Little Bonnie, anyone?

[211poundsofpork]

I am a newbie, so please please excuse me if this has already been discussed. How come Little Bonnie is never busted out live? This tune is easily one of my favorites (sorry Space City) off of A Blessing and A Curse. Whenever I have it on (and it really doesn't rock) and turn up the volume several notches. Could it be that they think it sounds to much like Sands of Iwo Jima? Anyone?

[Zip City]

too sad

[beantownbubba]

I am a newbie, so please please excuse me if this has already been discussed. How come Little Bonnie is never busted out live? This tune is easily one of my favorites (sorry Space City) off of A Blessing and A Curse. Whenever I have it on (and it really doesn't rock) and turn up the volume several notches. Could it be that they think it sounds to much like Sands of Iwo Jima? Anyone?

Because if they did, half the audience would walk out (too sad) and the other half would be bawling so loud (after thinking they could take it and finding out they couldn't) that the band couldn't even hear itself. I REALLY hope the band never plays this song at any show i'm at.

[Sub]

Still a great song and also one of my favorites off of ABAAC

[beantownbubba]

Still a great song and also one of my favorites off of ABAAC

I hope i didn't imply otherwise. If it wasn't any good it wouldn't affect people (well, ok, me) that way.

[inman_trucker]

I've had this song in my head for 3 weeks now, since a girl I work with told me the story of how her dad accidently backed over her 3 year old sister with a van, and how the guilt still eats away at him after over 30 years. Don't have the balls to let her hear the song, though, can't let the guys at work see me bawling.

[ramonz]

Last time I recall Patterson hanging out front-stage after a show (Durham, NC '06), I asked him about Little Bonnie. He was signing my stub to my daugher and commented how her name sounded a lot like his (new) daughter's name. We got to talking the wonders of young daughters, and I asked him why LB was never in the show. He said it didn't really fit with the show's flow (slower, sad, etc.), but that he wished it did. My take was that he'd/they'd find a way to get it in (could tell by the strong facial expressions the song meant a lot to him), but I think it's only been played a half dozen times live, and at least half of those were in record store shows when sometimes the more acoustic songs work well.

Six years later, different band and different times. My take is that you can't keep a great song down, no matter how sad it is. For my part, I'd love to hear it live. Maybe as a set up to Lookout Mountain....

[TDB]

I've been lucky enough to see it twice, both with Monty610 by my side.
Both times, Monty was about to get a beer and was stopped in his tracks.
Great tune. I wish they would bring it AND "A Blessing and a Curse" back into the mix.

[RustyGoKart]

I REALLY hope the band never plays this song at any show i'm at.

I would love to hear it live. It really is one of my favorites. But it would have to be the right venue with the right audience.

I'm pretty sure they know drunk idiots who didn't recognize the tune immediately would probably just talk the whole way through it.

[beantownbubba]

You're a stronger man than I.

[Lone Wolf1]

how did little bonnie die?

[UTHeathen]

I saw the DBT's two nights at the House of Blues in on Sunset in L.A. in May of '06 and they played almost everything off of ABAAC including Little Bonnie. Fast forward about three months, we cruised up to Jackson Hole for the DBT/Robert Randolph/Black Crowes show. The next night they played the full on rock show in Park City at Club Suede. We could hear them sound checking around 5:00 and snuck in. They played Aftermath, Gravity's Gone and Little Bonnie just for us. That was the last time I saw them play it live and I feel pretty lucky to have been there to see it. I honestly haven't been the same since.

[Clams]

The most haunting part of the song for me is that, despite all the grief and sadness, we don't know how or why Bonnie died.

[beantownbubba]

The most haunting part of the song for me is that, despite all the grief and sadness, we don't know how or why Bonnie died.

Why??!! That's some heavy philosophical shit there, Clamsie. I doubt even the great Patterson Hood knows the answer to that one.

[bovine knievel]

The most haunting part of the song for me is that, despite all the grief and sadness, we don't know how or why Bonnie died.

Little Debbie put a cap in her ass

[John A Arkansawyer]

The most haunting part of the song for me is that, despite all the grief and sadness, we don't know how or why Bonnie died.

The simple useless answer is that she died because she was sick, apparently sick or damaged from birth.

The hard question is Why was she sick? Not why like, What was wrong with her? but like Why is there suffering in the world? People have wrestled with that one in all its forms since before recorded history. My best answer is, Bad luck in a morally neutral universe.

If that doesn't satisfy you, other answers are available here and here.

[Clams]

The most haunting part of the song for me is that, despite all the grief and sadness, we don't know how or why Bonnie died.

The simple useless answer is that she died because she was sick, apparently sick or damaged from birth.

Where does it say that?

[Zip City]

I don't think that it matters why/how she died. She's dead, and the living have to deal with it

[John A Arkansawyer]

The most haunting part of the song for me is that, despite all the grief and sadness, we don't know how or why Bonnie died.

The simple useless answer is that she died because she was sick, apparently sick or damaged from birth.

Where does it say that?

It doesn't say it explicitly. And it might not be from birth on. But, well, look:

Little Bonnie never even made it four

She got sick early on.

My Grandma said she would keep her in the mornings
So her Mama could sleep a bit and do the chores and such

It was a tough slog for a long time.

