here. That's an accurate statement. Yeah, I mean, it does work. I'm not going to lie. It's just a lot. And I think it's definitely one of those songs,

and I'll throw it to you, too, Char. I know it. So I can't remember what it was like the first time. Right. But like, this is an overwhelming amount of information. This is a lot, man. This is what I felt during Beowulf in fifth grade. What is going on here?

I was going to say Canterbury Tales, but yeah, that tracks too. And it feels like the, like the opening scene of shocking. shank you know is that is that a thing that's in the yes yes where where he finds finds finds his wife and his lover but he didn't do it yeah i mean just reading through this the jumps it makes in time and it kind of goes from this super serious thing to the you know big bellied sheriff almost like a loose it the song does such a good job and balancing how serious the story is with just kind of like he grabbed his gun why'd you do it he moved on to eat dinner it was almost like it's it's like it's a very hard to pull off okay changing years here i would say that that's what makes it southern gothic and i would say that that is something that

our area of the country well i don't know if it's a geographic fact that genre both in literature and in music and other forms of art we just pull we just do pull that off better than most other forms of Western art. Just pulling off the dark with the flip, we stated matter-of-factly, and, you know, literature has more examples that I can personally think of than anything else, but I think that that's our gift, and it hits for me. Yeah, y'all do dark well, ironically. All right, so, okay, first of all, I never let the truth get in the way of a good story,

So none of the answers to these questions impact my enjoyment of the song, which I love. But I'm wondering, Drew, you was a logger, public defender, all that. This is way back in the day. Tushar mentioned the jumps in time and whatnot. But it's the night the latch went out in Georgia. She mentions skipping ahead a tiny bit a little bit later that they hung her brother before she could say anything about it. The judge, you know, guilty on a make-believe trial said, I got to get home. Supper's waiting on me.

I got to get to it and all that. And it's like, how quickly did all this come? together. Like literally pretty is this effectively a lynching you know situation and either way I know that you know of course South did all kinds of that but if you're talking about like if these people are white

which I've always assumed like did that type of shit go down in the small town south way back in the day also like this is the type of thing that could and did happen they just find somebody well he clearly did it well hang his ass beans are getting cold. Sure as far as I know is that what happens

in this song. See I've struggled with that myself. And if I'm honest with you, so I have a few theories. Like, I can talk about this from the perspective of like thinking about this songwriter, or we can do that thing where we only do what's inside the song and kind of go from there. Well, this is how I had to have gone down. I'll start with that. Linchings did happen, but we're not describing a lynching here. This was absolutely approved by the powers who decide in this particular situation. whether or not you get, you know, guilty or death or whatever. You know what I mean?

This was official. It might have been hurting. It's a white lynching. Sure. But like to your question, yes, they did lynch white people for murder and stuff like that way back in the day. We don't know what era this is set. But inside the song, we have allusions to it not being a lynching, even if it was effectively a lynching, which is that there was some sort of trial.

he had a lawyer that he trusted the soul to and he should not have done that. Right. So I'm going to get outside the song and talk about the songwriter in just a minute, but inside the song, for me, my theory, with just working with the lyrics,

and we've kind of skipped ahead to the third verse, I think the line they hung my brother before I could say is not a literal before I could actually get the words out. It is before I could make an appeal you know what I've done

process what's happening and process that this maybe I've always assumed perhaps the sister thought he was going to get a not guilty thinking he would not get a sham trial and then he got a sham trial and she regrets it that's a stretch

I feel like that one question and I wonder what Wade thinks about it too changes a lot about the sister in the song in my opinion like if it was more like a It's like they caught him body smoking gun literally calls the fucking judge. This is what happened. It's like, well, string his ass up because this is fucking old school south or whatever.

