I pulled into Nazareth, was feelin' 'bout half past dead
I just need some place where I can lay my head
Hey, Mister, can you tell me where a man might find a bed?
He just grinned and shook my hand, "No," was all he said

Take a load off, Fanny
Take a load for free
Take a load off, Fanny
And (and, and) you put the load right on me (you put the load right on me)

I picked up my bag, I went lookin' for a place to hide
When I saw Carmen and the Devil walkin' side by side
I said, "Hey, Carmen, come on let's go downtown"
She said, "I gotta go, but my friend can stick around"

Take a load off, Fanny
Take a load for free
Take a load off, Fanny
And (and, and) you put the load right on me (you put the load right on me)

Go down, Miss Moses, there's nothin' you can say
It's just ol' Luke and Luke's waitin' on the Judgment Day
Well, Luke, my friend, what about young Anna Lee?
He said, "Do me a favor, son, won't you stay and keep Anna Lee company?"

Take a load off, Fanny
Take a load for free
Take a load off, Fanny
And (and, and) you put the load right on me (you put the load right on me)

Crazy Chester followed me and he caught me in the fog
He said, "I will fix your rack, if you'll take Jack, my dog"
I said, "Wait a minute, Chester, you know I'm a peaceful man"
He said, that's okay, boy, won't you feed him when you can?

Take a load off, Fanny
Take a load for free
Take a load off, Fanny
And (and, and) you put the load right on me (you put the load right on me)

Catch a cannon ball now to take me down the line
My bag is sinkin' low and I do believe it's time
To get back to Miss Fanny, you know she's the only one
Who sent me here with her, regards for everyone

Take a load off, Fanny
Take a load for free
Take a load off, Fanny
And (and, and) you put the load right on me (you put the load right on me)


Lyrics submitted by Hunter, edited by rescuedrab, Groujo, nrew240

The Weight Lyrics as written by Robbie Robertson

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Songtrust Ave, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.

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The Weight song meanings
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  • +5
    General Comment

    I just found the meaning of this song at this address: theband.hiof.no/articles/the_weight_viney.html

    Basically, there is no "meaning". It's not like "Hey Jude" where there is a "meaning" or a clear narrative or inspiration. Instead, Robbie Robertson (the man who wrote the lyrics) said "I just wrote it. It’s just one of those things. I thought of a couple of words that led to a couple more, and the next thing I knew I wrote the song," and he's also said "When I wrote ‘The Weight’, the first song for ‘Music From Big Pink’, it had a kind of American mythology I was reinventing using my connection to the universal language. The Nazareth in ‘The Weight’ was Nazareth, Pennsylvania."

    He was using very evocative language, which ends up sounding Biblical, i.e. great and mythical -- because there's not much language that digs deeper in the human soul to bring up images than the Bible. And "The Weight" manages to do the same as the Bible, in that respect. And it's also not dissimilar with regard to the difficulty in interpreting it! But, similarly or dissimilarly, that's because The Weight lacks a real story being told. Instead, he he uses the "Universal Language", really evocative and poetic language, to tell a story of travel and desperation and attachment with all the narrative "blanks" left unfilled, which actually leaves us to fill the blanks in with something that's not even put into words -- the imagery of a North American mythology. For me, I imagine him pulling into a Nazareth of whiskey stills and Appalachian old-timers, rural ghettos, rusty train cars rattling by, and guys with dogs that have only been fed whenever their owners got the chance.

    A beautiful song, the kind of song that conjures meanings up for each listener. This is one song where the comments on songmeanings that claim that the song has no "meaning" are well placed, although that is an asset in the case of this piece.

    just12on October 13, 2007   Link

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