| Neil Young – Cripple Creek Ferry Lyrics | 7 years ago |
| It’s about a gambling boat. In many parts of the US gambling was, and in some places still is, only legal on a boat that is “on the river” and not at dock. This song is about a structure that’s really a bridge across a very small river but because it’s anchored rather than completely attached to either river bank, its operators refer to it as a “ferry”. Picture a boat sitting at anchor, perpendicular to the flow of a river with its bow almost touching one side and its stern almost touching the other. “It’s a mighty tight squeeze”. The captain “hasn’t heard from his deck hands” because they don’t exist. He’s only captain in title to exploit the legal loophole which makes the structure a “boat”. The “second half of the ‘cruise’ “ and the use of the term ‘ferry’ are facetious nods to the fact that this is not a boat at all. Of course as with all great lyrics there is room for endless metaphorical interpretation, but basically this is a song about a gambling boat. | |
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