Don't Pay The Ferryman

I think you can also take this in a more broad matter: don't pay for anything before you've fully explored it. Watch out not to be fooled and make sure you get what you want. The paying may be with money, with emotion, with .... whatever. Just make sure it isn't a one way street and you get something in return.

"-why- a soul shouldn't pay right away"

Because, if the soul paid the Ferryman before getting to the other side of the river, he would swap places with him, and would have to ferry souls for eternity, or until he tricked someone else into paying him before reaching the other side. Which isn't really what you'd want to do, so basically, pay him after you've reached the other side. According to mythology anyway.

For me it always sounded like a general old-timey advise. Back in the days, ferryman, especially in mire secluded regions were said to extort a lot of money from unsuspecting customers. Their trick: stopping halfway and demanding a second pay for completing the journey, possibly stranding their customers on an island half-way.

In the song Chris de Burgh even warns against fixing a price (he could raise at hakfway-point). And his ferryman actually does demand the pay early, citing potential "trouble" ahead.

I never got a dead soul-vibe though...

Stick to the course...don't veer off in a direction that you'll pay for later. Continue to the other side, with integrity intact because if you give over what's dear to you ,like your soul - what I think he's referring to as "payment", you'll be sorry. All because you were tricked into doing that thing which was out of panic at the "trouble ahead"(life being hard) you may do things or sell your soul, and regret it later.

** Hence the

"Until he gets you to the other side"

The other way i'd look at this would be.. His anxiety and fear is relentless .The racing car through the night is his mind prepared with faith to confront the things he has been waiting for . Thus the ragged hill ,water the wolves and rain are road block fears of his mind. The only way to get to the other side of his fears is to not listen to them . So the ferryman is the fear don't let him take you in ,he is the one who cant be trusted . There fore back and forth he tells him self the doubts about the voice which inhibits him and could move forward without it ,.His imagination was controlling him ,and still is once again . He cant pay the ferryman or fix a price because the price is automatic failure and he knows this when he thinks that way.Until he gets him to other other side which means he wont ever get there which is why he cant fix a price.He goes back and forth .But he knows how to over come it because this is the reason for his journey when he says a map of the mind and being on the Open Road . I think he made it as he worked out how to deal with the voices

This is about an unfortuanate trip to Wallasey, in which Chris was short of change, and pretended that he was dead.

this is such a kickass song.

Well, the ferryman is an allusion to the old greek Mythology: The river styx was what divided the land of the living from the land of the dead - and only the ferryman Charon was there to bring souls from one side to the other. Also, it was common to give the dead a small coin to pay him. Beyond that, I can't even guess what Chris was trying to express here... or -why- a soul shouldn't pay right away.

I've thought this song meant many different things throughout my journey - these days, I think it's about not making any promises to God - or whoever is controlling your subjective experience of reality - until the end of your life.