The Music and Meaning of "The Last Clean Shirt"

"Brother Bill" or "The Last Clean Shirt", a song written by famous composers Leiber and Stoller, was performed and made famous by The Rockin' Berries. This is a song, who's sound: bluesy, upbeat piano accompaniment and soulful singer- is very contrasted with it's real poignant lyrics. The listener is cued in on "poor brother bill's" sorry life and death. There's an insinuation of murder,--- " I know the girl and the {dew-house} man that done my brother in"...and it's possible that our "brother bill" was into cocaine. The last clean shirt is what poor brother bill is put down into the ground wearing. It's the last shirt he'll ever need. Who knows about brother bill? All the story teller knows is that his brother is dead and a tear is "tricklin" down his face. I find it interesting that Leslie and O'Hara chose this song for their dramatic piece( if that's the right title for the film). When I hear this song, and the song at the beginning of the film, I do think of sadness and how quickly time passes away. Throughout my life I've watched many people grow ill and pass away, and many people die instantly and just all of a sudden be out of my life. We all experience this. Just last weekend I watched my last surviving grandfather suffer a stroke and be rendered helpless. There's no way of putting into words how life really does escape us. I think this is a theme that runs through " The Last Clean Shirt", and that's why at times there are no words and WHEN THERE ARE, they really mean something. Even the ridiculousness of the male passenger's zoo in his head proves that we all want to do something in our lives. I also took notes about how he hoped it wouldn't rain and wash his zoo all away to nothingness (hopefully that's what it was). We all fear nothingness. That's why so many people turn to spirituality and Religion. The fear of nothing after death chills me to the bone.
I was never bored while watching this film, unlike occasional moments of boredom in the "Letters from Home" film.( heck sitting on the subway in New York is interesting if you are actually there FOR SURE, but not so much through a camera. That's my opinion at least). I was bombarded with thoughts about what the little things throughout the film could mean.
All through the ride, we were continually immersed in sound, and this is what led me to believe the music and sound really played a large part and meant something BIG! Though, as a musician, sound rules my life. I was especially annoyed by babbly female passenger twittering on and on, car horns or what sounded like thunder and rain. So much noise and it just made the whole situation so chaotic. Like Life. So many times during the day I just wish I could turn off the noise and hear silence.( yes, silence has a sound) What I really noticed in the film is how many times a bus cuts off their car and almost hits them! This always happens to me in my VW bug, people think they can push me around on the road. These drivers in the film are barely avoiding catastrophe by seconds. I think that really ties in the clock on the dashboard. It just seems to be ticking down the time they have left in their car ride, and in their lives. Isn't that what we are all doing? Just think, from writing this I'm thirty minutes closer to death.

I found these lyrics( which were really hard to find, actually) at : http://www.lyricstime.com/cactus-bro-bill-lyrics.html