Will It Grow? Lyrics

Lyric discussion by b0v1n3 

Cover art for Will It Grow? lyrics by Jakob Dylan

It's about a man who's wife is no longer interested in him, i.e. frigid. He's wondering how to restart the relationship, so he orders some pills he saw on late night TV. He's wondering whether they really will increase the size of a certain part of the male anatomy, and whether that will save his marriage.

Seriously, this song is straightforward. It's sung by a wayward son who moves back home to run the family farm after his dad dies, to his deceased father. There's no metaphor here. By the way, the second line of the last verse is incorrect. It should read "I am down in the garden where I let you go."

"Seriously, this song is straightforward."

I really don't think much of anything is straightforward. I think everything, especially poetry or song lyrics, are completely up for interpretation. Nowhere in the song does it say, "I am a wayward son who has moved back home to run the family farm after Dad died; that's what the song's about!"

Sure it could be interpreted literally, but it also can be interpreted other ways. The title is ambiguous in itself because the word "it" is always going to be ambiguous.

I have no idea where you got any of that, because it's certainly not in the text. Pills? Deceased fathers? What?

I agree with commenters above that it's about a difficult relationship, but that doesn't in any way mean a frigid wife. The song implies a relationship where one person is more committed than the other ("Got me stone cold sober in a drought so long/ Boarded mansions and ghost filled yards", also in "There's a well-worn saddle but the horse is gone"), and the more-committed partner wonders whether all his effort is enough to make the relationship grow....