A Wedding in Cherokee County

“A Wedding in Cherokee County”
Randy Newman
Good Old Boys - 1974

Self-confrontation. Isn't there a better word for it? Analysis? No. Psycho-something...psycho-affront? Whatever. What we have is that. A man (most definitely male) describing the inadequacies of his bride, which turn out to, most definitely, be his own characteristics. “She don't say nothin' / She don't do nothin' / She don't feel nothin' / She don't know nothin' / Maybe she's crazy, I don't know” but always with that “Maybe that's why I love her so”. (We're in the South, by the way.) So what is this thing that's so useless? Our speaker. Or, more significantly, our speaker's character. He's snagged the one thing he could get out of this shithouse – a woman. A woman that, “If she knew how she'd be unfaithful to me”. He doesn't have anything to offer – AND – the ultimate in abasement – he's physically adolescent! So, Girl – Check. Rescuer (“Her papa was a midget / Her mama was a whore”) - Check. Further, Courage, or at least its face (“I'm not afraid of the Greywolf / Who stalks through our forest at dawn”) - Check. Then the wedding, with all those freaks. And after that – show time. But his soul is torn asunder.

“I will carry her across the threshold
I will make dim the light
I will attempt to spend my love within her
Though I will try with all my might
She will laugh at my mighty sword
She will laugh at my mighty sword
Why must everybody laugh at my mighty sword?
Lord, help me if you will”

And that's it. Now watch that last bit, because its all there. It's all sexual. Failure in virtue, failure in maturity, failure in emotion, failure in normalcy – all from his physical failure! Newman is almost too cruel. Luckily he has that tinge of sardonicism.