The song lyrics were written by the band Van Halen, as they were asked to write a song for the 1979 movie "Over the Edge" starring Matt Dillon. The movie (and the lyrics, although more obliquely) are about bored, rebellious youth with nothing better to do than get into trouble. If you see the movie, these lyrics will make more sense. It's a great movie if you grew up in the 70s/80s you'll definitely remember some of these characters from your own life. Fun fact, after writing the song, Van Halen decided not to let the movie use it.
Well alright
There are women
In Cypress Grove
And if they catch ya
You don't go home
So get to booking
And don't look back
A one-way ticket
On a two-way track
(Two-way track)
Now tell me,
Holy diver, where you at?
There's a woman on the hill in a wide brimmed hat
With a shotgun
44
And a big blood hound in the back of a jacked up ford
They say the water
Is cherry wine
And all them women
Drunk all the time
Sheriff Jackson
Went out the back
At night his daughters
All dress in black
(Dress in black)
Now tell me,
Holy diver, where you at?
There's a woman on the hill in a wide brimmed hat
With a shotgun
44
And a razor-backed boar in the back of a jacked up ford
Better keep on runnin' Bukkah
They're playing you for succotash
And your stash is gone
Now tell me,
Holy diver, where you at?
There's a woman on the hill in a wide brimmed hat
With a shotgun
44
And a black plastic bag in the back of a jacked up ford
There are women
In Cypress Grove
And if they catch ya
You don't go home
So get to booking
And don't look back
A one-way ticket
On a two-way track
(Two-way track)
Now tell me,
Holy diver, where you at?
There's a woman on the hill in a wide brimmed hat
With a shotgun
44
And a big blood hound in the back of a jacked up ford
They say the water
Is cherry wine
And all them women
Drunk all the time
Sheriff Jackson
Went out the back
At night his daughters
All dress in black
(Dress in black)
Now tell me,
Holy diver, where you at?
There's a woman on the hill in a wide brimmed hat
With a shotgun
44
And a razor-backed boar in the back of a jacked up ford
Better keep on runnin' Bukkah
They're playing you for succotash
And your stash is gone
Now tell me,
Holy diver, where you at?
There's a woman on the hill in a wide brimmed hat
With a shotgun
44
And a black plastic bag in the back of a jacked up ford
Lyrics submitted by almostmanda
Cypress Grove Lyrics as written by Jean-paul Gaster Dan Maines
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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"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"
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"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"
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Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
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“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.
Lateral...I hear ya. Clutch has gotta be one of the coolest friggin bands out at present time!
I saw a book at a library titled Cypress Grove, read the description, and thought maybe that's what this song was about. But, Amazon says the book was published in April 2004, and Blast Tyrant was released in March 2004. Which is pretty weird, unless a band member knows the author.
And I'm still confused as to what a Holy Diver is supposed to be, except that he rides a tiger, and is a sole survivor :)
Anyways, this song ROCKS.
@votewithabullet i believe holy diver is someone whos been down to long in the midnight sea, questioning to himself what has become of me. He has shiny diamonds, closely in resemblance to the eyes of a cat in the black and blue. He must get away. Hes the star of the masquerade, he really has no reason to look afraid.
It's about witches. In the chorus he is calling to a 'holy diver' cause there is a witch in the hills - "there s a woman on the hill in a wide brimmed hat", so the country bumpkin holy diver with a shot gun or 44 goes on the hunt with his blood hound in his jacked up (take it as beat up or as lifted suspension)ford, other choruses he's got different stuff in his truck, a boar, and plastic bag.
at least that is what pops into my head when hearing it. nothing against all you lovely witches out there, please don't turn me to a newt. I just got better.
Cypress Grove is about Artemis and Actaeon
"...black plastic bag..." and "...big blood hound..." are supposed to be switched.
'Holy Diver'
A dio reference maybe?
This song makes me want to dance.
This song seriously creeps me out. It makes me think of crazy, drunk women who lure innocent people to their backwoods compounds and then steal their stashes and hunt them down with dogs or unleash their 'pet' boars when they try to escape. Or they hide on a hill and try to shoot them during said escape attempt. Why else would there be a black plastic bag (body bag) in the back of a jacked-up Ford?
Ominous lyrics aside, it might be my favorite Clutch song cause it's ultra groovy.
The Witch theory seems appropriate. What comes to my mind are the tales of Sirens and other similar creatures (even faeries; look what they did to Rip Van Winkle). In this song, however it's modern...like a spring-breakesque city where faeries lure single men in and presumably kill them.
I never thought about it like that...wow witches huh? I thought that basically they were just nymphs in a never never land! I kinda like that better though, sounds more fun. I wonder who Sheriff Jackson is supposed to be? I really love this site, this is my first time here. I will like the rest of the Clutch one's. They are hard but have deep meaning. Tough Dude Hymns is what I call some of their songs like Regulator, Ghost etc. I wonder if Cypress Grove is supposed to be a physical place or the Never Never Land I was referring to?