Great song. Catchy tune.

The song is about imagination and all the things that arise when a person relaxes and explores the world through their imagination

Just got home from Illinois lock the front door oh boy!
Got to sit down take a rest on the porch.

"In my opinion this is a reference to a drug run"

Imagination sets in pretty soon I'm singin'
Doo doo doo Lookin' out my back door.
There's a giant doing cartwheels a statue wearin' high heels.
Look at all the happy creatures dancing on the lawn.
A dinosaur Victrola list'ning to Buck Owens.
Tambourines and elephants are playing in the band.
Won't you take a ride on the flyin' spoon?

"Flying Spoon? What could one use a spoon for??"

Doo, doo doo.
Wond'rous apparition provided by magician. " LSD "

Bother me tomorrow, today, I'll buy no sorrows.


Forward troubles Illinois, lock the front door, oh boy!
Look at all the happy creatures dancing on the lawn.
Bother me tomorrow, today, I'll buy no sorrows.

This song was written and preformed in a time in which references to drug use had to be encoded into a song. Just think about it for a while, it will come to you. This is Just my opinion. Judge it for yourself.

I think that drug and death themes are a lesser interpretation of literature. I think that John is simply retelling all of the wonderful things that imagination (also highly valued in this era) can produce. A lot of Creedence songs are just about everyday occorunces, everyday life. Story telling, that was the original purpose of music anyway.

ummm...if this were by The Beatles or Jefferson Airplane, I would have expected to see someone say it was about drugs, and they'd probably be right...but i don't think CCR was too into drugs...

this song's significance to me goes back to high school when i had mrs. vero-lynn for vocabulary enrichment...if we every found one of the words we learned in everyday use, we could bring it in for bonus...so when our word of the day was "apparition" i immediately was singing to myself "wond'rous apparitions provided by magicians..." i brought in my CCR tape (hey, it was still the 20th century) and got bonus!!!

thank you john

What does this mean to me? Well, I first heard on The Big Lebowski (great movie). Then I started hearing it on the radio. Around that time, I had just returned from a strenous C++ course far from home and had met disappointment in several other areas of human developmental behavior. So I got home, kicked back, and sat in my room, looking out my door....putting it all into perspective.

I often do this song in karaoke, which is something I do about 3-4 times per month. It's a crowd pleaser, and I do this song well, so I do this song when I don't want to try something new but want to do something good. I've always wondered what it means, and I don't think anyone has quite touched upon it - I don't quite think it's about all the wonderful things that can happen when you relax. Let me explain:

John Fogerty starts off the song by saying:
"Just got home from Illinois lock the front door oh boy! / Got to sit down take a rest on the porch. / Imagination sets in."

So he begins by saying that he gets home and wants to shut out the outside world. Maybe he just got back from touring, a press conference or working, because he got back from Illinois.

Then throughout the rest of the song all sorts of nonsensical things start happening, which come as a result of relaxing. But he always goes back to saying "get out my back door," which is the only puzzling part. It's a big puzzling part because he says it quite a few times and it has to do with the title of the song.

Which leads me to think that this song is a commentary that even when he wants to relax, the outside world still finds a way to annoy him. Maybe the song is a dig at the loss of privacy when one becomes famous, but if this is what the song is about then I think almost anyone famous or not could relate to it. The strange images that he describes in this song remind me most of the many strange spam messages you might get through your email, which are things that manage to find their way through your "back door." Of course e-mail came after this song was written but it seems to be a good analogy.

I live in Indiana, but I go to school in Illinois, so I always like listening to this song when I drive over the border...It makes me feel like the song's about me. As for the thing that tomyart said, I've always thought that this song had some underlying drug theme to it, espescially that "wonderous apparitions" line...I dunno, that's just what I thought it meant.

"Look at all the happy creatures dancing on the lawn."

If you smoked cannabis, you'd know exactly what this song is about.

I love this song so unbelievably much! My dad used to sing it to my when I was a baby, so it holds a lot of sentimental and emotional value to me.

I'm not quite sure what it's all about, but I still think it's a good song.

-Toodles

This song has no drug related themes at all, in fact John was very oppossed to musicians who used drugs to write their songs. He thought that when writing music it should come your heart and your mind, not a hallucigent.

Holy shit these are the best lyrics ever.

Fogerty was recently interviewed about this song which he wrote shortly after the birth of his first son.
It is NOT about drugs.
It is simply about childish imagination and the things that it can conjure up.

Fogerty was recently interviewed about this song which he wrote shortly after the birth of his first son.
It is NOT about drugs.
It is simply about childish imagination and the things that it can conjure up.

I love this song, it's so happy. If I'm ever in a really bad mood, I'll listen to the CCR greatest hits CD... John Fogarty's voice has this really calming effect on me...

Anyway, no clue what this song is about, but I'm pretty sure it's NOT about drugs. Were you ever a child? Have you been around a child recently? Have you heard some of the crazywild stuff they can think up? It's a lot like this. Maybe something unpleasant happened in Illinois, and he wanted to forget, so he sat on his back porch (or looked out the back door) and drank a beer or something and pretended. Growups can pretend too. :-)

Drugs? Please. CCR was probably the least drug-induced band of the time. All though they did there, experimenting they never performed high and Fogerty never wrote hi. He felt that the belief that drugs made people more creative was not only wrong but also sad. This song was written for his children. It’s about watching a carnival come through town through the eyes of a child. He was imagining what these strange things may look like to a kid. And that’s straight from the horse’s moth.

again no drug reference like proud mary WTF no fucking drugs what is with that " IMAGINATION SETS IN" "IMAGINATION"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! no drugs just kickin back relaxing creedence is great love em and john NO DRUGS

I love this song its great its just so happy. My Dad got me into CCR when I was only like 7 and since than I have been hooked. I have already seen John Fogerty and I am only 12. Pardon my immature name i was boored.

