Bow River

It's pretty straightforward - he's picking up and leaving town, going back to Bow River. He's sick of slogging it out at work, reckons he's worked long and hard enough to go. So he's going. And he's telling his girl that if she wants to come, she had better decide now, cause he's going, with or without her. It's a great Australian ballad about running to paradise - leaving the city and retiring to a warm, tropical place. An extention of the Great Australian Dream, if you will.

On a personal level, it will always make me think of my Dad. My Dad went back to his Bow River a few years back. I didn't want to move interstate with him, but he asked me to listen to this song, and I did. After hearing the song and reading the lyrics, I understood his reasons for wanting to move to Queensland, and I respected them. We don't live together anymore, as I moved back to Melbourne, but I think that one day I'll go back to Bow River and be with him again.

Great song, I totally agree with you, Arianrhod. It's about going back to that special place.

yeah i always thought of it as, bow river was where he grew up and he couldn't wait to leave, didn't want to work in the local factory, wanted to go find something bigger and better, yet once he got there, he just wanted to go back home.

=D Beautiful Song.. Arianrhod Summed It Up =]

-xox-

Have you heard Tripod's cover of this one? I acuall heard their version first. i really like it. and I know the feeling of working labour and feeling like your time is wasting away. gotta make sure I dont leave it too long before i get back to my Bow River (and I'm just 19 yrs!)

i grew up near a place called clyde river and i have moved states now but when i go back to the state we always go to clyde river so we change the lyrics to clyde river such a refreshing,gentle happy place we love to camp at

Pretty obvious meaning. What gets me with this song is the passion and sincerity from the performance between Ian and Jimmy, although they dont write the songs they seem to really understand and penetrate the meaning of each song and really belt it out behind the mics. When this was written in 1980's Australia, it was pretty standard expectation that factory workers put in massive hours. Alot of young workers were drawn by the high pay and mountains of over-time incentive (often the overtime was the bulk of the income). But the veterans of the business had learnt from this aspect and were jaded and fed up. Since the pub culture was so strong in rural and industrial Australia, it was also common place for alot of that income to fund beer, minute steak dinners and pokie machines (Australia had nearly no communal or legal policies on gambling back then) as theres only so long anyone can live that life of 72hour working weeks and not slip into an unhealthy comfort zone, prompting the line "pissing all my money up against the damn wall". Anyones Bow river is essentially anywhere luxurious away from this lifestyle, idealy in the past before it happened.

Of course it is obvious to see the song as "about going back to the special place", but that doesn't take much to come to that interpretation. Along those lines you would think David Bowie's Space Oddity is about a man going to space, you are all being too literal. Space Oddity is not about going to space, just the same as Bow River is not about going back to Bow River.

It is about the loss of youth and being unable to face up to the demands of the adult world, and every second being obsessed with that loss and trying to find a way back. He does say "I have my first set of wheels and I AM going back", he says when he gets his first set of wheels it is the first thing he is doing. So we can infer that he cannot yet go back and he is spending his time hating the factory work and thinking about getting out, but unable to, until the last part of the song.