It is often useful to explore 'meanings of things'. However, often we never fully get there, especially when cultures have changed over centuries, and we have insufficient study/personal experience to connect. Also if the content/language of the object studied has changed over time, we may be misled by our own earnestness.

I discovered a good example of this when in High School - we studied Hamlet. It was a bowdlerized version, with certain speeches about 'incest' removed. When i discovered a fuller uncensored version, the whole seriousness of what was happening changed like a light bulb had gone on - the whole class (led by me I admit!) lobbied the teacher to let us access in class the full text.

QUOTE
the 'naked' woman was probably shivering in her smock, the idea being that robbers had made off with her dress to sell it for the material - which would still have been an indecorous position to be in, but wouldn't have had quite the shock value we hear in the song now.
UNQUOTE

There is a Grimm's Brothers tale about the little girl who gave away everything she owned including her dress till she was naked - she would have still been in her smock in the snow - then she was rewarded by a shower of gold coins from heaven.

To go further, some people want to investigate if certain religious figures of history actually walked the earth, or were just fictional. But then other people just want to 'exercise faith' and believe the stories they are told.

Some people just want to sing a song with a good tune and an interesting story and don't care about much else.

So there will be disagreements...

"ban you from any thread where you are less than civil."

Hmmmm, welllllllllll, this IS a music forum where we do explore meaning of songs... but when posters with no displayed interest in participating in such discussions or letting us know anything about their own musical interests/tastes seem to take over the forum swamping us with their own unique spins on politics, can we not now tell them to 'put a sock in it'...

:-P

Happy Easter Joe!

:-0