I spent a couple of years in the late 80s/early 90s as a junkie, and the stranger of this song really reminds me of that kind of lifestyle. There's a great deal of gambler imagery as well, but I think it can also apply to drugs. For one there's the dealer who "was watching for the card that is so high and wild
he'll never need to deal another", this reflects a notion which was common in a lot of the people I knew back then. Even desperate, indebted junkies like us who weren't dealers at all were always looking to pull of some wild scheme that would mean they could get all the skag they'd ever want, for awhile at least. Just waiting, praying for some lucrative deal they could find, or some grand act of theft. Usually things weren't so grand and instead there was simple petty theft.
The whole first verse, for example. The concept of lying (or thinking wishfully) to cover addictions/vices in order to get some help from friends/family/whatever sucker is walking by. And from my experience at least, "reaching for the sky just to surrender" is a perfect description for that sort of lifestyle. Reaching for the sky can mean the desperate measures one goes through to score (or surrender, which kind of what a junkie is doing as they enjoy their fix, surrendering to the pleasure of junk and surrendering prospects of a more normal life).
This is what comes to mind for me. Overall, the stranger could go by many names. Gambler. Rogue. Junkie. Desperado. Vagrant. Player. Dealer. Whatever they are, this woman falls for them and they destroy her to the point where she can't recognize or accept anything better in her life.
I spent a couple of years in the late 80s/early 90s as a junkie, and the stranger of this song really reminds me of that kind of lifestyle. There's a great deal of gambler imagery as well, but I think it can also apply to drugs. For one there's the dealer who "was watching for the card that is so high and wild he'll never need to deal another", this reflects a notion which was common in a lot of the people I knew back then. Even desperate, indebted junkies like us who weren't dealers at all were always looking to pull of some wild scheme that would mean they could get all the skag they'd ever want, for awhile at least. Just waiting, praying for some lucrative deal they could find, or some grand act of theft. Usually things weren't so grand and instead there was simple petty theft.
The whole first verse, for example. The concept of lying (or thinking wishfully) to cover addictions/vices in order to get some help from friends/family/whatever sucker is walking by. And from my experience at least, "reaching for the sky just to surrender" is a perfect description for that sort of lifestyle. Reaching for the sky can mean the desperate measures one goes through to score (or surrender, which kind of what a junkie is doing as they enjoy their fix, surrendering to the pleasure of junk and surrendering prospects of a more normal life).
This is what comes to mind for me. Overall, the stranger could go by many names. Gambler. Rogue. Junkie. Desperado. Vagrant. Player. Dealer. Whatever they are, this woman falls for them and they destroy her to the point where she can't recognize or accept anything better in her life.