Board Thread:What Would You Do?/@comment-99.184.74.157-20190620085052/@comment-36855838-20190620115312

Prostyprotos wrote:

I think im missing something, what's wrong with the name Sue?

Ah, you haven't heard, it's in a pair of songs, one by Shel Silverstein.

The original song:

Well my daddy left home when I was three

And he didn't leave much to Ma and me

Just this old guitar and an empty bottle of booze

Now, I don't blame him 'cause he run and hid

But the meanest thing that he ever did

Was before he left, he went and named me "Sue"

Well, he must o' thought that is quite a joke

And it got a lot of laughs from a' lots of folk

It seems I had to fight my whole life through

Some gal would giggle and I'd get red

And some guy'd laugh and I'd bust his head

I tell ya, life ain't easy for a boy named "Sue"

Well, I grew up quick and I grew up mean

My fist got hard and my wits got keen

Roam from town to town to hide my shame

But I made me a vow to the moon and stars

I'd search the honky-tonks and bars

And kill that man who gave me that awful name

Well, it was Gatlinburg in mid-July

And I just hit town and my throat was dry

I thought I'd stop and have myself a brew

At an old saloon on a street of mud

There at a table, dealing stud

Sat the dirty, mangy dog that named me "Sue"

Well, I knew that snake was my own sweet dad

From a worn-out picture that my mother'd had

And I knew that scar on his cheek and his evil eye

He was big and bent and gray and old

And I looked at him and my blood ran cold

And I said: "My name is 'Sue!' How do you do!?

Now you gonna die!"

Yeah that's what I told 'em

Well, I hit him hard right between the eyes

And he went down, but to my surprise

He come up with a knife and cut off a piece of my ear

But I busted a chair right across his teeth

And we crashed through the wall and into the street

Kicking and a' gouging in the mud and the blood and the beer

I tell ya, I've fought tougher men

But I really can't remember when

He kicked like a mule and he bit like a crocodile

I heard him laugh and then I heard him cuss

He went for his gun and I pulled mine first

He stood there lookin' at me and I saw him smile

And he said, "Son, this world is rough

And if a man's gonna make it, he's gotta be tough

And I know I wouldn't be there to help ya along

So I give ya that name and I said goodbye

I knew you'd have to get tough or die

And it's the name that helped to make you strong"

Yeah he said, "Now you just fought one hell of a fight

And I know you hate me, and you got the right

To kill me now, and I wouldn't blame you if you do

But ya ought to thank me, before I die

For the gravel in ya guts and the spit in ya eye

'Cause I'm the son-of-a-bitch that named you "Sue"

Yeah what could I do, what could I do

I got all choked up and I threw down my gun

Called him my Pa, and he called me his son

And I come away with a different point of view

And I think about him, now and then

Every time I try and every time I win

And if I ever have a son, I think I'm gonna name him

Bill or George! Anything but Sue! I still hate that name! Yeah.

(As for Shel, he's probably more famous for children's poems, like backward bill.)

Backward Bill, Backward Bill,

He lives way up on Backward Hill,

Which is really a hole in the sandy ground

(But that's a hill turned upside down).

Backward Bill's got a backward shack

With a big front porch that's built out back.

You walk through the window and look out the door

And the cellar is up on the very top floor.

Backward Bill he rides like the wind

Don't know where he's going but sees where he's been.

His spurs they go "neigh" and his horse it goes "clang,"

And his six-gun goes "gnab," it never goes "bang."

Backward Bill's got a backward pup,

They eat their supper when the sun comes up,

And he's got a wife named Backward Lil,

"She's my own true hate," says Backward Bill.

Backward Bill wears his hat on his toes

And puts on his underwear over his clothes.

And come every payday he pays his boss,

And rides off a-smilin' a-carryin' his hoss.

If you only kno wShel from poems like that, the following song is quite jarring.

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