And that happens. And the sister finds out later that all that happened. And that's a very different story than if she murders this guy to Avenger Brothers on her. And then her brother gets arrested and she knows that. And they sit in the town together for any amount of time. And she, you know, and then eventually he gets hanged. Like a long black male. Just lives with it that way.

those are two very different things in my opinion so i don't know way what do you think about it about uh the timeline of like how quickly he was hung hanged by these people like well if he's found guilty then i i think that makes pretty good sense as a songwriter just because you're trying to fit a lot into a verse so you think it is it's a time jump situation there was a trial however much of a sham trial. Yeah, it's just kind of it's in the same turn of events. And I think you can, also the fact that the judge said guilty, don't, don't overread into that because, you know, in a jury trial, the judge still reads the verdict in some jurisdictions. And, you know, but, but it's also possible that this was meant to be written about a time

where this particular songwriter thought, and that's just how it goes in the South in 1910, And maybe it did in 19-20. Yeah. Yeah. I believe that. I mean, gosh, when did hanging stop in Georgia, you know? I think last week. Yeah.

They took a break for the spring. Yeah. No shit. Yeah. Anybody have any competing thoughts, theories, questions related to that? I have one, not related to that. No. I have a bit about this first.

Just about the lawyer, because he doesn't really get mentioned anywhere about the chorus and he's, you know, don't trust your soul to him. I wonder if she was fucking the lawyer too. He's like, yeah. If he's in jail, then not a problem. I'm glad you brought that up because do you wonder that simply because the video, now just implies explicitly states that she was fucking the judge. Judge. Yeah. Oh. Right. Well, that's another thing about the video. They add additional information to the story of this already complex song

and then present it simultaneously with the existing information from the song itself. But yeah, they said she was fucking the judge and that's why he hung the guy. That for me is like, we've talked about this when we're making shows before

where you talk about a character you love to watch but you'd hate to live with. If I was making this video, I would be so against that like what this is insane it's already a convoluted story but now watching this 20 years later it hits for me that they have muddied the waters so we have more to talk about and I wonder what's going in there they made her even more of a whore yeah hard to do I mean I was bad to say god damn you know double down on the whore it makes sense man she was that boy amos yeah it was amos

wolo the old-ass judge and and like you see the judge in the video So it's not like an interpretation thing. It's like as a person telling a story, you're telling me this is a guy she was fucking. He's just an old gross guy. This is the smell of the leftover tuna fish sandwich you left in your lunchbox over the weekend in a wimpy trash bag. Wimpy, wimpy, wimpy, wimpy. And this is the smell of that same sandwich in a hefty, ultra-strong trash bag. Hefty, hefty, hefty.

Smell the difference? Hefty ultra-strong has arm and hammer with, continuous odor control. So no matter what's inside your trash, you can stay one step ahead of stinky. And for bigger jobs, try the superior strength of hefty large black bags. I don't know, that's just wild to me.

They've just really gone... They jump a shark at this video, in my opinion. Hors often fuck old gross dudes, I mean, and thank God for them. You know what I mean? We're not there. Well, especially like the judge in a small town, he got, you know, the judge in every small town

is rich by small town standards and also powerful. So, you know, how many who knows, a lot of old small town judges, they do probably fuck horrors, but not ones that look like the lady in this video. Sure.

Yeah, there's another thing they do in the video, which I'll wait because we're not to that part of the lyrics yet, but it's not only adding something, it's adding something that I feel like is almost contradictory. But anyway, go ahead. All right, so before we move on, let's circle back to some of this stuff. So just so we're clear,

this guy's left his house, slipped through the woods, he's going to murder Andy. He's got a gun in his hand. When he gets there, Andy's already dead lying on the floor. He sees a cop car, so he shoots his gun to get their attention,

and then the sheriff sees what's going on and is like, you clearly did this, why? And he's fat for no reason. The judge says guilty on a make-believe trial. There was a trial of some sort, or maybe the writer is saying there was no trial,

but we pretended that there was. was, slaps the sheriff on the back with a smile and said, supper's waiting at home and I got to get to it. Now that is one thing that bothers me about the video like where I said, if I was making it, I think that's a great line. You brought it up earlier

Wade. It's my favorite line on the song because it is a very great reflection of good old boy justice, where it's like my life is so much more important, even the minute details of it, like getting the supper on time, it's so much more important.

than this person because I know they're guilty. So why would I give a fuck? That I'm just going to rush this and get home for supper. And then the video makes it about sex. And he was also fucking this woman. And as far as giving us fodder to talk about, that's funny to me. But as far as like the song itself, it kind of bothers me because I think this is one of the coolest parts of the song.

