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about

This is a song about the Mormon prophet, Joseph Smith. I specifically tried to make it neither pro nor con so that listeners can decide for themselves where they stand on the issue.

The verses are written in the third person past tense to depict people today speculating about what Smith was all about back in his own day.

The choruses, on the other hand, are in the first-person present tense because I'm trying to get into Joseph's head which, of course, I can't really do. They express my ideas about what it might have been like for Smith to go through life on the American frontier in the 19th century while proclaiming himself a prophet.

lyrics

-- --- -- --- -- --- -- --- --

Born a plain and simple farm boy, Joseph longed for something more.
Having just one life to live, he wasnโ€™t gonna do it poor.
He wheedled and cajoled God to make his station great.
He'd marshal all his forces to not be second-rateโ€ฆ
even if it killed him in the end.

v.2. โ€‹He became a prairie preacher, an enigmatic man of God.
The power of the priesthood rested easy on his shoulders broad.
He blessed the sick and broken, and freed them from their pain.
Just how did he do it? Science can't explain.
Why then is he so misunderstood?

chorus:
No man knows my history.
It's too strange to tell.
If I'd not seen these things firsthand, I'd disbelieve myself.

No man's scholarship will ... illuminate my heart.
It's dark and impenetrable,
my motives are inscrutable,
a mystery that will endure for years.

v.3. He brought forth The Book of Mormon ... already in his storied youth.
(It was) a long and convoluted litany of plain and precious truths.
And converts by the thousands flocked to Nauvoo who had read that curious book.
And thus it came to pass that it the whole earth shook.
So don't you think that maybe you should take a look?

2nd chorus:
No mere mortal can grasp ... my psychology.
The motives that impelled me have been lost to history.

And psychohistory ... cannot lay bare my soul.
It's dark and unpredictable,
my motives indecipherable
like Chandler's cryptic papyrus scrolls.

โ€˜Cโ€™ section:
And, by the way, al- ready there are men who have de- ciphered those old glyphs.

3rd chorus:
No man knows my anguish. I long to shout it out.
Despite my testimony, I am oft wracked with self-doubt.

How I yearn to step down and put this on the shelf.
It's deep and unfathomable, completely unpredictable,
a riddle perhaps even to myself.

credits

from Folk Song of the Fringe - ๐™​๐ฌ​๐ฟ ๐​๐ช​๐‘ ๐ฒ๐‘‚ ๐‘„ ๐™​๐‘‰​๐ฎ​๐‘Œ​๐พ, released July 29, 2020

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