4+20

This song is not hard to understand at all, and it really needs no interpretation. There isn't any layered symbolism, or multi-hued metaphors, or complex artistic constructions beyond an honest description of one person's pain. I'll describe the song in the first person, the way it is sung. I'm 24 years old. All during my childhood when I was growing up we were poor. My dad tried hard to support us, but his life had been hard and he was a broken man by the time he'd married my mom and had us kids.

Now that I'm 24 years old and a grown man, I find that my childhood experience of coming from a broken home has defined my young adult life. I'm repeating all of my dads mistakes, and the poverty I'm experiencing now is exactly the same as when I was a child - but my own and not my dads, and not physical, but of the soul. I'm broken and dysfunctional, and lonely, and my only refuge is that of drugs and alcohol. And I'm oh, so tired of entertaining this monster which clings to me and will never ever let go, which only serves to distract me from my despair with the false hues of fake satisfaction and happiness, that I just want to kill myself.

Only 3 comments? Wow. This is such a beautiful song - lyrics, chords, vocals and all.

I think it's about a man who sacrifice a lot to become rich: "and he worked like the devil to be more." He makes it: "A different kind of poverty now upsets me so. " but loses his woman on the way and realises that money doesn't make you happy: "I see that it is empty and there's devils in my head"

When he see that he has devils in his head it could be a metaphore for him realising that he has done some wrong things on his way to the top.

4+20 is an autobiographical song about Stephen Stills’ life. His Father is a “man who lived in strife.” Stephen was tired of growing up poor so he “worked like a devil to be more” like all of us do. Then, he finds a “different kind of poverty” when he finds himself alone. About his lover, he wonders has he “driven her away?” Maybe he’s too intense for his lovely woman! The loneliness drives him to torment with “devils in my head.” Finally, he gives up and embraces “the many colored beast” which is a description of his depression, despair, and demons in his mind. They overpower him making his existence unbearable, and he wishes his “life would simply cease.”

Man, Steven was obviously down after losing his woman. The lyric is actually..

Four and twenty years ago, I come into this life, the SON of a woman and a man who lived in strife

I was wondering if there's any "4:20" connection to it but the term was used since 1971 and the album came out in 1970... ?

I tend to agree with jim68ny, though as many songs tend to, this one seems to be somewhat abstract

4 20 is his age.The many coloured beast is TV,which many people embrace to escape real life

This song is not hard to understand at all, and it really needs no interpretation. There isn't any layered symbolism, or multi-hued metaphors, or complex artistic constructions beyond an honest description of one person's pain. I'll describe the song in the first person, the way it is sung. I'm 24 years old. All during my childhood when I was growing up we were poor. My dad tried hard to support us, but his life had been hard and he was a broken man by the time he'd married my mom and had us kids.

Now that I'm 24 years old and a grown man, I find that my childhood experience of coming from a broken home has defined my young adult life. I'm repeating all of my dads mistakes, and the poverty I'm experiencing now is exactly the same as when I was a child - but my own and not my dads, and not physical, but of the soul. I'm broken and dysfunctional, and lonely, and my only refuge is that of drugs and alcohol. And I'm oh, so tired of entertaining this monster which clings to me and will never ever let go, which only serves to distract me from my despair with the false hues of fake satisfaction and happiness, that I just want to kill myself.

In my experience, similar to what I believe the song is about (already described well here by others, I think), "the many colored beast" was neither TV nor drugs, but a huge, fancy, crocheted blanket, big enough to cover a queen-sized bed, that an ex-girlfriend's grandmother had made for the two of us.

The girl gave it to me as a kind of "parting gift" - although I had actually been the one who rejected her and "our future together," not the other way around - and I understood why she did not want it any longer. I accepted the blanket. So, while I knew that she and I were not meant to be together, in ensuing times as a single man, occasionally, when I felt "so alone" and wondered why, wondering "Where is my woman?" (not my ex, but just, "the one for me"), I wrapped myself in that blanket. Its multi-colored design reminded me of this song. It kept me warm, gave me an "embraced" feeling, and so it became "the beast" - a reminder that I had a pretty good girl and relationship, but, there was then, both before and after the breakup, "no peace" in me about having the girl and relationship I was meant to have.

That peace came a couple of years later, when I met the girl who I've been with since, over 35 years. Now I can't remember where that blanket is! I believe we still have it, in storage since we rarely need blankets like it in our warm climate. I am sure I have never told my wife this whole "inside story." It doesn't matter anymore. It's a beautiful blanket. And the memory now is just like a quilt-scrap piece, a fragment of my life.