A swollen angel who never would complain

She suffered long enough to become stoic.

Her Daddy stood out by the cemetery fence
Prayed to God for forgiveness
For surely all of this is punishment for my sins

And her father felt guilty.

Whose Daddy's don't feel punished for what heaven takes away

But it wasn't like he was careless or negligent.

I may read it wrong, but the whole vibe to me is a random act of sickness or damage or defect, not a direct result of some act. The details are loose enough to allow other interpretations, but this is the one that makes the most sense to me.

(Man. It made me sad to even go through that line of thought.)

[211poundsofpork]

wow. Who knew a song could be so heavy with meaning and open to interpretation after a glance or two. That is some fine analysis, John A. Heavy and Hanging, as I like to say.

[Lone Wolf1]

wow. Who knew a song could be so heavy with meaning and open to interpretation after a glance or two. That is some fine analysis, John A. Heavy and Hanging, as I like to say.

once again, speculation, interpretation, general not=knowin-shit. like the bass player thing. poor bonnie

[John A Arkansawyer]

wow. Who knew a song could be so heavy with meaning and open to interpretation after a glance or two. That is some fine analysis, John A. Heavy and Hanging, as I like to say.

once again, speculation, interpretation, general not=knowin-shit. like the bass player thing. poor bonnie

Like I said, maybe I'm wrong. This is my best shot at understanding. If you'd rather experience it without analyzing it, more power to you.

But you know what?

poor bonnie

To my mind, that's an analysis, too, and a damn good one. It doesn't have to be complicated to be right. And I'm with you in Rockville: Poor Bonnie. Or, as a much better writer than me once said, "Ah, Bartleby! Ah, humanity!"

[Lone Wolf1]

i just wanna know is all...

[John A Arkansawyer]

wow. Who knew a song could be so heavy with meaning and open to interpretation after a glance or two. That is some fine analysis, John A. Heavy and Hanging, as I like to say.

I had great teachers. They deserve most of the credit. Any mistakes made are all mine.

EDITED FOR: P.S. I meant that as a PM. But let it stand--my teachers were great and deserve the praise. One of them even wrote a song with Tom T. Hall. God, Jim was proud of that song.

[beantownbubba]

If that doesn't satisfy you, other answers are available here and here.

Ugh! "The problem of evil." You just brought back some of the worst, most difficult, least satisfying moments of my college experience.

I'm w/ zip on this one. I don't see "the how" mattering, and as i've said, "the why" is way beyond the limits of any single song/songwriter. Or the Bible for that matter. (a) A 4 year old died. The awfulness of that speaks for itself. (b) Her death had, has and will continue to have an impact on those she left behind.

[Kudzu Guillotine]

Does anyone know what Billie Joe MaCallister and his girlfriend threw off the Tallahatchie Bridge? I'm not sure where I read it now, maybe an old issue of the Oxford American but I once read an article saying that a huge part of what gives "Ode To Billie Joe" it's timeless appeal (aside from the tune itself) is the mystery of it. I think that same line of thought applies to a song like "Little Bonnie". Just a guess.

[Tyler]

I remember from one of Patterson's storys one time, that Little Bonnie absolutely is real, and was a distant relative of his. Gran-Gran's husband's cousin's daughter, something like that, but that the song is 100% true.

My $0.02 is that it was probably a chronic condition condition that was unmanageable with the medicine of the time - cystic fibrosis or something like that.

[Smitty]

the "swollen angel who never would complain" line makes it clear IMO that she's sick.

[John A Arkansawyer]

I'm w/ zip on this one. I don't see "the how" mattering, and as i've said, "the why" is way beyond the limits of any single song/songwriter. Or the Bible for that matter. (a) A 4 year old died. The awfulness of that speaks for itself. (b) Her death had, has and will continue to have an impact on those she left behind.

I disagree. The song is framed by her father's guilt. It makes a difference whether he's guilty over something he did which directly caused her suffering, or whether he's guilty because he believes he did something, somewhere, sometime, for which he's being punished.

[beantownbubba]

On the day that she was buried
Her Daddy stood out by the cemetery fence
Prayed to God for forgiveness
For surely all of this is punishment for my sins

They put her in the family garden
Said you could hear his heart breaking miles away
All the men pitched in and bought a marble angel
To mark the piece of land where little Bonnie lay

My Grandma said she would keep her in the mornings
So her Mama could sleep a bit and do the chores and such
She'd read her stories about little girls and magic powers
That would never let a pretty angel hurt

Her Mama's always been a beauty
She's still beautiful to this very day
But they say Bonnie's crystal eyes put the stars to shame
Maybe heaven needed Bonnie's face

My Grandma said she would keep her in the mornings
A swollen angel who never would complain
She'd read her stories about little girls and princesses
Whose Daddy's don't feel punished for what heaven takes away

Little Bonnie never married
Little Bonnie never even made it four
But I grew up in her presence
Even though she was gone before I'z born
Even though she was gone before I'z born


There are only 2 references to the father. That's not much and literally they leave out a lot more than they say, but I don't see how they lead to any conclusion other than that he believes he's being punished for other sins he committed in his life, not for causing his child's death. But that's why they call it interpretation (and art), not fact (or reporting).