Balkinization: A Song For Jack

A Song For Jack

Ian Ayres

Here's a toast to Jack Balkin who 5 years ago had the foresight to create Balkinization and who has nurtured it with such loving care all these years.

I drafted this post (about "The Long Black Veil") a while back, but never quite had the nerve to put up... what better way than with a reinterpretation of a song to celebrate Jack's contribution to our worlds.

I’ve always loved the song, “The Long Black Veil.” But I’ve also been troubled by the chorus’s claim: “Nobody knows, nobody sees, Nobody knows but me.” Is it a claim that “nobody knows that she cries over my bones,” or a claim that “nobody knows that I remained silent to protect her”? The latter can’t literally be true. She also knows. It also can’t be a claim “nobody knows that they hung an innocent man.” Because the guilty party would probably know that they tagged someone else for the crime.

Well, as I was driving across I70 in Missouri last fall, I heard the song again on the radio. As if in a Jungian dream, the words of a long-lost 4th verse came to me. Here's the entire song with the additional verse:

Ten years ago, on a cold dark night
Someone was killed, 'neath the town hall light
The people who saw, they all agreed
That the man who killed, looked a lot like me

The judge said son, what’s your alibi
If you were somewhere else, then you won't have to die
I spoke not a word, thou it cost me my life
For I'd been in the arms of my best friend's wife

Chorus
She walks these hills in a long black veil
She visits my grave when the night winds wail
Nobody knows, nobody sees
Nobody knows but me

The scaffold is high, eternity's near
She stood in the crowd and shed not a tear
But late at night, when the north wind blows
In a long black veil, she cries over my bones

Repeat Chorus

One more person knows how this story ends:
the man who killed was my best friend.
He borrowed my coat and disguised his cheek,
‘Cause he knew to protect my love, I would not speak.

Last Chorus

She walks these hills in a long black veil
She visits my grave when the night winds wail
(Almost) Nobody knows, (almost) nobody sees
(Almost) Nobody knows but me.

To my mind, the song’s even more interesting if the best friend is lurking in the shadows with a bit more information that is not common knowledge. Of course, the hint of the friend’s knowledge is already there, because there’s some chance he’d at least know that his wife was sometimes sneaking off at night in a long black veil.

Posted 10:30 AM by Ian Ayres [link]

Comments:

Coming from the JNiles generation in some measure, I preserved a liking for the spiritualized female rendering of that serial song in the JBaez version, which likely is a tale of Joan in the Garden, or, perhaps, reflecting on the mystery of isolation.

# posted by

JohnLopresti : 11:52 AM

I've always liked the Kingston Trio version of the song.

# posted by

Mark Field : 1:30 PM

When adapting a song to a new verse (as when interpreting a law in new circumstances) one should respect the meter (or principle) of the original. I think even a new originalist like JB would agree. Congratulations on 5 years of Balkinization, and a satisfying resolution to the ballad.

There's one more man knows this story's end:
The man who killed was my own best friend.
He borrowed my coat and disguised his cheek,
‘Cause he knew for my love, I would not speak.

# posted by

Adam Gustafson : 1:53 PM