Don't Follow

I know I may be wrong but this song has a special meaning to me. My best friend committed suicide an hour after he had left me a voicemail in regards to not only a long battle with my anorexia but my healing surgery from hodgkins disease. He helped me through so much and suddenly he needed someone to talk to and i was not there for him. i believe that this song has helped me through and carried on what always was his wise words... "dont do anything stupid" but then he did... the song to me is about someone who is leaving a suicide note and telling someone not to follow and to be strong. This song is the reason i still am here today... he would have wanted that way. and wether or not the writers and singers of this song meant that exactly, it is a beautiful song.

This song is about suicide, regardless of the reasons for the act. It is not about heroine addiction. Yes Jerry wrote it, and sounds more like Lane’s life, but that changes nothing.

If you will, follow my train of thought:

“Hey, I ain't never coming home.” I have decided to end my life.

“Hey, I'll just wander my own road.” I am so lost and alone. And have run out of hope. My misery has pushed everyone I care for so far away. But I don’t want to tell you my decision yet. You’ll understand once I am gone. (or perhaps it’s a sort-of filler lyric)

Hey-hey, I can't meet you here tomorrow - no, no. - By tomorrow, I will be dead.

Say goodbye don't follow. Misery so hollow. Don’t take my suicide as something to consider for yourself.
Don’t romanticize my, your own or anyone else’s dark struggles: if it draws you in, you’ll find there is no sweet spot or silver lining to internal darkness. The attraction is real, the reality is fake. So you’re left with nothing.

"Hey you, you're livin' life full throttle." I have no clue what this means. Maybe referring back to “Don’t do what I am about to because you’re life is going well.”

"Hey you, pass me down that bottle, yeah..." OK, I’ve made up mind my, hand me the bottle of pills to kill myself. Or… He’s found some comfort among others who also want to die – let’s take a swig of booze and get this over with.

The pills are taken, it’s just a matter of time now.
Now he’s entering a state of transformation: aware and existing between living and dead.

"Hey-hey you, you can't shake me round now." He’s now remembering the first time he went through that transition - …being born. Opposite direction but similar experience. So he is now telling his mother (not in person), he’s not in her womb, or dependent on her, so he is free and a bit bitter about the past.

"I get so lost and don't know how, yeah..." Being a sensitive soul, the bitterness shifts to an attempt at explaining to her that he did try over and over, but always ended up in a living hell.

"It hurts to care, I'm goin' now." He realizes that he dropped his guard, so he is starting to feel sadness, reflect on regret and guilt for the pain he will cause others. “OK, enough. I AM doing to die. So one last time: goodbye.”

*** The song tone changes, indicating that he’s now shifting from “looking back” and saying goodbye to looking forward at what’s to come.

"Well I forgot my woman, lost my friends Things I've done and where I've been," His identity and any relation to what he knows as life are now gone.

"Sleep in sweat - the mirror's cold - Seen my face? It's growin' old -" His body is reacting to the drugs – cold sweats. Looking in a mirror, he gets a chilling view of a dying face. Or he’s sick of being reminded of his life, which is strongest when looking at himself in the mirror.

"Scared to death, no reason why" No more misery, depression, or agony, so why be scared? And… it is a play on words: Why be ‘scared to death’ when he has already insured that he will get to death very soon anyways.

"Do whatever to get me by," He’ll grab any distraction to avoid experiencing the horrors the poison he took is causing… until he is dead. So he chooses to: "Think about the things I've said Read the page its cold and dead" But reflecting on anything he has said is pointless: he can’t address who he said them to, or adjust to how people react, because now there is not enough time before he is dead.

"An' take me home! Yeah! Take me home! Oh-oh... take me home Take me home, yeah. Take me home. Yeah, oh."

Home is resolve, relief, comfort. And he has felt dead for so long, being dead will be like home to him than living another day.

He’s now feeling hopeful and optimistic. Leaving the body, the relief of the pain feels so good.

"Say goodbye. Don't follow." One final time, reminding others not to do what he has now done.

