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I am fascinated by the music of Blaze Foley, and he often paints an incredible picture of life in the country.

Last year I was able to – after research – determine the meaning of the line "Feed the pigeons some clay" (pigeons do eat clay!) but the meaning of this line (highlighted in bold below) in Big Cheeseburgers And Good French Fries has eluded me:

I got an angel of woman with big brown eyes,
Friends in the country, old neckties,
Big cheeseburgers and good French fries,
Could go fishing but the fish draw flies.

Does anyone know what he's referring to here?

mayersdesign
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  • Hmmm, I hadn't considered that he was talking about what the fish might attract after he caught them. I was thinking it was more of a "fly fishing" reference. You might be right. – mayersdesign Oct 29 '19 at 11:14
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    I've got to know, what does "Feed the pigeons some clay" mean? – Derek Gusoff Nov 05 '19 at 02:11
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    @Derek Gusoff - Oh haha. Literally that. Pigeons will naturally eat clay from "clay licks" at the side of rivers, to protect against stomach infections and to get certain minerals. Pigeon keepers will, if reason permits, actually feed pigeons small clay balls, so I assume this is literally what Blaze was fond of doing to pass the time. – mayersdesign Nov 05 '19 at 11:12

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In English, to draw can also mean "to attract", so it means he doesn't want to be annoyed by flies around him if he catches fish.

Bebs
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Just simple and clever, referring to how fly fishermen (myself being one), are said to be “drawing trout” when attempting to attract them to the surface, often changing the “fly” (which is supposed to imitate the local natural habitat that the trout are feeding on at that particular time of year). Therefore even tho fishermen will think of it as “drawing trout” by switching through numerous flies until successful, Blaze turns it around to say that really it’s the fish that tempting us to come to them, and throw fly after fly in attempts of catching them. So are we the ones drawing the trout, or are they really in-fact drawing us? “fish draw flies”, cuz yeah, they actually do from the trouts point of view I guess.

Pfunk
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Fish stink. Flies come. Perhaps there’s a double meaning with fly fishing as well. This is obvious.

Damon
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  • Yes, perhaps its really as simple as he went fishing a time or two and was pissed off with the amount of flies, and he's simply stating a fact. – mayersdesign Jun 22 '23 at 08:04