I woke up this morning with this song swimming around in my head: "Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree." It's a great little love song that some dream must have dredged out of my memory.
In it Tony Orlando sings a story about a guy traveling in a bus on his way to his girlfriend's town. In the song he tells us about a letter he wrote to her asking her to tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree is he still meant anything to her. If there was no ribbon, he would "stay on the bus, forget about us, and put the blame on me."
It had been three long years since he had seen her, so the listener might wonder what kept them apart. I either didn't know or had forgotten that the lyrics tell us he had been in prison. That puts a different perspective on it.
The next question is why was he in prison. Given the time the song came out, 1973, one might speculate he had been convicted of possession of a controlled substance. Wikipedia tells us that Orlando was a coke head in the 1970s, so he certainly must have felt the threat of law enforcement at some point during that time.
Anyway, It's a good song. Few people haven't heard it, but if you haven't, listen to at this Youtube link and find out exactly how many ribbons he ultimately saw tied round the old oak tree.
Comments