This song is about George Gerbig, a friend of her family when she was a kid. George was a wheeler and dealer. He belonged to "every organization that held meetings." In some cases he knew nothing about the subject of the organization. For example, he belonged to the Yacht Club, but didn't have a boat.
He practiced networking before the term came about. He kept hoping to land some big business deal with one of the people he would meet at one of these meetings.
One of the organizations he belonged to was the Shriners. Cheryl even went with him to the Boumi Temple a few times. When the organization became integrated, George was quite upset. He felt that it ruined his chances of landing some big deal.
One of the things that impresses me about this song is the tender treatment of a bigot. From his description in the song, George doesn't seem like the kind of person I would like to know, but then Cheryl has the lines:
And I guess I've forgotten since I was a kid
I don't know why we loved him I just know we did
There was a discussion on the e-mail list about whether the phrase "Frequently wrong but never in doubt" was an old saying or one that Cheryl made up. Here was Cheryl's response:
In answer to the queries regarding "Frequently wrong but never in doubt", my father said it to me one day on the phone and I loved it. I don't remember who he was talking about at the time, but I loved the expression and immediately thought of George.
In another conversation with my father at around the same time we were discussing bathroom remodeling which was occuring in both of our houses. I said I thought we were considering Corian for the counter top and he said it was awfully expensive. "Well yeah" I said, "but it'll last forever". He replied, "Well in my case that'd be like starting an all day sucker in the afternoon". I LOVED that, but it hasn't found it's way into a song...yet.