King of the Hill

[jimk]

This is one of my favorite songs from Roger's recording Back From Rio But the lyrics present some unanswered questions. And being something of a song writer myself, I can't resist the analysis.
1. L.A.'s asleep, you roll up your window
The night air is cold, the freeway is clear
In a green Gucci bag are your prized possessions
The jewels of your mind to hold back the fear

[CHORUS]
And when Monday comes 'round, there's a high lonesome sound
And she follows you down for the kill
And a white blinding light makes it all seem so right
And you feel like the King of the Hill

2. The driveway is long, your princess is lovely
Your servants all wait for your knock on the door
How many years will you crawl through this castle?
So satisfied and still wanting more


3. The guests have arrived with all the right faces
But you miss the ball in that room down the hall
It's sunrise again, the driveway is empty
The crystal is cracked, there's blood on the wall

Comments: What exactly is the high lonesome sound that comes around on Monday? And where is it coming from?
In the chorus to whom does the line refer "And she follows you down for the kill."
In the third verse, who are the guests? The police? In the video, it looks like some thugs from the mob. Is "that room down the hall" an interrogation facility at the police station?
How did the crystal get cracked? Where did the blood come from? Has there been a suicide, a murder, or just a nasty fight?

JimK

[TheWonders]

I'm not going to try and decipher the lyrics, other than to say that Roger himself has stated that he was inspired to write this song after reading a book about a rock star.

[JakeK]

I never try to analyze songs, unless there are books on the songs.

Tom Petty wrote the song in question with Roger McGuinn and Tom is a brilliant songwriter himself. He stated in the Runnin' Down a Dream documentary that he always dislikes it when people say stuff like "Well, I went to write a song about dogs and this is what came out" In the book Conversations with Tom Petty, Tom talks about WHY he wrote his songs, but he never said the meanings behind them. And no, Jim, "King of the Hill" was not one of them.

But my point, I haven't tried to analyze this song. Not saying it's not a classic, though.

[thymecube]

I thought I read somewhere that the song King of the Hill was loosely based on John Philips... which sort of makes sense.
However I always thought it was sort of eerie how it predates yet seems to suggest the OJ Simpson case!

[jdogric12]

A lot of the best songs are wide open to interpretation like this. That way more people can "get" it, even if "it" isn't the same thing for everybody. IRWO's second album was intentionally written like that. Everyone was super excited to tell us that they "got it" and what the concept meant... to them!