Dear Guest Gerry,

i can honestly say that before joining mudcat, I had never encountered anyone who gave that interpretation to the song.

I was once ordered to teach some 16 year olds in the remedial class the Jane Austen short story which is in the form of a letter and begins:-

My Dearest Fanny

I think the class would have agreed with you that it doesn't really matter what the artist intended. After all a fanny is a fanny.... and mention of one in an English lesson doesn't happen every day.

Whilst I could understand and even sympathise with the need for a bit of smut, I really can't understand why you need to insist that this song could bear this interpretation.

Much has been said of the lyric's corniness. To myself it conjures up to me the memory of the funeral service of a dear colleague who had been killed in a motor accident.

it was a multi-racial school and there were colleagues of every religion - sikh, christian, muslim, jewish - plenty of atheists. And there we all were thinking about this friend whom we had known as a lively, goodlooking, humorous young man - less than a week before.

someone just read the verse of Lord of the Dance about, 'I am the life that will never, never die.....' And it was one of the most moving and consoling moments I have ever experienced.

You take what you want from Carter's lyric.

My personal feeling is that if you get into the habit of looking for hatred and negativity in the works of your fellow man, you run the risk of developing a talent for abuse that you will find hard to control. And one day people will be counting the seconds til they can be quit of your company.