And to me, the video ruined it a little bit. Yeah, he don't need any extra motivation to be a piece of shit, this small town judge. Sheriff told him he did it. Fuck him. yeah i mean that's not like texas justice back in like that that did go down where they were like well he was there there's a witness boom fuck it why why do paperwork you know everybody's better off i'm glad you said that i meant to bring that up earlier there definitely was a time where this was legal to do it this way but that would more be generally speaking in the time of like marshals like part of the reason it was

legal is because where you were at didn't really have a court because it wasn't even a fucking state you know what i mean so i thought of that earlier but I don't think that's what it is. But anyway, I don't want to get too far into the weeds. I'm just saying that that's my favorite part of it, is the kind of like, sometimes the justice and does this to poor people. And remember, the only thing this guy's daddy left him was a gun.

Mm-hmm. You ready to move on? Cool. All right. Last verse. 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 cheating wife had never left town that's one body that'll never be found you see when little sister don't miss when she aims her gun that's the night the lights went out in Georgia that's the night that they hung an innocent man well don't trust your soul or no backwood southern lawyer because the judge in the town's got bloodstains on his hand

first of all let me say I love that the last verse is the shortest one I love that they ran out of shit to say god damn well they just they only had one more thing to say A little sister did this, and then I really love the line about, you know, she don't miss when she aims her gun. But as far as the story goes, what a twist.

You like a song with a twist, Wade? I love a song with a twist. I also have a theory about that I just came up with. And I think that Georgia is the name of the wife. Oh. Oh, all right. That's great. I've never heard that before.

That's awesome. Yeah. That's my head cannon now. I don't give a shit if it was intended or not. I'm going with that. I love that. That's fucking rad. Yeah.

That is rad. Then it's always lurking the whole song, you know, that she also killed a lot. Yeah. And that's expert songwriting. That doesn't get better, you know. Especially if you don't reveal it. You just take that with you, you know. Yeah.

Do they mention Georgia anywhere with the chorus? Mm-mm. Like, that says a geographical, just as Southern. No, I mean, yeah. There was a whole bunch of stuff about small town stuff, but I mean, that could be anywhere, you know.

Yeah. The only other possible theory, it's got to be the state, the wife, or I guess it could be the sister, her own lights went out because they hung her brother. Because it does feel like it happened on the same night, right?

The night the lights went out in Georgia, there's the same nights that they hung an innocent man. Right, right. I did find reference to, but to me this doesn't go against what you're saying. This would make it even cooler because it would be a double entendre. Right.

when you do the electric chair back then it would make the town's lights flicker I've seen reference to that in some movies that's what I've always thought no but see that I'm glad Drew brought that because that's in my brain I've always just been like that's

like you know in Shawshank that happens at flickers or whatever I was like that's what it was but then it's like yeah they hung in those so it wouldn't have been the electric chair so now Wade's theory actually holds more water because like other than that it's only metaphorically right it also would mean that it all did happen in one night, I think, if that, you know, because like you're

talking about, which again, I'm like for that interpretation anyway, but I see how it could be interpreted in either direction. But what I was saying about the video, so like, the song starts, they hung my brother before I could say the tracks, uh, he found that day, uh, to Andy's house and back that night were mine. To me, that explicitly states she had gone there, shot Andy and left before the brother shows up, right? And so he don't know that it was like. He has no idea it was her. Well, in the video, they had her there with.

He's like, get out of there. And he's like, and they make it, they make it him making a choice to take the fall for her. He's like, get out of here. I can't let you go down for this. And it's like, that ain't, that ain't in the song. And I feel like it's like addressing that thing I was saying earlier about her letting it happen. They added a thing in the video where it's like, this is why she let it happen, by the way.

her brother demanded it. But that's not in the song, and it's just another weird thing. They added to the video. It makes the whole thing confusing. But, yeah, I don't know. And I just like that. Me too. I don't like it either.

