Bruce Springsteen sat down in 1982 and wrote the haunting “Nebraska” album. The album’s title track, “Nebraska”, was written about Charlie Starkweather, a man who, after meeting a young girl in Lincoln, Nebraska, went on a killing spree across the plains states. Years later, a song called “Some Girls Do” would be released that bears similar themes and scenery, only exchanging the barren and haunting guitar and harmonica for a chuckle, aw-shucks, and pop-country hooks. Allow me to elaborate.
While there remains a great deal of more interesting stories about the Nebraska album - the fact that the album released were all first takes of the songs recorded into a TEAC Tape recorder in Springsteen’s garage in NJ, or the fact that he refused to tour in support o the album, the most interesting part about the album comes from that first song. The song tracks Starkweather from his beginnings with Caril Ann Fugit in Lincoln, Nebraska, as she is standing on her front lawn doing what a normal breadbasket girl would do: twirling her baton, and follows him through his murderous spree with Caril Ann to his arrest, trial, conviction, and death sentence. The end of the song provides a platitude “excuse” which does not satisfy the listener. As the listener sits listening to this song, sung in the first person, it can’t help but be noticed that Bruce wants you to believe that Starkweather is not sick, he is just bored. Having listened to this song, I decided that it has a distant relative, similar in it’s composition, simplistic, and ultimately partially dystopian in its message.
Sawyer Brown, a forgettable southern country/rock band known for tavern anthems sung in a disinterested twang put out a song in 1992 called “Some Girls Do”. The central theme: a boy who meets a girl while driving - she is sitting on the swing on her front porch as he is passed over by a different girl who passes the singer’s Cadillac. The song posits that he may be an acquired taste, that he is certainly not first class, nor white trash, that he may be wild, and a little crazy, as well. Some girls may not like him, or other boys like him, but some girls do. The song does not carry the weight of Springsteen’s Nebraska. However, it does share a similar style. Here’s how:
He was drivin’, she was a-doin’ somethin’
The singers are both driving a car when the girls enter the song. For Bruce’s Starkweather, the song points to a girl, who is standing in her front lawn, “just a-twirlin’ her baton.” There is no dialogue. She and Starkweather went for a ride, and ten innocent people died. Charles Starkweather is remembered as someone who was just slightly off-kilter. He was never considered a threat, but no one said he was harmless, either. For Sawyer Brown (I’m well aware that there is no Sawyer Brown as a person, it’s the band’s name, but for the purposes of this little exercise, the protagonist of “Some Girls Do” will be referred to as Sawyer Brown), he is spurned by his first choice, and instantly is taunted by a callous girl from her front porch, “a-paintin’ your nails like you were bored” - both songs are recollections, both girls were doing seemingly innocuous things at the time they met the main character of the song. Both girls were a-doin’ something to distract them from the man in the song.
“You was laughin’ at me, I was doin’ James Dean”
Charlie Starkweather had an infatuation with James Dean, began dressing and acting like him, and empathized with James Dean’s rebellious on-screen persona. In addition, having been teased for a good portion of his life, Starkweather felt that James Dean’s rebellion probably had come from being picked on when younger, and felt a stronger kinship for Dean’s film characters. His inferiority complex drove him to bully those who had tormented him, once he became stronger. He even felt inferior based on a socio-economic level. His father was an arthritic carpenter who couldn’t often work, so his mother had to waitress to make ends meet. His friend had said that his cruel side was one where, if he saw someone bigger, or dressed nicer than he, he would try to fight that man. He isn’t first class, he knows that, but he isn’t white trash, and he wants everyone else to know that.
Sawyer Brown was spurned by the girl in front of his Cadillac. She, in fact, “turned up her nose” as she walked by his Caddy. He may have felt inferior to her, and he knows he “ain’t first class” but is damn sure not “white trash”. It could very easily be seen that Sawyer has an inferiority complex. He also balled a tire when pulling out of his girl’s yard. He clearly had an issue with speed, as did James Dean. He tried to impress his girl by doing his best James Dean impression. It was successful, She laughed. Starkweather, on the other hand, killed Caril Ann’s family. Po-tay-to, po-tah-to.
The Callous Girls
Caril Ann Fugit came home to find that Charles Starkweather had murdered her stepfather, her mother, and her 2 year old sister. While she was “just a-twirlin’ her baton” (which implies that she was doing anything flashy to catch Starkweather’s eye), Caril Ann clearly had no moral compass. These weren’t even the first murders that she knew about from Starkweather. He had killed a gas station attendant. She didn’t exactly run away. She helped Starkweather hide the bodies of her family, and then went with him on his murder spree. Starkweather even claims she committed some of the murders.
