Ferdinand the Imposter

by Kyle Sheehan

If I may submit a simple, friendly alternative to Sadavid's interpretation of The Band's "Ferdinand the Imposter" it would read as such:

I believe that many of the differences between Sadavid's interpretation and my own evolve from a slightly different comprehension of the lyrics involved. The way I hear them are as follows:

Ferdinand standin' in the tower,
thinking how to get the power,
Empress knows it would cost her,
for Ferdinand the Imposter.
Came to me to make a deal
dressed like General Butterfield
Couldn't wait to thank him for
the stuffed birds and rubber door
 
donated to him from the poor
but it's just his game
and he carries no shame
but, he done nobody wrong
knew he didn't belong
but he went along
looking to see if there's somebody else he'd like to be
 
Benny(,) the barber, Luke and me
passed out tickets cautiously
to see the burning of the soup
down at Lucy's chicken coop
then of course, Ferdinand,
started out doing Charlie Chan
batless, capless, honky, small
said he's going to do 'em all
 
A voice just said he's not for real
but it's just his game
and he carries no shame
but he done nobody wrong
knew he didn't belong
but he went along
looking to see if there's somebody else he'd like to be
 
oh it's hard, oh, don't you know
to be somebody that you don't even know
but he's friendly, yes he's kind
can't help wondering why they'd want to change his mind
 
got a message in the mail
Ferdinand was thrown in jail
left the snow with Abigail
went on down to fix his bail
they had him locked in a gunny sack
his hands were tied behind his back
he claimed he was a doukhobor
but they never heard of that in Baltimore
the police said he'd better go back home
so he went back home
back to the snow
 
Chorus

My belief is that Ferdinand is simply a con-man from Canada, only a con-man because he can't figure out a fixed identity for himself, so he goes around masquerading. My feelings toward the "stuffed birds and rubber door" line are that he was so good at what he did that the poor were willing to give him everything they had, including these ridiculous items. Ferdinand started out doing Charlie Chan, a character who first appeared in 1925. Batless, capless, honky, small, could simply be adjectives relating to Ferdinand. Perhaps he's going to "do them all" to make up for his actual lack of interesting characteristics.

Now, when the narrator receives a message saying that Ferdinand was thrown in jail, he leaves the snow with Abigail. Let's interpret that as leaving Canada to fix Ferdinand's bail in Baltimore. The Doukhobors were one of a number of Christian off-shoots beginning in the 16th and 17th century in Russia. The literal translation of the name is "Spirit-Wrestlers". In 1899, they began a mass exodus from Russia, with as many as 7500 moving to Canada. The main problem facing Doukhobors was religious persecution, so maybe Ferdinand used this as a ploy to avoid jail, playing the "religion" card, if you will. This would fail however, because America was not a large part of the mass Doukhobor immigration.

So, between the 1899 emigration of the Doukhobors and the 1925 creation of Charlie Chan, if Ferdinand was thirty years old or more, it stands to reason that he may have been nothing more than a Canadian con-man, who was a kind soul at heart.

--Kyle, March 2008