I didn't like that they added the judge other than as fodder for us to talk about because it's funny to me. They added one more thing that I did kind of like, which is that she killed them both because she was also sleeping with her husband. you're right they did yes they also added that that's true it's again they have just really horrid I'm telling you what buddy half the town bed now because yeah everybody she foot went down yeah or is involved in rap you know hiding this uh let me hear for some other folks what do you how do y'all feel about what the video added like against for some against

some. I'd have to watch it again, but like, first off, I feel really, I hate that this was Tushar's, you know, first time ever experiencing this song, because there's like almost no way he can put that fucking genie back in the bottle. But like, to me, it's just like, again, I love the idea of, hey, we've got a music video, let's take some artistic license and do some other stuff, but like, the putting it on top of everything is just not good. And it just, Just don't do that. The lyrics are great. Have all this there, but don't have nobody talking.

And it'd be wonderful. Wade, what do you think? It's added at least three things we've covered to the story, which is that the judge was sleeping with her. She was also sleeping with the sister's. Fiance, her husband, one. I don't remember. And he saw his sister there and told her to leave.

None of that's in the song. How do you feel about those things together or individually? I think that's unnecessary. very in a word. Yeah. I gotta be honest, I haven't seen this video since I was like drunk about maybe a year ago. And I got a digital antenna so I could pick up Liz's fishing show. And there's a channel here in Nashville called Heartland.

And it's all 90s music videos constantly. It's very, very badass. So I haven't seen this video in about a year. But all of this makes total sense. It really, really, really hits for me. The country song you just wrote for us, where in order to watch your partners fish and so, you have put up an antenna on your house

and are watching it illegally. And in Alba, what do you think? I never, I'm skimming through the video right now. I'm looking for a big-bellied cop. Don't see him. Yeah, that's what. What the hell is that? Fuck what they added.

What about what they left out? Yeah, what they left out, man. Yeah, they got a big old goalie-neck judge. He's got like three chins, but they didn't put a cop in there. It's like the judge was the fat cop and the judge all in one character. Yeah, I mean, this video gave me anxiety. I'm a pretty calm person overall, but I mean, there's for sure no Bollywood equivalent of this song. I don't even, although it does pack an epic tale.

What would be, is there any rap equivalent? There's a lot of rap songs about horrors deserving to die, so probably. Yeah, I don't know. I've been sitting here trying to think of it. The only one I could think of is the one I already used recently. It's more applicable to this song than the other one, and it's Undying Love by Nause. It's way more directly related to this than to Independence Day.

Yeah. Yeah, because it's a song about a guy who finds his wife cheating on him and kills everybody. It ain't a sister that does it. It's just him. But yeah. And it's very much a story song. And it's got a twist at the end also.

And it's real fucked up and dark and all that. So that's the best thing I can think of, even though I already used it before. Saw Nas last week. Shout out to Nas. If you're watching, buddy, come on the podcast anytime.

That was a great concert. You saw, you saw Nas? Yeah. I bet that was awesome. It was awesome. He was great. Okay, what was I going to ask?

Oh, I do have one more thing that they added that's not significant, but it just was funny to me. So maybe I'll get to that real quick before we start our final parts and wrap-ups. Let me, here we go. I can't make this picture not have the next video part in it. I tried a few times. But at the very end, so the premise of the video, which we have not covered,

is that Little Sister is recounting this tale to a newsman. And one thing I did notice is she tells him to sit down right before the lyric in the song, has the guy sat down. That was the only time the music video made any sense to me. But she has him sit down, she recounts this story to him, and then at the end of the video,

we see that he writes this story. And I just love that whoever's job it was, in the art department to make this newspaper. It was like, all right, we're going to put this on the cover, but we also, we've got to have these other stories in there. Licensing procedure, telephone service, gas. Metal detectors. Yeah, the gas hike faces stiff opposition.

Even back then, they thought politicians could control gas prices. That's amazing. Yeah, that ain't going nowhere. Where is Sunnertown? That's what I was about to ask. I'm glad you brought that up. I don't know. I don't know of the summertime, Georgia.

There's a Summertown, Tennessee, but it's around where Katie's from, but it's, I mean, it's nothing. Is that S-U-M-E? I'm on my phone, so. Oh, you're right. It's S-U-M-E, it's one M. The Summertown Tennessee has two-E-M's. You're right. And so does the Summertown, Georgia.

