“However, the lyrics don’t make sense.”
They don’t make sense because the last two verses of the song were trimmed off to make it short enough for radio play back “in the day”.
Not an uncommon thing back then, as a song had to be short enough to fit on a 45 if you wanted the radio station to play it.
Not an uncommon thing back then, as a song had to be short enough to fit on a 45 if you wanted the radio station to play it.
They did that to "Surfer Joe" by the Surfaris. I never understood why the song ended with "Poor Joe," which doesn't jive with the lyrics, until I heard the full, uncut version about 10 years ago. Here it is:
Surfer Joe--The Surfaris (1963)