When Fogerty got his honorable discharge in July 1968 he was, "overjoyed." He says, "I actually went out on the little apartment-building lawn and did a couple of cartwheels. At that one moment it was...
Left a good job in the city
Workin' for the man ev'ry night and day
And I never lost one minute of sleepin'
Worryin' 'bout the way things might have been
Big wheel keep on turnin'
Proud Mary keep on burnin'
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
Cleaned a lot of plates in Memphis
Pumped a lot of pane down in New Orleans
But I never saw the good side of the city
'Til I hitched a ride on a river boat queen
Big wheel keep on turnin'
Proud Mary keep on burnin'
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
If you come down to the river
Bet you gonna find some people who live
You don't have to worry 'cause you have [if you got] no money
People on the river are happy to give
Big wheel keep on turnin'
Proud Mary keep on burnin'
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
Workin' for the man ev'ry night and day
And I never lost one minute of sleepin'
Worryin' 'bout the way things might have been
Big wheel keep on turnin'
Proud Mary keep on burnin'
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
Cleaned a lot of plates in Memphis
Pumped a lot of pane down in New Orleans
But I never saw the good side of the city
'Til I hitched a ride on a river boat queen
Big wheel keep on turnin'
Proud Mary keep on burnin'
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
If you come down to the river
Bet you gonna find some people who live
You don't have to worry 'cause you have [if you got] no money
People on the river are happy to give
Big wheel keep on turnin'
Proud Mary keep on burnin'
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
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I came to find this forum about song meanings and some of these interpretations for Proud Mary are bizarre and I do get a kick out of the marijuana train of thought. But indeed I do think this song is about a guy seeking a simpler life.
There’s only 3 short verses but they tell a complete story when you put the whole thing together. The guy leaves a GOOD job, but not that good, working for the man. He doesn't look back. He bounces around doing “simpler” things; Memphis, New Orleans etc… But this life is menial and meaningless and still not what he is looking for.
And I love my husband’s interpretation of this next part…. He never saw the good side of the city, at least not until he hitched a ride on the riverboat queen. The good side of the city isn’t “uptown,” or the better neighborhoods. The good side of the city can only be seen at a distance, sailing AWAY from it on the river. If you were driving away in a car, to find a simpler life, you could only, figuratively, see the “good” side of the city in your rear view mirror!
He finally found the simpler life he was searching for, on the river, away from the city all together. And no one has mentioned the interesting double entendre of “Bet you gonna find some people who live.” Of course people live on the river, but maybe also because they take it easy, they really know how to live (it up) and enjoy their simpler life too. You don’t have to worry ‘cause you have no money. The people on the river don’t have any money either. But since they consider themselves rich with the inner peace that life on the river gives them, they are happy and happy to give what they have.
Maybe you’ll see us rollin’ on the river someday!
The song is about prostitution. "The Man" was her pimp. She left working for her pimp to hook on her own and found what, for a hooker, was a better life. Most other interpretations of this song cannot explain "Pumped a lot of pain". *A. A hard working hooker is going to be in some pain from being pumped so often. A guy using a hooker is looking to relieve some kind of pain so this lyric has a double meaning, she is also pumping the John and his pain. "Cleaned a lot of plates" is about oral sex. A woman's labial lips when together look like a stack of plates so 'licking the plates clean' lets us know this hooker has branched out with her new found freedom and good life and is now doing women as well. "Big Wheel" is her John and his rhythmic humping is how the Wheel keeps on turning. So now we see clearly how "Proud Mary" is indeed her pussy which she is quite proud of and it's "burning" from so much sex. "Rolling" has long been slang for sexual intercourse. *B. At the end she is trying to recruit more girls without money to become hookers. They will not have to worry, plenty of people on the river will give them money for sex.
Hitching a ride on the river queen is interesting. Fit in with everything else here it just seems to be saying that her lot really improved when she set up shop as a whore on a river showboat instead of just drifting around as a street hooker. But there is a way this could have been kind of a dig, with wild foreshadowing. *C.
*A: It's not 'pane and you don't pump propane anyway. Kudos to osubuckeye420 for thinking this could have been about pumping iron but he didn't tie it all together.
*B: Think "roll in the hay" among other things.
