| Neil Young – Don't Let It Bring You Down Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| I think the song is pretty straight forward with a little bit of clumsy metaphor thrown in. As stated earlier, the song was written at a time when society was unraveling. If the song was not called DLIBYD it could have been called "The Times They Are A Chagin." Neil Young seems to be explaining that the unraveling of society is part of a natural cycle; societies are born, they live, they unravel and they die. Then a new society is born to take it's place (Don't let it bring you down). The first verse is a great word picture of a cold, dark, and uncaring society; the old man is alive at the beginning and dead at the end (more about the cycle of life and death). The second verse makes what appears to be paradoxical statement and then explains what he means. A blind man always lives in darkness; the "answer" to how there can be the "light of the night," is in the blind man's hand; a white can. The cane that is a light to his darkness and helps him to see. But, as with the "river of sight," the blind man can only see the surface of the water, not what's going on underneath. The song ends explaining that if you only see the surface you will probably not survive (You'd better start swimming or you'll sink like a stone, For the times they are a chagin)" | |
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