Follow that into the song Swing On This (the next song on that album). Death is over. The song is more upbeat. He’s confronted with feeling his family and friends' desire for him to come back to life (…said come home), but he still wants to die (heading towards what home is for him.) He hears a voice that says you have a choice, but he knows he can’t go back, only choose how fast he heads home.

Or I am completely wrong and all of that was just my weird mind getting too creatively over-active.

I agree that there's a real country vibe about this song.

I haven't studied the lyrics closely, but I always assumed it was about someone running away, and desperately wanting to return home but they're too proud to.

To me this song means alot...It helped me through a hard time...but anyway here is what it means to me...

to me the first part is about how he misses a place and the people of that place...but he knows that he has moved on, and that is all he can do no is just look back and remember.

Next he is talking about how he is living now...How he is just Living life in the moment...And he is drinking and thinking what is making his life so bad...and he admits to himself that he is heading to somewhere he doesn't wanna go.

Then there is a transistion in the mood of the song...it gets alittle more up tempo and a little lighter...This next part means the most to me.

This is where he begins to look back at that other place...and remembers some of the things he had to go through to leave and what he is going through now that he is off on his own with out the support of all those who had always been there for him...and all the things he did back there good or bad they were still memories from this place that he now misses greatly now that he is gone from it.

he then repeats "Take me home"...this means that he wants to go back to this old place so bad....but in the end of the song he just says "Say goodbye don't follow"...which to me means that no matter how bad he wants to go back he knows that part of his life is over....and that he has said goodbye to them and the place.

Looking at this from a psycholigical standpoint...this song is one of acceptance....specifically, acceptance of self. He is accepting he is an intravert, and is going to extreme mesures (including drug use and drinking) to seperate himself from from the outside world...kinda like the enitre Pink Floyd album, The Wall, in one beautiful short song. he is shutting the rest of the world, out of his world. I would refer to specific lines, but every one would be mentioned. I hope you can see my point.

This is my favorite AIC song. I don't know what was meant by this song, and I don't claim to. But i think it is realistic in the way it portrays the misery of life in such a beautiful melody. Goodbye Layne..... God's Peace

This song takes on new meaning to me, now that Lane Staley has passed away. I think that it pays a great tribute to Lane, portraying his death as somewhat of a salvation from his drug addiction. But, Cantrell did write it and I think he wrote it about either Staley or himself and how drug addiction has taken over.

The first verse, I think, refers to how the subject is at the point of no return and is kind of giving warning to others not to do the same things he did or not to help because it's hopeless.

The second verse, I think, refers to how he was doing things carelessly and got into his "addiction" without realizing it. It also says how he doesn't know how to deal with it so he only gets further into it.

In the bridge or upbeat part of the song I think he says how he loses everything and he is afraid of what is happening to him. It also says how he wants to be freed from it.

The end, I think, just says how he knows he's going to lose his battle with drugs and warning others of it. It's also of his acceptance of it and wish to be freed from it.

Most of Alice In Chains songs deal with the havoc that drug abuse can have on one's life. This song is a perfect example. Staley and Cantrell had amazing chemistry and Staley was one of the best singers of the '90s. So many bands have modeled their sound out of AIC's influence. I still can't believe that Staley went out like he did. It's such a waste of talent. It's also sad that no one really gave a shit about his death. Not to be cheesy but I know that I was deeply affected and still am. Watch their classic MTV Unplugged performance and you'll see what drugs did to him. It seems like the best musicians always die way too young...

One word.....Wow!

MJWhit518 - I feel the same. I still get sad and a little angry that he died. -Unlike Cobain. I like Nirvana's sound but not Kurt or his lyrics or suicide. A&C had so much talent. I think this song is about him rebeling against the norm and doing drugs like a 'good' young musician then he realizes the people that tried to keep him straight were right, but he has gone too far. He's begging for help now and the last line "Say goodbye, don't follow" That's his message- tell your friends goodbye if they offer drugs- don't follow them/him.