Grateful Dead Music Forum

Ok, first verse - the Narrator's a subordinate of Captain William O, sets the stage-o

2nd Verse - William O proposes with some emotional blackmail

3rd Verse - Peggy O declines

4th Verse - William O asks theoretical question

5th Verse - William O threatens city & population

6th Verse - ** This verse breaks the pattern ** Someone calls Peggy O downstairs for a "last farewell" with William O, but gets the news he's dead & buried in LA.

7th Verse - Subordinate repeats 1st Verse

My realization/understanding (which for any/all of you tender readers may have come automatically or quickly) happened within the last number of years, say between 3-5; first heard the song back in '95/'96.
In Verse 6, a family member or friend of Peggy-O's sees an Army man coming up the walkway to the house and, believing it's William O, alert's Peggy O. It has to be the Subordinate who opens and ends the song.

Reflection
It puts the Subordinate Narrator much "deeper" into the story - he's not just a 3rd-person spectator, but played a most solemn role.

FromWichita wrote: ↑Tue May 11, 2021 8:20 pm Ok, first verse - the Narrator's a subordinate of Captain William O, sets the stage-o

2nd Verse - William O proposes with some emotional blackmail

3rd Verse - Peggy O declines

4th Verse - William O asks theoretical question

5th Verse - William O threatens city & population

6th Verse - ** This verse breaks the pattern ** Someone calls Peggy O downstairs for a "last farewell" with William O, but gets the news he's dead & buried in LA.

7th Verse - Subordinate repeats 1st Verse

My realization/understanding (which for any/all of you tender readers may have come automatically or quickly) happened within the last number of years, say between 3-5; first heard the song back in '95/'96.
In Verse 6, a family member or friend of Peggy-O's sees an Army man coming up the walkway to the house and, believing it's William O, alert's Peggy O. It has to be the Subordinate who opens and ends the song.

Reflection
It puts the Subordinate Narrator much "deeper" into the story - he's not just a 3rd-person spectator, but played a most solemn role.

Except what you are saying is verse 6 is actually two different verses, 6 and 7. Not sure you can equate what happens in them as being connected.

tdcrjeff wrote: ↑Tue May 11, 2021 8:33 pm

FromWichita wrote: ↑Tue May 11, 2021 8:20 pm Ok, first verse - the Narrator's a subordinate of Captain William O, sets the stage-o

2nd Verse - William O proposes with some emotional blackmail

3rd Verse - Peggy O declines

4th Verse - William O asks theoretical question

5th Verse - William O threatens city & population

6th Verse - ** This verse breaks the pattern ** Someone calls Peggy O downstairs for a "last farewell" with William O, but gets the news he's dead & buried in LA.

7th Verse - Subordinate repeats 1st Verse

My realization/understanding (which for any/all of you tender readers may have come automatically or quickly) happened within the last number of years, say between 3-5; first heard the song back in '95/'96.
In Verse 6, a family member or friend of Peggy-O's sees an Army man coming up the walkway to the house and, believing it's William O, alert's Peggy O. It has to be the Subordinate who opens and ends the song.

Reflection
It puts the Subordinate Narrator much "deeper" into the story - he's not just a 3rd-person spectator, but played a most solemn role.

Except what you are saying is verse 6 is actually two different verses, 6 and 7. Not sure you can equate what happens in them as being connected.

Not sure you can't.

Hey, I love the yin/yang replies!

It occurred to me as a possible interpretation that William-O died at his own hands.
The lyrical support is that he "died for a maid", as in Peggy-O.
I can't connect Peggy-O to him dying in battle.
[EDIT]
Just followed up on that The Bonnie Lass o' Fyvie link!

“The grenadier Gaubin committed suicide for reasons of love. He was a very-good subject besides; his is the second event of this nature, which has come to the corps this month. The First Consul orders that it is put in the regulations of the Guard, that a soldier must know to overcome the pain and the melancholy of passions; that there is as much true courage to suffer with constancy the sorrow of the heart as to remain fixed and motionless under the grapeshot of a battery. To give up oneself with sorrow without resisting, to get tired to withdraw oneself from it, it is to give up the battlefield before you have vanquished.” - Napoleon