I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Look out boys, 'cause I'm a rollin' stone
That's what I was when I first left home
I took every secret that I'd ever known
And headed for the wall
Like a wrecking ball
Started down on the road to sin
Playin' bass under a pseudonym
The days were rough, and it's all quite dim
But my mind cuts through it all
Like a wrecking ball
Oh, just a little deadhead
Who is watching, who is watching
I's just a little deadhead
I won a dollar on a scholarship
Well, I got tired and let my average slip
Then I's a farmer in the pogonip
Of a weed that I recall
Was like a wrecking ball
Met a lovesick daughter of the San Joaquin
She showed me colors I'd never seen
Drank the bottom out of my canteen
Then left me in the fall
Like a wrecking ball
Standin' there, in the morning mist
A Jack & Coke at the end my wrist
I remember when first we kissed
'Though it was nothing at all
Like a wrecking ball
Hey boys, a little deadhead
Who's watching, who's watching
I's just a little deadhead
With too much trouble for me to shake
Oh, the weather and the blindin' ache
Was ridin' high until the '89 quake
Hit the Santa Cruz Garden Mall
Like a wrecking ball
That's what I was when I first left home
I took every secret that I'd ever known
And headed for the wall
Like a wrecking ball
Started down on the road to sin
Playin' bass under a pseudonym
The days were rough, and it's all quite dim
But my mind cuts through it all
Like a wrecking ball
Oh, just a little deadhead
Who is watching, who is watching
I's just a little deadhead
I won a dollar on a scholarship
Well, I got tired and let my average slip
Then I's a farmer in the pogonip
Of a weed that I recall
Was like a wrecking ball
Met a lovesick daughter of the San Joaquin
She showed me colors I'd never seen
Drank the bottom out of my canteen
Then left me in the fall
Like a wrecking ball
Standin' there, in the morning mist
A Jack & Coke at the end my wrist
I remember when first we kissed
'Though it was nothing at all
Like a wrecking ball
Hey boys, a little deadhead
Who's watching, who's watching
I's just a little deadhead
With too much trouble for me to shake
Oh, the weather and the blindin' ache
Was ridin' high until the '89 quake
Hit the Santa Cruz Garden Mall
Like a wrecking ball
Lyrics submitted by bluedogbeads
Wrecking Ball Lyrics as written by Gillian Howard Welch David Todd Rawlings
Lyrics © Wixen Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
Head > Heels
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Head > Heels” is a track that aims to capture what it feels like to experience romance that exceeds expectations. Ed Sheeran dedicates his album outro to a lover who has blessed him with a unique experience that he seeks to describe through the song’s nuanced lyrics.
Amazing
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran tells a story of unsuccessfully trying to feel “Amazing.” This track is about the being weighed down by emotional stress despite valiant attempts to find some positivity in the situation. This track was written by Ed Sheeran from the perspective of his friend. From the track, we see this person fall deeper into the negative thoughts and slide further down the path of mental torment with every lyric.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
Absolutely beautiful and powerful song, autobiographical or not and seems to chronicle a life's stages through "sin", not living up to parent's or other people's expectations of you and living a life off the grid or finding and following your own path perhaps made easier after having your mind's eye opened and seeing colors, life, the world, beauty, love as though you had never seen them before after you "met a LoveSick *Daughter of the San Joaquin" or had an LSD experience, in reference and an earthquake to shake you awake in case you weren't already paying attention to the way you should go in your life. That's my gut take on it. These two's music gets to my heart and soul and makes me happy and appreciative of life in the same manner. So real. Such love. I saw them in Chicago and it was an incredible time. I dearly hope they come back.
This song is gutwrenching, I love it, so powerful... Gillian's voice is perfect over the loopy electric guitar, it all just fits together... I think this is a pretty personal, autobiographical song for Gillian... but still I can relate to it. "My mind cuts through it all / Like a wrecking ball."
This song came on while I was driving back from seeing my dog for the last time before she was put to sleep. as soon as it started to play I began to cry.
I believe she was channeling Bob Dylan singing Like A Rolling Stone. Great great song.
I had been listening to this song for a few years at least when I started actually hearing some of the lyrics, and I started to pick out what seemed to be references to Santa Cruz, California, somewhere I lived for a while. I looked into it and was surprised that she had lived there, too, attending college at UC Santa Cruz.
She mentions "the Pogonip," which is a trail and area of the mountains behind UC Santa Cruz. These lyrics make it sound like she dropped out of classes to grow weed out in the woods there. I agree with slickeronstate about the "Lovesick Daughter"— it's probably a reference to taking LSD with her hippy friends in Santa Cruz. Lord knows it's a common enough practice there, especially back in the eighties.
The '89 quake was a big event in central California. The epicenter was in the forest of Nisene Marks, which is a beautiful place. I hiked by there once; there's a little monument even. My old piano teacher's daughter was in college at UCSC at the time, and I remember hearing stories from her about it. I remember the Bay Bridge in San Francisco collapsed and I'm pretty sure there were some casualties.
Anyway, it surprised me to suddenly make this connection with a song I already thought was beautiful, to suddenly find the lyrics run parallel to my own personal childhood mythology. And I figured it might be insightful to mention UCSC and Gillian's time there. Love this album.
~profanelexicon~