Free Ride

oh my god...how can this song possibly have no comments...this is easily one of the greatest songs of all time...

I first heard this song in Dazed and Confused (my fave movie), and i freakin love it...it's embodies an ideal that just doesnt exist in this age...you know? lightin up a doob, cruisin around, and just hangin with your friends or lover...just chillin out and not lettin anything bother you...

I really love this song also. I first heard it from the Drew Carey Show Soundtrack, and it's amazingly awesome.

Possibly one of the best song's there is... Brings back some gooood memories from showchoir... Oh how I miss those days...

It's such a good driving song. It's just a really feel-good song, like just forget about your problems for a while and you'll find the answer. Or get stoned and you'll find the answers....haha.

I was really depressed yesterday and I put on this song, and when I heard the intro I was instantly in a good mood.

I don't know the originally intended meaning, and yeah it likely is drug-related, but I don't care. To me, this song more or less is about how politics/the world take complicated routes to accomplish nothing when you can accomplish the same (nothing) a much easier way...ie. the concept of "free" being the simple way that doesn't require funding to happen.

Thinking about it, it was definitely about drugs. But hey, I told ya how I see it, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who sees it that way.

I think it's about an angel. The angel is talking to us through the song. I flew in to give you a hand? And lead you into the promised land? Things are so bad here with greed and war. We know deep down that the way we fight each other is wrong. No matter how we want to justify war, it is still a terrible concept that should be obsolete! Must come from within.

I haven't read that many comments yet, but what surprises me is that my interpretation wasn't universal, since I thought it was so obvious. I was in ninth, maybe tenth grade when this song came out-; what prompted me to accept the meaning that I've taken starts with the second verse where what I thought that what Edgar called, "the game," at which, "nobody is winning," was gratuitously letting other people prod one into going on welfare right after just a few short months of unsuccessful job-hunting. I would encounter that problem myself, from people who didn't want to bother actually to help, but, themselves just to escape a discussion. I felt Edgar to be truly heroic to warn the rest of us against those burgeoning wrong-headed mis-guiders. I did not support welfare's abolition, just the false pushing of young people onto it before even looking at their workforce potential, which I blame for the abolition itself as well. Since I regard Mr. Winter as deeply admirable for this work alone, I was dismayed to see an advertiser portray him as a laughable, "booby-prize," in a fictional, radio-trivia contest. I pretend to see him as sneering at her for all her, "free," stuff, greedily stacked, perfect metaphor for his song, and, "her," declining meeting him out of SHAME.

Tannisroot, Interesting thoughts and they make some sense. Whether that was the original meaning or not, could it be relevant to the "99 weekers" of 2012? I feel bad that our country is in this economic state & for people laid off work.. but the 99 weekers out there who would rather get a "Free ride (government check) for two years, than take a less desirable job than they had before?

And what about the College Students now pushing for debt forgiveness on their loans? They read & signed the contract, you have the education you so desired.. Is it time to buck up people? You may not get the job of your original desire...but maybe it's time to take what you can get and contribute and pay back your obligations?

Then there is the House squatters..

"All over the country, I'm seeing the same, Nobody's winning, at this type of game, We gotta do better, it's time to begin, You know all the answers must come from within."

On a visit to Southern California, a middle aged guide took me around the hills surrounding the Sausolito area and she pointed to a bay where there used to be house boats in the 1970s. These houseboats were inhabited by squatters - a practice that was referred to as taking a "free ride". She had never heard of the song when I suggested that perhaps what Edgar's band was singing about.

In this song, Dan is inviting us to go on a ride with him. There's no charge. The ride is free. He only asks that we listen to what he has to say. I see two possible parallel themes in his message:

1. You shouldn't rely on other people to make your decisions for you. You need to be true to yourself.

2. We've all got to become better people if we want the world to be a better place. The responsibility for change starts with each of us individually.