The second person, the person to whom the song “Some Girls Do” is sung, is Sawyer’s girl. She was depicted as laughing when he was turned down by another girl, and even egged him on, shouting “She was sure impressed with you”. As she sat in her swing on her front porch, a-paintin’ her nails like she was bored (which implies that she wasn’t actually bored, but rather trying to appear that way for Sawyer, all the while shouting to get his attention), he yelled and asked if she would like a ride. It’s obvious she accepts, and she even enjoys his attempts to make her laugh. However, she also rolls her eyes, and twirls his pink fur dice. She is quick to boredom, or at least pretend boredom once more, another sign of her callousness.
The platitude
Starkweather is asked, at the end of the song, to discuss why he did what he did. In fact, he says, “You wanna know why I did what I did?” - he won’t refer to the murders by name. He never refers to them as murders. He says ten innocent people died, acknowledging the victims innocence. He does not, however, state that he killed them. He admits to doing something, but he won’t say what. So in the absence of an understanding of his actions, he says, “Sir, I guess there’s just a meanness in this world.” He doesn’t really even believe there is a meanness in the world. He says he guesses that’s the reason. He knows what he did, he knows it’s wrong, and he figures one can just chalk it up to the world. He knows what he is saying isn’t really an excuse, but absent any real excuse, that will have to do. The song leaves us feeling unsatisfied, because no questions are answered. Why would someone do this? Starkweather does not feel the need to help us understand. He recognizes the authority by saying “sir”, but defies it by giving a cheapened answer. He recognizes, and is fully aware that he is a monster who callously killed almost a dozen people. And he doesn’t care. What we, the listener, should understand from this song, is that he did what he did, he knows he did it, he is not sick, and he believes it’s just because he’s mean.
Sawyer Brown can’t explain why he’s so mad, but he obviously is. He meets a girl, but all he can say is to reiterate that he’s neither first class, nor white trash. It’s even hinted that Sawyer isn’t particularly successful with the girl from her front porch. She rolls her eyes, twirls his pink fur dice, and when he reminds her of his socio-economic status one more time, he leaves us with an unsatisfying platitude that neither tells us whether or not they lived happily ever after, nor why he wants everyone to know where he stands in the social order, nor why we should’ve cared about the song up until this point. He just says, “Well, good ol’ boys don’t get no breaks, and rich boys think they got what it takes. But there’s someone for each of us, they say.” And then another reminder of his lack of first class or white class identity. If he, being a good ol’ boy, doesn’t get a break, it must mean that his nail painting girlfriend wouldn’t give him one, and she must have been stolen away by a rich boy. The song, being sung in the past tense, is possibly an up-tempo dirge to their lost love. The first class/white trash reminders in the chorus must’ve been a reminder that he may not be the best guy around, but he isn’t the worst either, and the platitude “there’s someone for each of us they say” either means she missed her chance with him, that they were supposed to be together, or it means she isn’t the one for him, and he wants her to know that. Either way, the end of the song is a let down, and a cheap bit of dime-store psychology.
The multiple worlds interpretation
A part of quantum physics posits that each decision we make, each potential thing that could go either way in our universe actually happens in parallel universe. If you miss a turn, and as you’re lost meet the person you eventually marry, there is another universe wherein you did not miss a turn, and you did not meet the person you married. Suffice to say, the exponential nature of how each divergent world could have multiple branches for decisions you may or may not have made in those other universes is wholly mind boggling. But the core thing to remember about this theory is the notion that, at a crossroads, when you go left, you also go right, only you would never know that. This is basically the plot of an indie flick with Gwyneth Paltrow called “Sliding Doors” where she misses the train home from work and never catches her husband cheating on her, or catching the train on the way home from work, and finding her husband in bed with another woman. (what really boggles your mind is wondering if you were supposed to go left instead of going right, and if a version of you exists in the world that is far happier and more successful than you, but I digress). Lets assume that, based on the opening lines of each song, meeting a girl a-twirlin’ her baton, or a-paintin’ her nails like she was bored, could be the same guy and girl - Sawyer Brown is Charlie Starkweather, and vice versa. The nail painter and Caril Ann Fugit are one in the same. Could Caril Ann Fugit have been the straw that pushed Starkweather over the edge, based upon Springsteen’s song? Could she have been the right level of callous? Could Charlie, a known James Dean afficionado, have tried to do his James Dean for her, and it failed? Did he then decide she would have liked it better if he murdered people for her? Conversely, what if nail painter had found less humor in Sawyer’s James Dean? Would it have meant a certain doom for her parents, sister, and 7 others? The possibilities are endless. Further, could the girl who turned up her nose at Sawyer’s Cadillac been Caril Ann? What if Starkweather hadn’t seen Caril Ann, and rather had seen another girl on the same street? While this does make my head hurt, it seems as though there aren’t nearly as many differences between a good ol’ boy who has pink fur dice, and a megalomaniacal serial killer, except for a chuckle and a baton.
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