Jessie

He's running away from home, and the dog follows him, 'cos it's his dog and he's it's master. And he's trying to make it go back but it won't. I just get this image of it slinking behind him and him turning 'round to chase it home. He doesn't really make it far, and when he goes home he finds the dog hasn't returned and he never sees jessie again. breaks my heart that song.

Great song .. I think the song is about a drinker or drug addict, hard enough looking after himself let alone a dog ...he wants to and Jessie wants to but the responsibilty, he can't make it work. It would be nice to read comments from people who aren't stupid, but such is the world I live in.

I think that It's a song about a man that it´s going to leave his home, but his dog is following him. He's trying to make it go back but at the same time he wants to stay with his Dog, perhaps the only friend that he has, but he can't take the dog to the place that he is going, so he ran away, and finally he got rid of Jessie, but that leaves him with a broken heart.

he's writing a song about running away from home, with his pet dog chasing him? er..... is there something wrong with that or is it just me? but after all is said and done, I LOVE THIS SONG... THE MUSIC IS AWESOME!

he's writing a song about running away from home, with his pet dog chasing him? er..... is there something wrong with that or is it just me? but after all is said and done, I LOVE THIS SONG... THE MUSIC IS AWESOME!

I never thought he was running away from home. Just maybe going some place dangerous and he's not sure if he'll make it back alive. Obviously he wouldn't want Jesse to get involved. The reason he "runs away" is to try to lose Jesse so he'll go back home

I believe that the first line is either:

Play with the dog...play with the dog...play with the dog.

or

Pet the dog...pet the dog...pet the dog.

The second line is bungled up also...

It's a song about someone having to leave home and not wanting his dog to follow him. Maybe he is leaving his family who don't care about him, but he knows the dog does, but he doesn't want the dog to follow him because he doesn't know where he's going or how he could protect the dog from the cold elements.

One of the most moving and heart-breaking songs of all-time.

My take on the meaning of the lyrics. I do feel he is running away from a shattered home.... And the only faithful friend who shows unconditional love is Jessie. He also loves the dog very much therefore he cannot take him where he is going for 2 reasons. 1 the reference to it being cold outside could indicate how cruel, cold the outside world really is.... Something that would completely foreign to Jessie as he is such a innocent and would not survive. 2 I think where the writer is going he cannot take anything with him. I think not only does he run away from home, he maybe contemplating suicide.

In abstract. I think he is the dog, "Jessie" and he meets a woman out on the road who he hooks up with. They stay together for the night and she doesn't want to stay with him even though he clearly has emotions. She tells him, as the dog, that he is too good for her and to "go on home".