ALBUM: Bobby Goldsboro Greatest Hits (1970)
The tears wrenched out of human beings by Bobby Goldsboro can be measured in gallons.
Hundreds, thousands of gallons.
‘Honey’ was a huge worldwide hit in 1968 for Goldsboro, born in Florida but who grew up in Dothan and attended Auburn University. Bobby Russell, who wrote ‘The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia,’ was ‘Honey’s’ writer.
It was a sentimental tissue-thin manipulation of a song. It was the best of songwriting, and the worst of songwriting.
I’d admire the suspense and mystery built up around the singer’s descriptions of his wife/lover. The La-Tee-Da casual storytelling style draws you in as it drops foreboding hints all the way.
My critique is that the words are often silly, and combined with the syrupy strings, comes off as maudlin. And the casual storytelling style, once you get the whole picture, is kind of creepy.
That said, the songwriter used some deft devices to make this sad. For example never really telling us what happened requiring our brains to think harder to speculate what happened a la ‘Ode to Billie Joe.’
My mother, a longtime educator, gave me this album recently, but we used to cry in the car over it decades ago. It was a No. 1 hit in the U.S. and charted all over the world.
So again the overarching question here is what happened? She died, but what other clues are there.
Let’s react to the lyrics and find out.
Song lyrics italics, my comments bold.
Honey by Bobby Russell, performed by Bobby Goldsboro
It wasn’t big (good open, foreshadowing)
I laughed at her and she got mad, (what was so funny?)
Was just a twig
Then the first snow came and she ran out
To brush the snow away
So it wouldn’t die (Foreshadowing, concisely paints picture of soft-hearted, sentimental person. Was the tree somehow going to be cause of death? Listeners are tuned in now)
Came runnin’ in all excited,
Slipped and almost hurt herself (So she’s becoming clumsy but husband thinks it’s hysterical)
And I laughed till I cried (throwing the word cried in there is like a subliminal message readying the tear ducts.)
Kinda dumb and kinda smart (Well you are no rocket scientist either BoGo..)
And I loved her so
And I surprised her with a puppy (Uh oh gratuitous puppy introduction: he’s pulling out all stops in the manipulative attempt to make you cry).
Kept me up all Christmas Eve two years ago (aw he loves her so much, he not only gave her the puppy but lives with the dog causing sleep deprivation).
And it would sure embarrass her
When I came in from workin’ late (working late, huh?)
‘Cause I would know
That she’d been sittin’ there and cryin’
Over some sad and silly late, late show (again showing how ‘endearing’ her sentimentality is.)
And I’d love to be with you if only I could (here we go again, hint hint: Where did she go?)
And so afraid that I’d be mad
But what the heck
Though I pretended hard to be
Guess you could say she saw through me
And hugged my neck
I came home unexpectedly
And caught her cryin’ needlessly (Needlessly is certainly in the eye of the beholder. I mean, did she get bad news like perhaps she was DYING!)
In the middle of a day
And it was in the early spring
When flowers bloom and robins sing
She went away (Reach for tissue.)
And I’d love to be with you if only I could (Sure about that?)
While she was there and all alone
The angels came (Good gosh, the Hell’s Angles took her out. What in the name of everything holy were you involved in, man?)
Now all I have is memories of honey (tears)
And I wake up nights and call her name (tears)
Now my life’s an empty stage (tears)
Where honey lived and honey played
And love grew up
And a small cloud passes overhead
And cries down on the flower bed (more tears, some blubbering)
That honey loved
But friend it hasn’t been too long
It wasn’t big (good writing example, coming full circle)
And I laughed at her and she got mad
The first day that she planted it,
Was just a twig (sob)
Drinking tequila going out of my mind
Having a ball on a couple ‘a bob,
Treating the ladies to corn on the cob,
Leaving the straight life behind