Me and My Uncle Question

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I've always wondered- did the nephew acutally murder his uncle at the end of the story, or did the uncle die of mysterious/natural causes, hence becoming left by the side of the road? Is this another of Hunter's ambiguities?

 

He murdered him, he taught him so well

 

its not a hunter song tho

MAMU wasn't written by Hunter. It was written by John Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas.

The nephew robs and murders him.  I think John Phillips wrote it.

At least Jack took the time to dig his buddy a shallow grave.

Have to ask someone who knew John Phillips, who wrote the song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofuOfpb2SCM

and here is a 1965 Joni Mitchell version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k6OYIvLLcA

Apparently some young bliss-ninny Deadheads back in the day were so horrified that the protagonist would murder his own uncle that they came up with some tortuous alternative explanation having to do with a deceased donkey.

"Left his dead ass there by the side of the road"

i always thought the uncle was shot during the dust up in the saloon and died during/after the getaway.

 

 

papa john was so fucked up when he wrote it that the next day he heard someone playing it and asked you the songwriter was.

also, john phillips was a creep.

It's said that Phillips was in a drunken stupor when he wrote or first recited / sang the song and he didn't remember any of it the next day. - Judy Collins recorded him and saved it.

thanks for the input on this guys(and girls).  I always held out hope for the alternative ending.

John Phillips was a creep>>>>

I can think of another couple words......

Former child-star Mackenzie Phillips, whose life has been marred by drug abuse and arrests, confessed today that she engaged in a 10-year consensual sexual relationship with her father, rock star John Phillips.Phillips, 49, the former star of '70s-'80s sitcom "One Day at a Time," told Oprah Winfrey that she was first raped by her father in a hotel room when she was 18 while passed out after a drug binge but continued to use drugs and have consensual sex with him for years.The relationship continued long after she married Jeff Sessler when she was 19, and ended only when she became pregnant and feared her father was the baby's father, Phillips said. John Phillips, she said, paid for an abortion.

As I recall, there was some shade thrown on Mackenzie's tale.  She was awaiting sentencing on a drug charge, and it was posited that she had come out with this story to curry pity and a more lenient sentence.   As her dad was long dead and not around to comment, he made a convenient target.  The truth is unknown, and maybe John Phillips did do all that, but there were some questions about her story.

Gangster country music - keeping it real 

Alt ending:

Uncle trains nephew how to beat Pitfall.

They in turn leave their dead Donkey near the highway.

The End

That's as horrible as a remake of High Noon as High Tea Noon.