Let Me Drown

Chris Cornell said the song has a theme of returning to the womb to die, like how salmon always return to the place they were born in to die, he thought it would be cool if people did that too

Awesome song!! Noone write like cornell, he rocks! :D

To me, the first verse seems to signify shooting up.. The stretching is the tourniquet, he's going to the holy land (getting high) .. Burn the candle deep inside is about summoning the courage to commit to such a harmful act.

So give up to greed, you don't have to feed me: go live in the materialistic society, you don't support my habit, I do. Give up to fate, you don't have to need me: just let life happen without me, I choose this life. So let it go (etc. Etc..) leave me alone! Drown me in you: I'll die with my addiction (happily), (Chris Cornell refers to heroin as water frequently).

Slip down darkness to the mouth, damn the water, burn the wine: succumb totally to your addiction, damn heroin, destroy alcohol (the legal alternative).

So throw it away, you don't have to take me Make no mistakes I am what you make me: Throw away your perceptions of addiction, but you still don't have to accept me, I am whatever you think I am (but it doesn't matter to me.. Successful rock star that I am)

Drown me in you: I want to die of a heroin overdose (?), or.. Give me all the heroin, as much as I can take..

I see you turn around and burning down The feeling starts to sink I feel the hurt surround me Please dissolve me She's resolved to be

I see you looking at me angrily, My high is wearing off, The hurt returns, I want to die, She (who?) left because of this...

So heal my wounds without a trace And seal my tomb without my face I'm going to the lonely place:

I'll take more heroin to feel better, But I'll probably die just another junkie, No one knows how I feel.

The rest just reinforces the earlier statements of leaving him to his addiction.

. . 1 down...

this is what i needed to hear tonight...just been through a fucked up end to a relationship and tonight i finally let it go..come home and listen to whats on...first thing is this song....god bless the boys of soundgarden, i wish they'd at least do one more show...

I crank this shit up when I hear it. Give up to greed, you don't have to need me. \m/

Wow, only 4 posts? This is one of the best SG songs!!

I always guessed that this song was about abortion. I guess I wasn't totally wrong :) Great lyrics. Thanks Treestump.

And just to confirm Treestump's post, Chris said it in an interview in RIP Magazine, April 1994 (check the Unofficial Soundgarden Homepage).

Great opener song. Couldn't get much better.

great song, but the best part is in the beginning when he just yells "yeeeaAAAAHH" i laugh my ass off whenever i hear it