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"
A lonely mother gazing out of the window
Staring at a son that she just can't touch
If at any time he's in a jam, she'll be by his side
But he doesn't realize he hurts her so much
But all the praying just ain't helping at all
'Cause he can't seem to keep his self out of trouble
So, he goes out and he makes his money the best way he knows how
Another body laying cold in the gutter
Listen to me
Don't go chasing waterfalls
Please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you're used to
I know that you're gonna have it your way or nothing at all
But I think you're moving too fast
Little precious has a natural obsession for temptation
But he just can't see
She gives him loving that his body can't handle
But all he can say is, "Baby, it's good to me"
One day he goes and takes a glimpse in the mirror
But he doesn't recognize his own face
His health is fading and he doesn't know why
Three letters took him to his final resting place
Y'all don't hear me
Don't go chasing waterfalls
Please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you're used to
I know that you're gonna have it your way or nothing at all
But I think you're moving too fast
Don't go chasing waterfalls
Please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you're used to
I know that you're gonna have it your way or nothing at all
But I think you're moving too fast
Come on
I seen a rainbow yesterday
But too many storms have come and gone
Leavin' a trace of not one God-given ray
Is it because my life is ten shades of gray?
I pray all ten fade away
Seldom praise Him for the sunny days
And like his promise is true
Only my faith can undo
The many chances I blew
To bring my life to anew
Clear blue and unconditional skies
Have dried the tears from my eyes
No more lonely cries
My only bleedin' hope
Is for the folk who can't cope
With such an endurin' pain
That it keeps 'em in the pourin' rain
Who's to blame for tootin' caine into your own vein?
What a shame
You shoot and aim for someone else's brain
You claim the insane
And name this day in time
For fallin prey to crime
I say the system got you victim to your own mind
Dreams are hopeless aspirations
In hopes of comin' true
Believe in yourself
The rest is up to me and you
Don't go chasing waterfalls
Please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you're used to
I know that you're gonna have it your way or nothing at all
But I think you're moving too fast (oh, you're moving too fast)
Don't go chasing waterfalls
Please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you're used to
I know that you're gonna have it your way or nothing at all
But I think you're moving too fast
Staring at a son that she just can't touch
If at any time he's in a jam, she'll be by his side
But he doesn't realize he hurts her so much
But all the praying just ain't helping at all
'Cause he can't seem to keep his self out of trouble
So, he goes out and he makes his money the best way he knows how
Another body laying cold in the gutter
Listen to me
Don't go chasing waterfalls
Please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you're used to
I know that you're gonna have it your way or nothing at all
But I think you're moving too fast
Little precious has a natural obsession for temptation
But he just can't see
She gives him loving that his body can't handle
But all he can say is, "Baby, it's good to me"
One day he goes and takes a glimpse in the mirror
But he doesn't recognize his own face
His health is fading and he doesn't know why
Three letters took him to his final resting place
Y'all don't hear me
Don't go chasing waterfalls
Please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you're used to
I know that you're gonna have it your way or nothing at all
But I think you're moving too fast
Don't go chasing waterfalls
Please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you're used to
I know that you're gonna have it your way or nothing at all
But I think you're moving too fast
Come on
I seen a rainbow yesterday
But too many storms have come and gone
Leavin' a trace of not one God-given ray
Is it because my life is ten shades of gray?
I pray all ten fade away
Seldom praise Him for the sunny days
And like his promise is true
Only my faith can undo
The many chances I blew
To bring my life to anew
Clear blue and unconditional skies
Have dried the tears from my eyes
No more lonely cries
My only bleedin' hope
Is for the folk who can't cope
With such an endurin' pain
That it keeps 'em in the pourin' rain
Who's to blame for tootin' caine into your own vein?
