Casey's last ride - meaning?

Subject: RE: Casey's last ride - meaning?
From: GUEST,Mrr
Date: 17 Feb 16 - 09:21 PM

Definitely bitter, definitely sad. I always thought it was the last time he went to see his old love, which is even sadder than seeing her. I think he's miserable but not suicidal - if he were, there would be some hope to the song. I always got the impression he was going to keep suffering, just not with the woman he's visiting.

Subject: RE: Casey's last ride - meaning?
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Jul 16 - 11:06 AM

Re. earlier discussion about is this song set in London or not. I just heard this song for the first time today and it was a live recording of KK. At the start he says "Here's a song I wrote in London about half a century ago". So I think it's pretty clear it is set in London.

Subject: RE: Casey's last ride - meaning?
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 31 Jul 16 - 01:33 PM

Sarah Carson The Telegraph 22 JANUARY 2016 wrote;

"It was hard to believe, during Kris Kristofferson's sold-out evening at [London] Islington's Union Chapel, that the country singer-songwriter will turn 80 this year.

"Kristofferson's voice creaked with fragility here, as it did during "Casey's Last Ride" from his debut album from 1970, when he spoke of "neon-darkened corridors of silent desperation", describing the tragic reunion of former partners."

However, that may be the reporter's interpretation rather than the singer's.

Subject: RE: Casey's last ride - meaning?
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Sep 17 - 07:23 PM

Sounds to me like Casey visited his lover just before committing suicide.

Subject: RE: Casey's last ride - meaning?
From: Thompson
Date: 17 Sep 17 - 08:59 PM

A song full of puns.

I heard Casey Jones called Casey's Last Ride in my youth. 'Ride' to an Irish person is a jokey term for sexual intercourse, that's one of the puns, drinking a pint of bitter(ness) is another, and so on.

If you like, it's a visit to the psychic underground, on his way to Hades; Casey has married (or stayed married to) the wrong woman and his former lover also still longs for him.

The mixture of Anglo and American usages may be Kristophersen's tin ear for exact dialogue; "to make a body smile" sounds Cockney to me, but perhaps not; following arrows through the subway to the turnstile sounds British, but perhaps not.

Subject: RE: Casey's last ride - meaning?
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 18 Sep 17 - 02:06 AM

My guess:

Men define themselves by what they do for a living. The job is an escape mechanism from a world that makes little or no sense otherwise. It's medication.

Then comes the gold watch, the handshake and that "last ride" home. Tomorrow, and forevermore, he can sleep in late and nobody will care. Nobody ever really cared... including Casey.

The music changes everytime the old lover speaks. She never married, never had a family of her own… because she never stopped loving Casey. He used the affair to escape from his life as well and he's carrying the memory of that guilt and regret on top of all the rest.

This, and KK was a Lit major, makes me think of author Robert Ardrey's "Casey." A "real" working man shorn of the song's romanticism (...but based on same &c &c.)


PS: Didja know KK's first language was Tejano Tex-Mex? Shout out to his "Mom" Cantu and all the good folks in McAllen-Brownsville.

Subject: RE: Casey's last ride - meaning?
From: GUEST,Riley O'Neil
Date: 29 Jan 19 - 02:55 AM

Its newly 2019 and I moved to Chicago to go to school. I was riding the subway in the dead of winter (-20f, the coldest in recent history), and this song comes on. The version was a johnny cash version on an extended album. Safe to say that the song sent shivers down my spine as the atmosphere and mood matched mine perfectly. This song is a poetic masterpiece and is deserving of more fame. However, the lowkey nature of this song almost makes it more meaningful to the few K.K. and Cash fans who sing it from time to time. Ive never heard a song with such concrete imagery, and I'm happy that there is a community that has once (and hopefully will continue) discussed it.

We may never know Kristofferson's original image when writing the song. However, we all know what the song means to us, and that is the true meaning as far as I'm concerned.

This song is a microcosm of mankind's predicament in the modern ages. Alienation and loneliness are common and that stays true even in today's tech infested times. The man K.K. sings about, is ridged and beat down, this toughness makes the soft love melody even more piercing.

Humans are wired to love, and even in destitution we resort to fragments of memories, however melancholy.

Cordially, Riley

Subject: RE: Casey's last ride - meaning?
From: GUEST,TAFF WALES
Date: 21 Jun 20 - 01:58 PM

Marvellous to pick up this thread after all these years and see how people have interpreted it. I have listened to most of the versions mentioned here over these years and depending who was singing it you can draw different conclusions. It remains one of the most poignant songs I have ever heard. I said all those years ago that I heard it first by The Everly Brothers who did a couple written by KK. Breakdown is another excellent version. I still listen to both versions of Casey by them and think the first one was the best but it was done in two takes and then discarded as they had no idea what was going on. They were pretty well washed up then and faffing around with no idea what to do next. Loved their stuff even so but their reunion years were pretty bland even though I saw them a few times. Went on Emmy Lou's trip for many years. A fine artist right through the late 70s/early 80s.
Nice to see that the song meant something to many. Not many I have heard in my life keep me guessing. I am in my 70s now. Country music offered a lot for many years but not any more. Keep searching.

Subject: RE: Casey's last ride - meaning?
From: GUEST,Aaron
Date: 18 Aug 21 - 08:21 AM

I also love Waylon Jennings version as well.