This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Well, take me back down where cool water flows, y'all
Oh, let me remember things I love
Stoppin' at the log where catfish bite
Walkin' along the river road at night
Barefoot girls dancin' in the moonlight
I can hear the bullfrog callin' me, oh
Wonder if my rope's still hangin' to the tree
Love to kick my feet way down the shallow water
Shoo fly, dragon fly, get back to your mother
Pick up a flat rock, skip it across Green River
Well
Up at Cody's camp I spent my days, Lord
With flat car riders and cross-tie walkers
Old Cody Junior took me over
Said, "You're gonna find the world is smoldering
And if you get lost, come on home to Green River"
Well
Come on home
Oh, let me remember things I love
Stoppin' at the log where catfish bite
Walkin' along the river road at night
Barefoot girls dancin' in the moonlight
I can hear the bullfrog callin' me, oh
Wonder if my rope's still hangin' to the tree
Love to kick my feet way down the shallow water
Shoo fly, dragon fly, get back to your mother
Pick up a flat rock, skip it across Green River
Well
Up at Cody's camp I spent my days, Lord
With flat car riders and cross-tie walkers
Old Cody Junior took me over
Said, "You're gonna find the world is smoldering
And if you get lost, come on home to Green River"
Well
Come on home
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I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
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“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
There was this campsite Fogerty and the others would go to every year in California called Putah Creek. It was run by a descendent of Buffalo Bill Cody, and they used to sell these drinks made with a syrup called "Green River". Fogerty wrote wrote the song about the camp which was like a vacation refuge to him, and then named it 'green river' cos it was more musical-sounding.
@shadowwiththeeyes Except it’s not a campsite. Putah Creek is a real creek in Winters, CA where he summered. The permanent building foundation of Cody’s camp still exists on the river side on the 100 block of Wolfskill St. (near 1st).
@shadowwiththeeyes Except it’s not a campsite. Putah Creek is a real creek in Winters, CA where he summered. The permanent building foundation of Cody’s camp still exists on the river side on the 100 block of Wolfskill St. (near 1st).
i couldn't believe that i didn't see any comments on the CCR's best song, then i realized i was on a website named songmeanings.net and probably no one know wat this song means...i don't either, but i'll take a stab at it...
i hav a feeling it's about a soldier who came back from war...but all the song implies is that it's about going back home after being away for a while...my reasons for saying it's about war is b/c Cody tells him that when he leaves Green River he's gonna find out "the world is smolderin"...i also think that might just mean the real world is hard, but that u can always go back home
CCR was not a southern rock band, they were all from California even though many of their popular songs are about life in the south on the bayou or on the river.
CCR is kickass, and it's amazing they were only around for four years.
i mean, if they would have stuck together longer, i think they would have passed all the greats in southern rock n roll, such as lynard skynard.
but, this is by far one of my favorite songs by CCR.
This is an awesome song, the guitar riff in the beginning is very swampy, and sets the scence of a River type setting.
Chrisb1 asked what a cross-tie walker is, it's a colorful description of a tramp or hobo, who when they aren't "flat-car riders" (hopping trains to travel across the countryside), they are "cross-tie walkers" walking on the rails waiting for a train.
This, too, is my favorite CCR song. I love the imagery of a barefoot girl dancing in the moonlight along a river road.
i think this is a pretty awesome song. my dad wanted to name my sister 'cody' in the 70's...but my mom wouldn't have it...then i came along and he got his wish...i'm pretty stoked about the name cody : )
Everytime they mention Green River on the weather report,gotta listen to it...
i love this song i love creedence what more can i say
welllll, bownownbowbownownow
green river!