A song a day: Gillian Welch - The way it goes

The Harvest and the Harrow is certainly one of my favourite albums of the year and I particularly love the rollicking The way it goes. The song recounts the tales of various characters and the growing alienation with the narrator. Each chorus ends with a variation of 'there was a time when all of us were friends.' Even in death, Gillian is not safe:

When you lay me down to rest
Leave a pistol in my vest.

Death is a prevalent theme on the album but the connotation that there is something or someone sinister beyond the grave shows that the territory Welch explores is tougher than this Earth. As the song says, that's the way that it goes I guess...

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