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Gillian Welch - Scarlet Town Lyrics

Artist: Gillian Welch

Album: The Harrow & The Harvest

Genre: Country

Buddy I went down to Scarlet Town
Never been there before
You slept on a feather bed
I slept on the floor

I don't mind a little town
Or drinking my coffee cold
But the things I seen in Scarlet Town
Done mortify my soul

Look at that deep well
Look at that dark ray
Ringing that iron bell
In Scarlet Town today

I spent some time in New Orleans
And ?
A Scarlet Town brought me down
Low as I ever been

Look at that deep well
Look at that dark ray
Ringing that iron bell
In Scarlet Town today

On the day I came to Scarlet Town
You promised I'd be your bride
You left me here to rot away
Like holly on a mountainside

Look at that deep well
Look at that dark ray
Ringing that iron bell
In Scarlet Town today

Now you may hide in Scarlet Town
For a hundred years or more
But the man who knows what time it is
Is knocking at the door

So fare you well, my one true love
If you never see me around
I'll be looking through a telescope
From hell to Scarlet Town

Look at that deep well
Look at that dark ray
Ringing that iron bell
In Scarlet Town today


Add Song Meaning

  • Jane Gibbons

    It sounded like "Polly" to me, which didn't make any sense until I read your post.

  • Andy Thomas

    "You left me here to rot away/Like holly on the mountainside." I think this is a reference to the folk ballad, Pretty Polly, about a woman who was murdered by her lover and left in the mountains; so it should be "...Polly on the mountainside." Even so, it sounds like holly to me, too. But that doesn't make sense; why would holly rot on the mountainside?

  • Andy Thomas

    I don't mind a little town -- doesn't sound correct to me, but I can't make it out.

  • Andy Thomas

    I thought it was And Cairo on a bend, as in, on a bender. I'm not sure about the refrain: Look at that dark ray [or rain? or grave?]

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