Okay, so there is a summertime Georgia with two M's, is what you're saying. My other question about this, I just to see if it ties in with the song any less is what's the date on there. That I can't. I can't quite zoom in on it. Oh, wait. It looks like either 84 or 94. It can't be 94 unless I said it in the future, which would have been a hilarious choice for them to make to add to the number of other choices.

You're like, this is four years in the future. Why? Because we're doing stuff, man. We got to make an art. We're really getting with it. It's art, yeah. It's real hard to see. What I will say is it's not the 70s or the 60s as best I could tell.

It doesn't talk about how much they hate black people on the front of the paper for one instance. So I think that it's the 80s. 40-year-old murder, it happens in the 40s. Now, again, we're getting this from the music video, not from the song, but it's so hard to imagine a sham trial being able to happen in the 40s. Although, let me not misspeak. So there's a famous case in the United States that cemented your right to an attorney, and it's called Gideon versus the United States.

Gideon didn't happen until, I want to say, late 50s, early 60s. 60s. So I guess as I'm thinking through this, going back to your first question to me, Trey, maybe it is possible that in the 40s in a small town in America, you could just do this and get away with it. And you would have no recourse to appeal unless you had money because your lawyer sucking didn't matter. And also, you didn't even have a right to a lawyer anyway. That was added. I would say if it was stated that the characters in this song are black, it really wouldn't even be a question. Like, you know, you honestly wouldn't think anything about it in the 40s in Georgia that something like that happened. You're right.

It's literally just because written by a white guy and it's always been saying by white people and it's a country song. I always assumed the characters in it are white and you're like, would they really do something like that? Yeah, for me it was always more like how could they? but the more I'm thinking about it Gideon v. Wainwright was that decision and it was in 1963 Yeah and I think it started

His case started in the late 50s He appealed by saying that his right to a fair trial which is constitutionally protected meant that he should have a right to a lawyer So a lot of people think that the Constitution says you have a right to a lawyer It doesn't the Supreme Court said That because it has

Because it says you have the right to a fair trial we have to give you a lawyer if you can't afford one. But for the better part of 200 years, America was like, ah, good luck. Yeah. Right. Well, you've convinced me all of you, but you specifically, Trey, that the sister is a lot more innocent in terms of she couldn't confess because it was over with before she had a chance.

Her brother was dead before she had a chance to even know. but see that makes me even angrier about the video you know them adding that get out of here i think she left and was like the next morning found out that you know more people died than she thought yeah i mean honestly that's mostly because of just that and i know the the actual night that it happened could have been weeks or months later i'm aware of that but i just kind of always interpreted it this way despite knowing that it was like you know weird or wild however you want to put it that it all went down in one night and you know that's why but yeah i always kind of internalized it that way for whatever reason i also want to add how sharp you wadar and the songwriter

and everyone who interpreted it properly compared to whoever made this music video like the idea that you have to give this judge this fucked up reason to be this way i know just belies that old American, I watch law and order and I think that it would never happen. That's right. Early 90s. The justice system always works. Absolutely. They were like, a judge would never do something like that unless we justify it somehow, you know.

Great. Oh, man. What a country. All right. So we're going with Nas because I have no other. We always compare them to rap songs Wade. And then we sometimes compare them to Bollywood. I can't tell if that was a bad.

bit that went too far or if we like doing that but too sure says we have no bollywood comparison yeah i don't think i think it's just that he's dropped the ball every god damn way is really what it is i think it's that he's not that big of a bollywood fan and we just asked our indian friend to speak on behalf of indians i would say that he has explicitly said as much to us yeah i would say that we keep and yet we keep doing the same thing we no you know india stuff despite the fact that he has I would say we're doing it right now. We keep interrupting each other so that he can't talk and tell us how he feels. I thought I was...

Anyway, Wade, what I wanted to ask you... That's hilarious. Go ahead. Too short. No, I'm not. I'm a white man. So I don't know nothing about Indian stuff. Now, this song specifically, there's so much...

