I’m sure no one cares but me, but this song has always bugged me \u2013 art is the stuff that won’t turn you loose. I can give you a video montage for which a less-raucous rendition could make the soundtrack:<\/p>\n
A 4 AM monologue\/soliloquy\/lullabye sung by a grandfather to his fussing grandson. “The cross is in the ballpark” is repeated in a way that suggests the theme is an attainable redemption, a message aimed most at Sonny, the narrator’s son. The instrumentation crowds the poetry, but I like it as a redemption hymn.<\/p>\n
The second repetition of “Why deny the obvious, child?” seems explicitly religious to me:<\/p>\n
Some people say the sky is just the sky
\nBut I say, “Why deny the obvious, child?”<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThat’s proof by assertion, but it seems to argue that the whole song is a mildly-enthusiastic pomo paean to the redemptive power of faith. That much is just fun for me, and I like my reading better than any other I’ve seen.<\/p>\n
And that’s just the song. If you take on the back-story that leads to my montage above, there’s a three-act reconciliation rom-com in there, with a sweet sidebar on fatherhood.<\/p>\n
What’s the vitally important obvious fact being denied? What broke up Sonny’s marriage? And how do the three men in the song go about fixing it?<\/p>\n