What a shame
You shoot and aim for someone else's brain
You claim the insane
And name this day in time
For fallin prey to crime
I say the system got you victim to your own mind
Dreams are hopeless aspirations
In hopes of comin' true
Believe in yourself
The rest is up to me and you
Don't go chasing waterfalls
Please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you're used to
I know that you're gonna have it your way or nothing at all
But I think you're moving too fast (oh, you're moving too fast)
Don't go chasing waterfalls
Please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you're used to
I know that you're gonna have it your way or nothing at all
But I think you're moving too fast
Lyrics submitted by Moondragon
Waterfalls Lyrics as written by Rico Renard Wade Raymon Ameer Murray
Lyrics © TuneCore Inc., BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Royalty Network
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Magical
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I remember watching this song on M.T.V. when I was 15. The video clearly shows a boy or young man selling drugs to earn lots of money, only to be shot in the end by another drug dealer or client while his mother
sspirit` pleads with him to back away and avoid the confrontation. Naturally he neither sees nor heeds her. This is the first waterfall -- something exciting but dangerous, which offers much money but too much risk.The second scenario shows a man and women in bed, doing.. what men and women tend to do together in bed (and it`s not reading). The man reaches for a condom but the woman brushes it away. Then we see her picture frame, and pictures of various men appear and disappear, men who caught her H.I.V. (three letters) and died from it, and finally her picture disappears, representing her death. This is the second waterfall, promiscuity, which offers pleasure but also emotional pain and physical disease and death.
The message is to avoid things that give success and/or pleasure but are immoral, dangerous, or both. Keep doing things that are good and not too risky, even if they`re not flashy like waterfalls.
@keetrainchild Yeah I think the song is basically saying don't take those unneeded risks in your life.
i love TLC and Lisa was always my favourite. i thought i'd write this here coz when i hear this song it reminds me of when i was in year 4. This song came on and me and a couple of my friends pushed a couple of tables together and sang and danced to this song. Of course i was Lisa :) anyway RIP LISA I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU
This was the first pop song I ever remember liking. To me, it basically tells you not to rush life. So many people are in a rush to grow up and become incapable of making the right decision. Bascially I think it say to avoid getting into situations you aren't ready to handle.
Whenever I hear this song I feel like a little kid again. I'm not really an R&B or rap person, but I love TLC. They are real, unlike a lot of other things.
Whoever compared them to Destiny's Child was ridiculous.
I used to love this album back in elementary school. Haha. I always thought this song was about AIDS. 3 letters=HIV? That's my guess.
Well, wasn't Left-Eye the whole reason that they exist? I can't imagine Rozanda leading them...
theres a bit missing from the rap bit :S it goes "my only bleeding hope is for the folks who can't cope wit such an enduring pain that it keeps em in the pouring rain" and then later its actually "whos to blame for shootin 'caine into your own vein, what a shame u shoot and aim for someone elses brain". But yeah, its a great song!!
This song is very moral. The first verse is about a young boy who wants to be a man, but gets killed. The second verse is about a man who makes love to a woman who has STD and both of them die for committing Adultery. I'm a young adult and I still live at home, does this mean I'm still in the rivers and lakes? Also, this is one of the TLC songs that was parodied. Weird Al made 'Phony Calls' from this song. The other was 'No Pigeons' by Sporty Theivez which was a parody of TLC's 'No Scrubs'.
Okay just a FYI- if you watch the video it makes more sense... Basically the first part of the song is talking about a mother who is trying to stop her son from dealing drugs and he ends up getting shot doing a deal... the second part talks about a guy who is having sex with a girl who has HIV or AIDs and (in the video) the girl pushes the condom out of his hand and he ends up getting infected with the disease... pretty sad video and song... good song though!
NO GLOVE, NO LOVE!!!!
This is my personal favorite TLC song. The video's very touching too. It's real... It talks about someone with STDs... And just slowing down your life and taking care of it... Very very nice song.
This song touches me and means a great deal to me. I've had a lot of people in my life come and go from "chasing waterfalls". It's about taking the time and thinking about some of those big grown up chances we think about taking. Sometimes it's better to stick to the things that you know.