I don't know, wait, I guess I have a question for you as a songwriter. How often... Because this song has characters that could be as deeper shallow as, I don't know what was in the songwriter's head. But it's one of those songs where each character could have a backstory and then you just end up coming out with this piece of work. Like, I don't know how, like, is that something that you sense from this song? Or is it, this is an attack on the justice system and there's a plot twist at the end. type of thing. Like, was there intent in this song, or, because it's so open to interpretation, obviously,

by the video and by us. Yeah. I think the best songs are open for interpretation, but also have to tell a very, this is a very specific story with a lot of details. What was your specific question? I guess, like, do you think the, the songwriter had a, like, I guess it's hard to get an assignment. Oh, right, right, right.

I got, I got you. I don't know. I don't think it was like a political message or some drive like that. I think it was just a matter of fact for the way that things truly were in the American South and that time. Yeah, that makes sense. It's like, it always was accepted as like, yeah, that's the way it is. As a kid, even, I thought that. Yeah.

Things are broken. It is what it is. It's kind of a very kind of like a right-leaning. thing government that can't do shit kind of ideology I feel if you read into it maybe well also until it actually happens to

you and your white family just why I'm just saying everybody's like no it's just that if you can't do the crime don't do the time you know what I'm saying like I would never be in that position and then you are and then it's like wait a minute I think this is broken but then they hang you before your sister can say shit

yeah we've all been there yeah I will say as far as Mr. Russell goes, the only thing I could find as far as what he said about the song is that he didn't like it. That's amazing. Perfect. The dude who wrote it,

never liked it. Yeah, well, my wife recorded it. God damn. What do you think? Of course I don't like it. Well,

that apparently, you're going to be forever. I got to hear it every day. Well, that apparently is part of why she did it. That's what I was kind of joking about earlier. I don't know if it hit for him or not. He wouldn't like show people.

So she went out and was trying to shop it to her famous friends. That's how I got him, going to share who thought she was going to do it, then changed her mind. And then so anyway, that doesn't tell us anything about his intent, but it is funny that he doesn't like it. It's like a spite song in some way. It's great. Yeah.

All right. I think it's probably time for rating. I forgot the prime way. We rate everything, a scale of one to three, Del Earnhardt's, and you can break it down by thirds. So you can give a song two and two thirds Del Earnhardt's or whatever you feel. I'll let you process that. I won't make you go first.

I'll go first. I'm giving it three Earnhardt's if I don't think about the video. If a part of our rating is to include the video, it knocks it down to a two and one third for me. This is one of the worst videos of all time, and it doesn't have to be. It looks great. The ideas, except for the extra ones, are so cool, but then they talk over it. Reba cannot act you. Again, she learned how to, but this was early work.

It was bad. I'm going three earned hurts for the song. one earnhard for the video that's that's where I'm at two three for the song one for the video for sure but just trying my best to forget that I ever saw that I mean it's a

it's a it's a three out of three man it's a banger packs a lot of information it's dark it's catchy it's Broadway-esque I just I love it it's phenomenal yeah me too same same rating keeping it across the board I agree with you guys. Definitely three for the song,

everything you said. I've always loved story songs, cinematic songs, murder ballads. I love all that shit. This is a great example of all those. One of my favorite covers of all time. I can love Reba's rendition.

And also, I have a younger sister who I definitely could see killing some horror on my behalf. Because she, a little crazy. I said that to people before in describing my sister.

Like, oh, dude, she will, the night the lights went out in Georgia, your ass. so quick if you fuck with me and people are usually like I don't know what that means but anyway so yeah I don't know why bubby they didn't have to make it where like he was she was fucking my man too I'd have just shot her for you yeah that definitely wasn't it for page because I'd have waited on the cops to show up though that's right but anyway for all those reasons and more I concur with the three out of three iron hearts for sure for the song yeah less said about

the video the better to piggyback on that a little bit you mentioned the story you know when we first conceived of this. I wanted this to be a storytelling song podcast, but I quickly realize it's more of a nostalgia podcast. There's too many great 90s country songs. But that said, when I first thought of it, this was at the top of my list. It's just such a great story. Go ahead, give us your rating, Tushar. I'm not going to have an original thought here. I'll go three and one as well. I think the video is disorienting and weird and actually somewhat entertaining. If you take it out of like if you don't give it that yeah if you don't want to respect the song and just look at the video as like who the fuck worked on this thing and thought this was okay but i really

i'm sure they listen to this podcast and we're going to hear about it uh but the but the song itself i mean what crazy story and i love how straight everyone in the story is a piece of shit You know, like everyone's a villain in some way, and that's so hard to do. Oh, yeah. There's no winner. There's no like. Yeah, because his boy went to kill him. Right.