This song is great to listen to. In reading the posts here, it does bring up the debate of whether there are drug undertones in some songs. I can unequivicably tell you that in this particular song, the message isn't hidden whatsoever. Its absolutely overt and blatant, but only to those who have experinced EXACTLY the things which John Fogerty is referring to. I can see why those who are against drugs find it hard to accept this, and drum up arguments to the contrary. Most people don't want to admit that someone they look at as an inspiration does things they dislike. As far as Mr. Fogerty's explanations which say they aren't drug references, well, those are naturally there for those folks who need to be told that in order to still enjoy his music. Some people are simply like that. Nevertheless, he knows, I'm sure, that others have experienced the very things he's talking about, and for them, the song takes on more meaning.

Let me break it down. You have some VERY overt references, and then you have some covert yet still obvious references if you understand the overt, undeniable ones.

The first, and probably most undeniable reference is the "Ride on the flyin spoon." Now, of course you can tell me he meant something other than the obvious, the obvious being that the magic spoon is what he's mixing his cocaine in like millions of people have done before and since. But the fact that that is exactly what he's talking about gets even more clear the further you get into the song.

Why is it cocaine and not herione, or something else? Because of the reference to the tambourines and elphants. Now if you don't know what I'm talking about, of course its easy to believe this song isn't about drugs. Or to think this is some crazy rambling. But talk to any person who's used cocaine IV, or read some of the material written by people who have, and there's the reference. One of the first things that you hear when the drug hits your system is... you got it, tambourines, or echoing, crashing, pounding, (elephants trumpeting and stomping), etc. This is a pretty well known thing amongst most of the artists coming out of the 60s, (hello, Bob Dylan and Mr. Tambourine man.. "toes too numb too step?" couldn't be the coke could it?)and from folks even earlier. People such as Sigmund Freud himself. Its an artistic, yet literal way to describe whats happening during the initial rush of cocaine.

Moving on, and I'll try to be brief, if the flying spoon, tambourines and elephants aren't enough, you've got the line "Lock the front door OH BOY!" Have you ever sat and had a flying spoon (i.e. IV) cocaine user describe what they do when they get started fixing? Boy those doors are locked, and their staring out their back door. And believe me, they're SEEING that stuff happening out on the lawn. Nowadays people are seeing cops, animals, neighbors who aren't there, etc. Whatever happens to be in your imagination...IMAGINATION!!! sets in and you start SEEING it. Do I need to go on with this part? I've heard some of the craziest things described to me right from the people who experienced it, and oddly enough, it comes out amazingly similar to the way Fogerty puts it to music in this song.

So I guess there will always be those who are determined to put some differant, vague interpretation into a song which actually has a pretty literal, direct interpretation. But putting your reference into doesn't take into account who the artist was. It wasn't YOU writing the song about the innocent, imaginary things on your lawn. It was an artist from the early era of rock n roll. Go figure.

It really means nothing that an artist denies what the real references are. The Beatles' official story about Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds says that it has nothing to do with LSD, Bob Dylan says none of his songs have anything to do with drugs ("Johnny's in the basement, mixing up the medicine"?????) Its just PR because the sad thing is, these artists would lose a lot of their fans if they told them, "Ya, the song is about this cocaine trip I had", because people make such a big deal about it. Such a big deal that they're willing to come up with all these stretched, vague interpretations in order to distract themselves from something thats actually pretty simple and direct.

In the end, why does it matter? Let the song mean what it does to you. Who cares that John wanted to write a fun little ditty about his cocaine trip? Let it take you where it does, and let it be to John Fogerty whatever it was to him.

John's singing is so great in this song

Maybe its about drugs, I don't know. But one can interpret everything into a song. Why should we doubt Fogertys story about the song. He said that its not about drugs and thats all that should matter.
I don´t think that people like John, who are almost 40 years in the business need to lie about their songs only to hold their fans so they can "still enjoy his music" as Username001 said above.
They don´t need lies, because they still have enough fans who enjoy their music, without judging the lifestyle or the past.

You're right, people don't "need" to lie to maintain their fans. But they often do anyway. Especially when it becomes not an issue of whether you're losing your fans, but whether you lied about something so silly to begin with. John Lennon, heck all the Beatles "mostly" maintained the ol' NO DRUG REFERENCE Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds throughout their careers. Now we don't need to get that debate started, but if you think drugs had nothing to do with that song, then you need to have a psycho analysis because you aren neurotically inclined to lie to your yourself.

In the end, by not admitting what the song is really about, it maintains its mystery, and look, oh obviously NOT setting the story straight manages to keep a converstation going about a song which, while GREAT (I do love CCR, don't get me wrong. I'm just not a blind puppy) probably would be a lot less relevant right here right now if FOgerty had said 30 years ago "Yes, this is one of the few songs which were influenced by drugs".

In the end, whether it is or isn't, whats the big deal? I don't know, but have to admit the itch I get to respond whenever someone calls an OVERT OBVIOUS drug reference something other than what it is.

Personally, I think he is singing "looking AT my back door", and I think he's singing about having his tailpipe "caulked", shall we say...

I am definitely in agreement with Username, the references are entirely too strong. Even if he wasn't on drugs at the time (or performance or songwriting), or intended the song to connotate something other than a drug trip... it is pretty psychedelic.

If nothing else, the imagery was definitely meant to appeal to people familiar with the drug experience.

Sweet Heroine... References to Elephants (Elephant is a well known name for the black stuff) and Rides on Spoons (you need a spoon to prepare) is pretty much a clear. The more psychedelic references are probably just thrown in for fun and in keeping in with the feel of the song, I would say acid but he mentions resting... Vitamin A is not conducive to resting...