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<font size=3>I suspect the answer is more literary than linguistic.
Dolly's original line rephrased the old proverb ("People who live in
glass houses shouldn't throw stones") and she further tinkered with
it by replacing "stones" with the synonym
"rocks". She likely revised the line to make it more
closely match the proverb.<br><br>
"If you live in a glass house, don’t throw stones/don’t shatter my
image ‘til you look at your own/look at your reflection in your house of
glass/stay out of my closet if your own’s full of trash..."
<br><br>
Fraser Sutherland<br><br>
At 09:39 AM 18/11/03 -0500, Orin Hargraves wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>Here’s something that’s been
bugging me: Dolly Parton released a song in<br>
1980, “Shattered Image,” with a recurring line, “shatter my image with
the<br>
rocks you throw.” It is recorded in a new version on her relatively
recent<br>
(2002) album “Halos and Horns,” but the word “rocks” is
systematically<br>
changed to “stones” throughout. What’s that about? “Rocks” is certainly
the<br>
word I would have chosen in the context, but somewhere along the line I
got<br>
a notion that “stones” would be the choice for an E coast or urban
speaker.<br>
She has always touted rather than tried to disguise her bumpkin origins,
so<br>
I wonder what the vocab makeover was about. Any ideas or inside
info?<br><br>
Orin Hargraves<br>
(at one time neither E coast nor urban) </font></blockquote></body>
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