And like Wade pointed out astutely, he stopped at the bar. My forever been gone two weeks. Right. And then his friend's banging his wife. And then he's, you know, they're all complicit in being a piece of shit. And then you still want to. Yeah. It's fascinating.

So it's hard to pull off in that sense. So yeah, three for the song for sure. Wade? I was going to say it sounds like my hometown. I mean, it really is a matter of fact type of song. It's very much that. I'm going to go with the last time I saw the video and how good time I was having that whole night

watching when I discovered Heartland Television. So three, Dale Earnie. Yeah. Three. One of his head to toe legit, baby. Oh, yeah. I took that picture with a Kodak disposed. camera and it was like the year he died they took his car on tour and took put it in parking lots and let rednecks take pictures of it they did the same thing with lincoln man yeah yeah it's the only fair what's that tell you about del earnhart you got damn right exactly the intimidator and the emancipator one and the same right whole country had to grieve baby yeah who's done more to bring us together than those two figures that's right in arguable

Well, I appreciate everybody. Way, before I let you go, I'll let you plug anything you want to plug. It'll be a few weeks where this comes out, but definitely plug your socials and generally tell people where they find your music, which is great. Thanks, man. It's at Wade Sapp, W-A-D-E-S-A-P, or just go to WadeSap.com. There's a link to all that stuff. I think on TikTok, it's Wade-Sat TikTok, which I refuse to use. But my manager is insistent. So I have an album coming out July 15th. There we go. That just made my whole, I want to throw up now. I'll be right back.

Yeah, I'm very excited. I made this record like five years ago, and it's hard for a fobo to put out of record properly. So this is a miracle, and the first single comes out Friday. Well, that's amazing. Congrats, ma. Yeah. So where do you want people to listen to it?

because whenever this comes out, your single will already be out. I just wanted to listen to it. I don't care. What's it called? Because, like I said, this will come out. You're not giving away anything secret. This will be out after it's already out. Gotcha.

The single comes out, like I said, Friday, it's called Keep on Trucking. And it's about my mom's second husband and driving down the road. He was a trucker. And, yeah, you said, set me on his lap and let me steer the truck going like 80 as he was high on white crosses. Yeah, buddy. Yeah. They didn't work out. They didn't work out.

Did he murder any horse? Don't answer that. Not to my knowledge, but yeah. Good to answer. My mom, a damn near murdered him. Oh, man. Well, that's great. One interesting fact to what about the song.

Can you play audio on this podcast? Is that okay? It was a song. Yeah. It's your song, right? Sina. Oh, I know. I was going to bring that up.

I forgot to. Hell yeah. I thought you made it. That is a cover. by Pete Schofield and the Canadians of the Nightly Lights went out in Georgia and they sampled it for John Cena's song. What? Holy shit.

Corey, I meant to tell you that and that's my bad and thank you, Wade, for bringing it up. If you want to host this podcast, buddy, you can't. I don't know if you could see how fucking hype I got as soon as you started playing Sina. It's John Sina. Yeah, John Sina, Night's Lines Swayne out in Georgia. It's double connected to, you know, the entertainment business. with, you know, comedian Vicki Lawrence being the only reason it exists in the American Zite guys,

which is just, that's so crazy. Yeah, that's crazy. I'm probably going to read. Music and wrestling. Right. Yeah. Comedy and wrestling. It's all there, man.

It's all there. It's all the same. This is our culture, too, Sharf. What do you think about? Number one. I appreciate everybody. I'm going to let everyone go. See, y'all.

You get to it. You get you separate, boy.