You’ve heard it. You’ve listened to it many times. You like it. You love it. You’ve tried to sing it. You did sing it. You memorized it. That’s right. The catchy song penned and sung by Tim O’Brien with Hot Rize, “Nellie Kane.”
“What?” Some of you may say. You don’t know about it? Could be. That’s possible. Or you used to know it, used to play it, but not so much anymore. That’s definitely possible. You say you need a reminder? Okay, here goes.
NELLIE KANE
As a young man I went riding out on the western plain
In the state of North Dakota I met my Nellie Kane
I met my Nellie Kane
She was living in a lonely cabin with a son by another man
Five years she had waited for him as long as a woman can
As long as a woman can
Chorus: I don’t know what changed my mind
‘Til then I was the rambling kind
The kind of love I can’t explain
That I had for Nellie Kane
She hired me on to work that day to help her till the land
In the afternoon we planted seeds in the evening we held hands
In the evening we held hands
Her blue eyes told me everything a man could want to know
It was then I realized that I would never go
That I would never go
Chorus: I don’t know what changed my mind
“Til then I was the rambling kind
The kind of love I can’t explain
That I had for Nellie Kane
Now many years have gone by and her son has grown up tall
I became a father to him and she because my all
She became my all
Last Chorus: I don’t know….
Chorus? Not wait just a minute. The chorus isn’t supposed to go here. Or is it? I mean, throughout the whole song there are two verses and a chorus. That is, until the fifth verse, and then there is the chorus. But hold on, there is no sixth verse that is supposed to follow the fifth verse. There is just the fifth verse, and then the chorus. What happened? Did Tim O’Brien run out of ideas? Is the song “crooked” because the last part of the song has only one verse and then a chorus?
I supposed you’d have to ask Tim. But let’s ride a quick tangent to another topic for a little while.
Debates have gone on for a long time about the sanctity of what a person writes. That is, should it be altered, changed a little, added to, taken away, or whatever? Not everyone involved in that debate will ever be convinced, one way or the other. So for me it boils down to the idea that a person has to do what a person has to do, or a person will do what a person does (with the potential resulting consequences). But now let me digress a little bit more.
For twenty-five years I was a licensed marriage counselor. And I know, and you know, that many marriages and/or relationships start out fine and end up fine. But many start out fine and end up, well, not so good,
or just down-right terrible. That’s just the way it is, that’ real life, that’s existential stuff. So with that in mind, let’s get back to Nellie Kane.
In the song the relationship between some guy and Nellie Kane starts out good, and ends up good (this is not the first guy who biologically fathered Nellie’s son). That’s the whole story in the song, and it’s a feel-good song from start to end. Maybe that’s why the song is so good, it’s all positive. But wait, hold on, what if something happened. Some kind of negative reality snuck in? I don’t want it to happen, it’s best if it didn’t happen, and you wouldn’t feel so good at the end of the song, but if it did….
NELLIE KANE, verse six:
Then Nellie started drinking, from the straight path she did stray
She chased me with a shot gun and I did run away
I did run away
Last chorus:
Now I know what changed my mind
Nellie got so unkind
The kind of love that went insane
Adios, goodbye Nellie Kane
Now if you think I’ve committed a musical felony here, don’t blame me. If you want to blame somebody or something, blame all the hundreds of bluegrass songs that are negative, like “Banks of the Ohio,” “All The Good Times Are Past and Gone,” “Wild Bill Jones,” “Long Gone,” and all the other ones about relationships going bad. I’ve been conditioned by these songs for too many years, just like you.
Yes, yes, yes, blame bluegrass! If you are upset, please pardon my old, over-used, medicated, wrinkled brain. But whatever you do, please don’t show this Welcome Column to Tim O’Brien!
