Whitewater

Does nobody see the flagrant sexual references?

I believe this song is about a relationship with some girl (Sunshine). The relationship is purely physical, there is little love or connection other than a physical one (her love and beauty is passing him by). He feels he is wasting his time in this relationship, spending most of it in her valley (vagina) and beneath her skies (could be a number of things).

In the second part, the self-reflection is over. The first part was maybe him thinking while he was waiting for Sunshine, she now enters the room and he turns to a description of the act. She is on top, possibly riding him in the reverse cowgirl position. He looks at her butt (mountains; this fits with the "valley" being somewhere in between them), as she moves them in ways I do not feel the need to explain. All this is causing his penis to get harder (like a growing tree). Finally he reaches a climax (it's over).

He describes this as "coming home". As he comes, he releases his whitewater spring in her valley. This is how it's supposed to be, rivers flow in valleys. It is home. He has come to terms with the facts as they stand, and now actually appreciates the beauty of such a natural thing.

The first lines are incorrect, its

Oh sunshine, your love and beauty pass me by

I think you all are right. This song is about one's sexual and spiritual relationship with mother nature. Questioning whether or not one should waste their time absorbing and appreciating all that is nature is rhetorical with the intent of making the listener ask themselves that same question; to which the answer is hell yes! It's about making your home wherever you are in nature and feeling comfortable there. It's about birth (oh sunshine), the journey of life (questioning [should I waste my time] then accepting [mountains move, trees grow]), death (now it's over), returning to the earth (I am coming home), and learning to appreciate it all along the way (Ahh, I am home).

I think it's about the world and how it is ever moving and shows nature's power. It shows how humans are absolutly miniscule in comparison with the world and nature with mountains being moved and trees growing. I think that first part is about how the narrator feels like he doesn't deserve to be in this beautiful world.

As good as an album closer gets gets. Musically and lyrically the perfect ending for an album like Sky Valley.

moe2000: I think it's unfair to say they ripped off dark star. Sure, some parts sound similar but that's probably because they're both using the same scales. The tempo is entirely different and the style of playing is different too.

This song captures the awed acquiescence I have felt when faced with a massive and uncaring nature. There is an implacable joy in that acceptance that borders on the spiritual, a realization that despite the scale of our consciousness and the resistance of our egos, we are just another component in a cycle of birth, death, and rebirth that has gone on for millennia and will go on for millennia, and I think that's what is being communicated in this song, and not just lyrically: The massive riff repeated by the guitars and the glacial pace of the drums seem to embody the valley beneath the huge sky, the "mountains that move themselves," the trees growing inexorably higher. Few songs by any band have lyrical and musical themes that seem so perfectly in sync as this ones' do.

i agree, eskimo's spot on. being completely overcome and awestruck by the immensity of nature, expressed far more in the "massive and glacial" (great description scooper) instruments than the lyrics themselves. "Whitewater" as a force of nature.

The first verse seems to be about how small and insignificant one is in the beauty of the world. the sunshine passes by, almost as if his love of it is unrequited. He is so completely mindblown by the natural world, his very existence seems a waste of time by comparison, and yet at the same time he feels at home amongst it.

The second verse at a guess is about how people try to control or manipulate nature: "you move your own mountain", perhaps a reference to quarrying or mining or some other human activity... BUT the trees have grown, suggests that nature always claims it back, and now that nature rules again he feels that its a return to "home" for him.

this song overwhelms me every time I hear it (which is a lot cuz Kyuss completely possesses me most of the day) which is why I think they put Lick Doo at the end, a lighthearted sort of comic relief to the magnitude of Whitewater.

whitewater is a place (and "river" actually) west of palm springs

i was down there and stumbled upon all the "landmarks" so to say, last febuary. i found a street named thumb, the welcome to sky valley sign and a place called whitewater.. surely that cant be a coincidence as they are from that area.

Epic song makes me feel proud to live on this planet