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Delta Lyrics
Waking
Stream of consciousness
On a sleeping
Street of dreams
Thoughts
Like scattered leaves
Slowed in mid-fall
to the streams
Of fast running rivers
Of choice and chance
And time stops here on the delta
While they dance, while they dance Mmm, mmm ...
I love the child
Who steers this riverboat
But lately he's crazy
For the deep
The river seems dreamlike
In the daytime
Someone keeps thinking
In my dreams
Of fast running rivers
Of choice and chance
And It seems as if time stops on the delta (Time stops on the delta)
While they dance
While they dance
While they dance
While they dance
While they dance
While they dance
While they dance
While they dance
While they dance
While they dance...
Stream of consciousness
On a sleeping
Street of dreams
Like scattered leaves
Slowed in mid-fall
to the streams
Of choice and chance
And time stops here on the delta
While they dance, while they dance Mmm, mmm ...
Who steers this riverboat
But lately he's crazy
For the deep
In the daytime
Someone keeps thinking
In my dreams
Of choice and chance
And It seems as if time stops on the delta (Time stops on the delta)
While they dance
While they dance
While they dance
While they dance
While they dance
While they dance
While they dance
While they dance
While they dance
While they dance...
Song Info
Submitted by
hari66 On Dec 16, 2006
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One of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard.
It truly is a beautiful song, probably my favorite of CS&N. It was written by David Crosby... I really don't know what it means. It could be how the world seemed to him when he was high since he had huge drug problems. Otherwise, it's clearly a very abstract description of some sort of phenomenon.
Addendum: I just saw a 2005 version with Crosby/Nash on youtube and Crosby said it was a sad song because he was very lost at the time when he wrote it -- it was the last song he wrote before he got clean.
I think this is a song about regret and restlessness. The singer is looking back on his life and recognizing that he hasn't come as far as he would like. His horizons are still very limited, as though he's sailing a river instead of an ocean. He feels as though time has stopped moving, as though he's stopped growing. The line about "the child who steers this riverboat" could refer to himself, that he feels like in many ways he's still a child. And he "loves that child" in a way, but he's growing restless for more. "He's crazy for the deep." It would make sense that this song was written right before Crosby quit drugs and turned his life around. I've noticed that there are a lot of sailing metaphors in his songs.