Follow Me Down

Woah, I'm actually quite surprised no one has commented on this song yet. Well. What I think is that this song is about a young woman who used to be nice and "pure", let's say, a virgin who barely even thought about sex until a guy comes by and has sex with her and that completely changes her. But the thing here is that she's probably been taught from a young age that sex is bad and has not been told that she could feel lust (she's probably from a religious family? I don't know) and she starts feeling dirty and confused. When she understands she's feeling lust, she starts grows anger for the young man that "ruined" her pure life, goes crazy and either drowns herself in the river or kills the guy and throws his body to the river. See: "Since I met you I've been crazy/Since I've been with you I've been lost" He changed something inside her and she does not fully understand it (AKA she's feeling lust) "Have I lost my mind?" As she doesn't understand lust, she thinks she is simply crazy. "Nights avoiding things unholy/Your hand slips across my skin" She used to be "virgin pure" until he came along "When you're young you always take what you can get... But I am not alive" this whole fragment is about her realising that she's feeling lust and expressing her hatred for how easily she feels it now that she's been initiated sexually. This makes her terribly depressed, she doesn't feel alive anymore. She feels she's not worth anything now that she's sinned. "Follow me down to the river, man/I'll be down here on my knees" She kills herself on the river or throws her lover's corpse in it. Being down on your knees is a symbol of repenting your sins, so basically she's saying that this is her way of showing God that she's repented. So finally, I think this song is about how catholic religion and it's ideas about sex can fuck a person up terribly, to the point of making a person feel like they're worthless monsters for doing and feeling natural things.

Woah, I'm actually quite surprised no one has commented on this song yet. Well. What I think is that this song is about a young woman who used to be nice and "pure", let's say, a virgin who barely even thought about sex until a guy comes by and has sex with her and that completely changes her. But the thing here is that she's probably been taught from a young age that sex is bad and has not been told that she could feel lust (she's probably from a religious family? I don't know) and she starts feeling dirty and confused. When she understands she's feeling lust, she starts grows anger for the young man that "ruined" her pure life, goes crazy and either drowns herself in the river or kills the guy and throws his body to the river. See: "Since I met you I've been crazy/Since I've been with you I've been lost" He changed something inside her and she does not fully understand it (AKA she's feeling lust) "Have I lost my mind?" As she doesn't understand lust, she thinks she is simply crazy. "Nights avoiding things unholy/Your hand slips across my skin" She used to be "virgin pure" until he came along "When you're young you always take what you can get... But I am not alive" this whole fragment is about her realising that she's feeling lust and expressing her hatred for how easily she feels it now that she's been initiated sexually. This makes her terribly depressed, she doesn't feel alive anymore. She feels she's not worth anything now that she's sinned. "Follow me down to the river, man/I'll be down here on my knees" She kills herself on the river or throws her lover's corpse in it. Being down on your knees is a symbol of repenting your sins, so basically she's saying that this is her way of showing God that she's repented. So finally, I think this song is about how catholic religion and it's ideas about sex can fuck a person up terribly, to the point of making a person feel like they're worthless monsters for doing and feeling natural things.

Woah, I'm actually quite surprised no one has commented on this song yet. Well. What I think is that this song is about a young woman who used to be nice and "pure", let's say, a virgin who barely even thought about sex until a guy comes by and has sex with her and that completely changes her. But the thing here is that she's probably been taught from a young age that sex is bad and has not been told that she could feel lust (she's probably from a religious family? I don't know) and she starts feeling dirty and confused. When she understands she's feeling lust, she starts grows anger for the young man that "ruined" her pure life, goes crazy and either drowns herself in the river or kills the guy and throws his body to the river. See: "Since I met you I've been crazy/Since I've been with you I've been lost" He changed something inside her and she does not fully understand it (AKA she's feeling lust) "Have I lost my mind?" As she doesn't understand lust, she thinks she is simply crazy. "Nights avoiding things unholy/Your hand slips across my skin" She used to be "virgin pure" until he came along "When you're young you always take what you can get... But I am not alive" this whole fragment is about her realising that she's feeling lust and expressing her hatred for how easily she feels it now that she's been initiated sexually. This makes her terribly depressed, she doesn't feel alive anymore. She feels she's not worth anything now that she's sinned. "Follow me down to the river, man/I'll be down here on my knees" She kills herself on the river or throws her lover's corpse in it. Being down on your knees is a symbol of repenting your sins, so basically she's saying that this is her way of showing God that she's repented. So finally, I think this song is about how catholic religion and it's ideas about sex can fuck a person up terribly, to the point of making a person feel like they're worthless monsters for doing and feeling natural things.

