The young pup deserved, from the wife, what's called in inner city circles a "bitch slap", by all means he asked for it & had it coming. That he choose to respond with a knock out punch instead of eating the slap was a giant step beyond an excepted social boundary (according to the jest of the song). That he recieved what he had dished out & saw again as unexceptable was his err in judgement which was compounded by pulling out a knife with the intention of gutting the one who delivered what was seen by the pup as one who dared to defy his arrogrance, brutality, intimidation & audacity. He in the end was rolled over on his on knife, justice by the poet or in this case songwriter if you ask me. It's a song. Don't like it, don't sing it, if you can't get past it build a bridge & get over it.

Barry