Meaning of 'Weep for Jamie'? (PP&M)

Subject: RE: Meaning of 'Weep for Jamie'?
From: Megan L
Date: 31 Oct 19 - 03:58 AM

I guess like a lot of songs it means what you want it to mean what it meant to the writer may not be the same as it means to you.

Subject: RE: Meaning of 'Weep for Jamie'?
From: GUEST,wound vs womb
Date: 05 Jan 20 - 06:25 PM

I bought the play-along songbook at the same time I bought the ablum when it first came out. They lyric is clearly "womb," not "wound."

Subject: RE: Meaning of 'Weep for Jamie'?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 06 Jan 20 - 10:10 AM

No idea this song, played a lot on the radio when I was in college, was PP&M. Too depressing for me.

Subject: RE: Meaning of 'Weep for Jamie'?
From: GUEST,LarryTheRadioGuy
Date: 06 Jan 20 - 09:14 PM

Guest,Wound vs Womb.

He's singing about a "womb that never filled"....then "the fourth deepest wound" is the love that it killed.

Subject: RE: Meaning of 'Weep for Jamie'?
From: GUEST,Guest TG
Date: 04 Jul 25 - 02:54 PM

I can't be sure, perhaps no one ever will be) but I just feel that she had a real disease, or had a dreaded certainty that she would get what her father had perhaps died from, like cancer. The physical symptoms describe what many cancer or similarly terminal patients feel (depending on the disease or variant).

Maybe I'm wrong, but regardless I don't feel that it was about a pregnancy or abortion; it just does not connect with the phase 'womb never filled'. It sounds like she was bereft of fearing a future (death??) never having married or perhaps was jilted, never having found a faithful love.

Yes, it's a reach, but that's the feeling I got every time I did it.

Subject: RE: Meaning of 'Weep for Jamie'?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 05 Jul 25 - 12:00 AM

The lyrics I posted above are from the peterpaulandmary.com Website. It was a website operated by a fan, and then taken over by the PP&M organization. The transcriptions are usually pretty good, but there are a few glaring mistakes. But since it's the official site, I post what they have posted. When I'm posting lyrics from a credible source, I post what the source says - mistakes and all. But I'll agree that it's "womb" in the third line of the last verse, and I'm not sure what it is in the fourth line (but "wound" works).

Joe Offer, Mudcat Music Editor.

Subject: RE: Meaning of 'Weep for Jamie'? (PP&M)
From: GUEST,Guest Wil
Date: 06 Jul 25 - 11:31 AM

I can't help but agree with one of the latest guests, that she has a real disease. The statement 'She lives in the land where her father died', and the reference to (I'm convinced) 'a WOMB never filled' appear to mean 1] that she's really sick - one post stated she was a college student (not sure of the certainty of that, but I have no info on it), and 2] as also stated by the guest posting, she may be suffering from a simultaneous love tragedy that was never consummated because of someone's unfaithfulness.

Think of it: 'porcelain smiles and wetless tears' to me points straight to a hospital room with doctors and nurses smiling falsely and visitors who have run out of real tears, but are still overcome by sadness. And 'She lives in a land where her father died'. Both could be references to a hospital. My conclusion is as much guesswork as anyone's but I've been a direct observer to intensely similar experiences. But I can't forget the possibility of a shattered romance, either.

This has to be the saddest song I've ever heard. Ever.