Losing your virginity.. "So follow me down to the river Follow me down through the trees"

The river is the body, The trees is the pubic hair..

" I'll be down here on my knees " .. Yeaah, you know the rest :-P

Taylor said in an interview that this song is generally about "a relationship between a younger girl and a much older man." So, I think it's about her and her fellow guitarist, Ben Phillips. "Since I met you, I've been crazy" - Taylor definatley started showing her more Gothic side once the Pretty Reckless was formed.

Youthfulness, nievity and doing everything, but going all the way. Masturbation when she didn't have any other outlet...bicycles, water jets as sprinklers. She's finally met someone, but is avoiding "things unholy" by having oral sex and not intercourse. She does feel overwhelmed because this is her first love. River=vagina and cunninglingus. On her knees=fellatio. Death=le petit Mort aka orgasm. Its a wonderful song about youthful love.

I think that this is a song where a young 'pure' virgin girl has fallen in love with an older man who isn't 'pure' at all. During their relationship he shows her stuff she hasn't seen before, for example 'people taking drugs, drinking etc'. She had never been exposed because her family are strong believers in Christianity and thinks you'll be sent to hell for sinning. Anyway she sees all that stuff and want's to do all that. And soon her life has been flipped upside down because her family life and the way she had been grown up is completely different to the life she wants. And the reason she wants that life is to be the guys girlfriend and to be with him. I think she might have been drunk or high or something when she tells him to follow her down to the river where they end up having sex. Because her family was Christians and they might have that whole aspect of 'if you don't believe in god then you're condemned to hell' or 'being pure till marriage' sort of idea. And the lyrics "Now I know that there's a different way to die, My body breathes, Heart still beats, But I am not alive" because she thinks she's going to hell and like only those who believe in Jesus will 'live' so she thinks that she has 'died' In a way of not only being 'pure' but not believing. I honestly have no idea.

This song is all about being a young woman with raging hormones and discovering about sex/lust (the first verse) and in this song particularly deals with oral sex and how much she enjoys it. When you first have such an experience you are wanting to have more of course, clouding all of your mind and actions subsequently. In detail, The "River" is her vagina, where the "water" comes from. "clean" because, well, usually oral is foreplay and we know what that will lead to - intercourse ("dirty water" has long been a euphemism for semen). "Nights avoiding things unholy" is a line describing her former life and upbringing to be a good girl. She reciprocates the oral sex in the same verse and well, "don't confess none of your sins" - you simply cannot discuss it with your mouth full and you don't usually talk about it with others (especially your parents). "Now I know that there's a different way to die...am I not alive?" is all about the orgasm ('the little death' as it's been termed).

Great song and brutally direct. Taylor may have lost to Miley for the "Hannah Montana" gig, but this stuff is MUCH better than anything the VIRUS has produced and I am grateful for it.

Yeah, I think when she sings "Now I know that there's a different way to die My body breathes Heart still beats But I am not alive ", it's about having an orgasm.

And "drink while the water is clean", is her bodily juices because she's a virgin.

I agree that it's about a couple who doesn't want to have sex yet, because it's "unholy", but they do engage in oral sex. Her "on her knees" giving a blowjob, and "his hand slips across her skin".

Taylor explained it herself in an interview she gave. It’s about the “Lolita” story….

Talk about “Follow Me Down” (a #1 hit on rock radio in 2014).

Taylor: I was reading [1955 novel] Lolita at the time. I had watched like every [film] version of Lolita. I was very obsessed with the Lolita story. And that’s kind of the inspiration for “Follow Me Down,” the concept of doing something sexually, that is not necessarily considered appropriate. And reveling in it and getting away with it and enjoying all the naughtiness of it.