All right

Bourbon blues on the street, loose and complete
Under skies all smoky blue green
I can't forsake a dixie dead shake
So we danced the sidewalk clean

My memory is muddy, what's this river that I'm in?
New Orleans is sinking, man, and I don't want to swim

Colonel Tom, what's wrong? What's going on?
You can't tie yourself up for a deal
He said, "Hey, north, you're south, shut your big mouth
You gotta do what you feel is real"

Ain't got no picture postcards, ain't got no souvenirs
My baby she don't know me when I'm thinking bout those years

Pale as a light bulb hanging on a wire
Sucking up to someone just to stoke the fire
Picking out the highlights of the scenery
Saw a little cloud that looked a little like me

I had my hands in the river, my feet back up on the banks
Looked up to the lord above and said "Hey, man, thanks"

"Sometimes I feel so good I got to scream"
She said "Gordie, baby, I know exactly what you mean"
She said, she said, I swear to god she said

Oh no
No, yeah

My memory is muddy, what's this river that I'm in?
New Orleans is sinking, man, and I don't want to swim

Swim


Lyrics submitted by black_cow_of_death, edited by hoodoovoodoo

New Orleans Is Sinking Lyrics as written by Gordon Sinclair Gordon Downie

Lyrics © Peermusic Publishing

Lyrics powered by LyricFind

New Orleans Is Sinking song meanings
Add Your Thoughts

30 Comments

sort form View by:
  • +1
    My Interpretation

    I think this song is about being on the brink of success, as The Hip were when Gord wrote this song.

    This song was written for their first full-length album after getting signed. "New Orleans" is a metaphor for a simpler time of dancing and drinking, back before they got signed into a record deal. That life is now disappearing for them ("sinking") and Gord doesn't want to "swim", or play along with all the crap that's required to succeed in the record industry. That simpler time is getting hard to remember (it's "muddy" and he's "got no picture postcards/souvenirs") and it seems like he was a different person before he was signed (his baby don't know him when he talks about that time in his life).

    Colonel Tom, as somebody else said, was Elvis' manager, who basically defined the role of a band manager. This is probably in reference to somebody who Gord things of as being an equally good manager. The Hip (Canadian, and thus from "The Great White North") recorded this album in Memphis ("The South"), and maybe they were thinking of changing their sound to appeal to a broader audience ("tie yourself up for a deal") but their manager told them not to sell out ("you gotta do what you feel is real").

    The metaphor "pale as a light bulb hanging on a wire" works on multiple levels. Getting signed and entering this new world that is the music industry has made him very nervous, and thus, very pale; pale, even, as a light bulb (which are known to hang on wires). In fact, he's so very nervous that he's as pale as he would be if he was about to fall to his death and was hanging on to a dangling wire for dear life. Perhaps he's even worried that his music career is going to fall and die.

    Part of launching your career in the record industry involved sucking up to the labels, thus, "sucking up to someone just to stoke the fire". He's looking around at the stars in the record industry ("checking out the highlights of the scenery") and he can just barely imagine reaching a fraction of that fame ("saw a little cloud that looked a little like me").

    The "river" that he mentions in the first and last verse is my favourite metaphor; it's the fast moving stream of success. He's still anchored to a normal, stable life ("the banks") but he can feel just how fast the river moves.

    Skrapionon September 30, 2010   Link

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

Album art
Standing On The Edge Of Summer
Thursday
In regards to the meaning of this song: Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.” That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
Album art
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him. There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
Album art
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines: "Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet" So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other: "I had all and then most of you" Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart "Some and now none of you" Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship. This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Album art
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve. The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future. Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere" The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
Album art
When We Were Young
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.