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Why Carolina is a continued personification of coke and not literally about a one night stand:
Harry has said when writing songs he is influenced by what he grew up listening to. In the case of Carolina, it was Johnny Cash. Johnny spent his life addicted to amphetamines, particularly Cocaine. He wrote a lot of songs about the drug.
Cocaine/amphetamines affected Johnny’s success and happiness and led to canceled shows, divorce, arrests, etc. He wrote a song called “Cocaine Carolina” to show how destructive that drug was to his life by personifying it as a woman after his money.
H has tweeted Johnny cash lyrics before. This is the song I got stripes about being in “prison” and being chained down and never getting out. It’s not a coincidence he tweeted this on the day before the Pride March that year in NY. He has also put JC pics on Instagram.
Carolina is Harry’s continuation of “Cocaine Carolina” in his own life. Johnny Cash personifies 2 types of drugs, Cocaine and opioids (heroine, morphine, oxy, etc) in the form of 2 people. Cocaine makes you speed while opioids are pain killers.
The two characters in the song are Cocaine Carolina (Coke-speed) and Sandy Scag (opioids/heroine-pain killer).
Metaphorical Story: Johnny meets Cocaine Carolina and gets hooked on her/addicted, but realizes she just wants his money, so he goes back to Sandy Scag (heroine/opioids) who wants him and “knows just what to do” aka makes him feel good without taking from him.
Literal story: JC is addicted to Coke and can’t escape it. It controls his life takes his happiness from him. He’s saying he needs an opioid like heroine bc it will take away/make him forget the pain and loss in his life cause by using Cocaine.
In case u didn’t know, slang for heroine is “boy” and slang for cocaine is “girl”. In the song he chooses sandy Scag (boy) over Carolina (girl). Carolina/coke is causing pain in his life, but can’t escape her/it, while Sandy is an escape that takes the pain away/helps him forget
Both Harry and Johnny have a brief encounter with Carolina, but don’t end up w her.
Going further with cocaine’s slang term being girl, that’s why Harry refers to “Carolina” as a good girl that feels so good. Other lines also show the “Carolina” represents Cocaine.
Johnny’s song uses Carolina to personify Cocaine (which took away a lot of his happiness in life) as a woman after his money. He uses Sandy to portray Opioids (pain killers) as a woman who just wants him and makes him forget the addiction he has to Carolina and the pain it caused
Harry’s Carolina and Johnny’s Carolina are meant to represent the same person. Harry wrote Carolina when he was 22. He writes about Johnny’s Carolina as if he’s her next victim of torment. She brings pain to him too, but he hasn’t escaped yet like Johnny did.
Like she represented Johnny’s pain, She reps H’s pain as the image he can’t escape. He uses a fanfiction type story bc that’s what is always pushed. Time and time again, new stories like this are published and it’s like a drug addiction and H can’t escape the pain it causes.
Johnny ends up w Sandy who helps him forget Carolina and the pain she caused. This is supposed to rep Johnny using opioids to forget the pain Cocaine caused. Harry doesn’t end up w Sandy bc he hasn’t fully escaped from Carolina yet. Stories are still coming out.
We know who his Sandy is. His opioid/heroine is a certain someone. The slang being “The boy” gives you a hint. As long as headlines are coming out, he won’t be able to finish the story publicly like Johnny, but he gives hints in HS1 that he found Sandy/his opioid too.
Harry mentions needing opioids In MMITH, he talks about needing morphine to take the pain away and saying he can’t go without it. This is his Sandy.
The original lyrics said “town” and was underlined heavily. The name was added after it was written to give the song an actual girl to personify as the addictive drug in Harry’s life when in reality it’s the narrative she represents that he can’t escape, not Townes herself.
Harry has personified names before, this isn’t a new thing. He did it with Olivia who is supposed to represent “I love you” and the emotions you feel when you’re in love. So, using a name to rep drugs isn’t unlike him to do.
