Tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree

hopie · 15-12-2009 07:04PM #1

On a similar theme to the Snowman thread if any one remembers the song and grainy video, Tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree it's a about a man on a bus returning home after 3 years in prison wondering if his girlfriend has waited for him and the sign that she has is a yellow ribbon round the oak tree. He gets home and sees hundreds of ribbons round the oak tree. I nice romantic story you might think.

I have a few problems with this firstly she never bothered coming to see him for 3 years also he must have committed a fairly serious crime to be locked up for 3 years. There's a lack of information given here for example our whole view of the situation changes if we find out he's a rapist or worse.

Is this an example of juxtaposition and I suppose there are many other examples but this is the one that keeps me guessing.

TheZohanS · 15-12-2009 07:20PM

Moved to Creative Writing.

DublinWriter · 15-12-2009 07:29PM

I think the protagonist of the piece was supposed to be in the army, not jail.

It was used in the early 70's as a theme for returning prisoners from Vietnam.

hopie · 15-12-2009 08:17PM

But he does say "I'm coming home i've done my time" also "if you received my letter telling you I'd soon be free"

My name is URL · 15-12-2009 08:28PM

Wikipedia says it's a reference to those serving in the US Cavalry, whose insignia was yellow

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tie_a_Yellow_Ribbon_Round_the_Ole_Oak_Tree#Background

hopie · 15-12-2009 08:34PM

Thanks just read wikipedia link further down in article it does say story is based on an ex con

DublinWriter · 15-12-2009 08:49PM

The other interpretation of the song is that he was in a POW camp.

Manic Moran · 16-12-2009 05:07AM

But if you read further further down the article, you see that the songwriters are ex-military, so they'll probably be far more familiar with the military than the jail reference.

I've actually never heard of the jail reference before. There's the John Wayne movie (She wore a Yellow Ribbon), the marching cadence (Around her hair she wore a yellow ribbon), even all the yellow ribbon bumper magnets on the various cars you see on in the US.

NT

NTM

Tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree

Comments