#391: "I Saw Black"
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Today I finally read Paste magazine's online article The 50 Greatest Neil Young Songs. It's in countdown format, and generally follows my tastes, especially their #1 pick, Powderfinger, written in 1975 for Lynyrd Skynyrd, but released on Young's 1979 Rust Never Sleeps LP after the death of several Skynyrd band members a month after the song's creation.
I looked up the lyrics and confirmed my initial impression that there's more here than meets the eye.
First, let's set the scene: During the early '70s, Young criticized racism in the US south with songs like "Southern Man" and "Alabama". Skynyrd responded with their hit "Sweet Home Alabama", in which they struck back with a brush off that southerns don't need Young's advice.
For all we know the two parties were perfectly respectful behind the scenes (Ronnie Van Zandt, Lynyrd Skynyrd's vocalist, is seen in a Neil Young T-shirt on the cover of their final LP), and became friends. In any case, one side or the other then proposed that Skynyrd record one of Young's songs.
On that note Young writes a song about a young man reacting to authority. We hear about a gunboat approaching the man, who is standing on a dock. The boat has a big red beacon, a mounted gun, and numbers on its hull (meaning it's likely 'the law'). The man, for whatever reason, has his father's rifle handy. The man is shot dead, and his thoughts continue on after death:
"Shelter me from the powder and the finger.
Cover me with the thought that pulled the trigger.
Just think of me as one you never figured
To fade away so young,
With so much left undone,
Remember me to my love
I know I'll miss her."
And the lines immediately prior to being shot:
"Raised my rifle to my eye
Never stopped to wonder why
Then I saw black...."
Here we have rebellion against authority, and the consequences.
What is fascinating are the specific references to former Young songs and the Skynyrd affair, that provide us with context. The two prayer-like phrases at the end of the song begin with "Shelter me" and "Cover me". To unlock these, we use the key "...I saw black", the moment of death. Those are the same words sung by Young in "Southern Man":
"I saw cotton
And I saw black.
Tall white mansions
and little shacks."
So, "Shelter me..." is like saying: please treat me like I'm in Sweet Home, Alabama, not like we're shooting at each other.
And "Cover me..." cleverly suggests a body covered by a white sheet, but also could refer to one band recording another's song. If the latter, it would be asking Skynyrd to voice the point of view of authority (we know of only one gun being fired): the law will shoot if you bear a threatening gun. In other words, order vanquishing chaos.
Finally, there's one more interesting link. After reflecting on the advice received from his absent father, which serves to pause the narrative after establishing that the young man has a gun, the soon dead man says "I saw it coming", followed in the next line with "I saw black." So, a foreshadowing.
Even in tragedy there's usually the possibility of redemption. Here, it's the father's advice: "...red means run, son, numbers add up to nothing." In a word, flee, if you see a "big red beacon". And, literally, the only way numbers add up to nothing is when negative numbers are used. Withdraw. Don't Rebel. Lessen your pain. Lay down your arms. Surrender, to live another day.
Realistically though, the father's advice "...red means run..." more likely refers to reading and writing, with arithmetic being a big fat nothing. So, leave school and trust your instincts instead. Which is it? Well, all great writing is at its heart ambiguous.