*C: If you know this band you know several things are true. They were from San Francisco, but pretended they weren't from San Francisco. Among themselves they were about the bitchiest band ever. The songwriter's brother, and also a bandmate, died of AIDS. So .... was he trying to take a little jab at someone by saying he hooked up to a River Queen? I don't know if the writer took it up the a.., I don't know if the guys in the band did. In the 60s and 70s you couldn't have had a career if the public knew. But in a song about prostitution maybe he was working in a message to the underground that yeah, some of the band went both ways or maybe they were just pure gay.
Try this at home. For those of you who think with the left hand side of the brain (do a test online if you aren't sure - generally you are quite good at maths, taking words literally and being a bit of a bore, no offense intended) listen to this song and then do things associated with the right hand side of the mind (e.g. watch a film, a play or chat up a chick).
The results are pretty amazing!!
You could I suppose interepret "tane" in your meaning as a slightly coloquialised version of "tang" or "poontang".
It was a highly entertaining interpretation, thanks for the laughs, but sheesh!!
It reminded me of "Don Juan D'Marco" with Johnny Depp where he's doing the psych test telling the shrink what he sees in those big ink smudges on flash cards.
I always thought the line Tina Turner sings is slang:
"I pumped a lot of 'tang down in New Orleans"
...as in poontang.
Does it take a woman to spell this out...?
Oh well, Google it.
I think it is about people who change their life immediately, because they just fed up with their stressful and slavish lifestyle. It doesn't matter if the "man" is a lover or your boss, you have to leave it if it has bad effect on you.
They change everything and jump on Proud Mary's boat what is actually burning. Despite that they don't care at that point of their life, because they have to step into some risky situations to get out from this boring and bad period. And since the boat is keep on burning, they really need to be brave and left everything behind from this negative environment.
The river is their lifeline and on this river they "don't have to worry", because a lots of nicer people waiting for them in the future.
The song starts slow and then it is getting crazier and more rough. I think, this is the process how we start to hesitate about things and after that we just do it strong and confident (especially in the Tina Turner version). I love this song, it can help a lot in different situations in my life. So what we have to do is to "rolling and rolling" on this river.....
I'm sure everyone is sick and tired of having to read endless one-sided opinions on why this song isn't about drugs.
Just the same, I'm know many of you all have to be tired of seeing a drug reference everytime you look up a songmeaning.
The fact of the matter is, this site is Songmeanings.net. Everyone on here is fully entitled to their own fucking opinions right? No one should been slammed just for thinking this song is about drugs. Its stupid, pointless, and just plain sad to fight over the internet.
Enough of that now..
I would really love to believe that this song was writing about weed, but I find a hard time believing that myself. It seems to me that if it was writting solely about smoking marijuana, that there would be more lyrical clues, pretaining to specific expirences or perhaps how it feels like being high and such.
I get the impression that it about excaping the hustle and bustle of the city. Breaking away from low-paying part time jobs to expirence a simple, more fulfilling life close to nature on the River Boat Queen.
but hey like my mother always told me..
opinions are like assholes son, everyone has one, but some of them are full of shit.
Big wheel keep on turning = is refer to a river boat not related to weed.
Proud Mary keep on burning = can be about smoking marijuana and can also be about river boat funnel.
River boat queen = Queen is not refer to weed.Its more refer to the river boat called Proud Mary,as we address a titanic ship as she and the military giant carrier as she.
Why must be more extreme to be label as a drug influence poetry(lyrics) nation and make others world feel like vomitting that English song lyrics must always be synonyms to drug.
Here's the correct lyric, straight from the writer John Fogerty:
|
| "Sometimes I write words to songs because they sound cool to
| sing. Sometimes the listener doesn't understand what I'm singing
| because I'm dedicated to singing the vowel, having fun with the
| word sounds coming out of my mouth. `Cleaned a lot of plates in
| Memphis, pumped a lot of pain down in New Orleans,' is a good
| example. I think Tina Turner sang `tane' instead of `pain,' as
| in a contracted form of octane. But I knew what she meant,"
| Fogerty said."
But you are absolutely wrong. In America, we all have to have the same opinions. conformity is the rule of American society. Individual rights and needs mean nothing to anyone.
We must all conform, respect and obey authority.
That is the rule. That is the law.
And if you don't then leave the country.
That's along the same line as interpreting the song from one or two words... taking a quote entirely out of context because it mentions Fogerty "dabbling with marijuana," completely ignoring the immediate follow-up, "but that was as far as it ever went."