This is quite a thread. I must admit I never paid attention to most of the words of the version I heard which had to be more recent, maybe the Rednex version, because I was too busy laughing while stumbling over my feet trying to learn the line dance my friends were teaching me. I found the melody to be quite pleasant, but fast. Wish I'd paid more attention, but from what I've read from top to bottom, I'd have to agree that someone got jilted (because his gal ran off with Cotton Eyed Joe) or at the very least dumped because of him. I never knew it was such an old song. Thanks for the history lesson. I loved it.