You could have been New Orleans
You could have been New Orleans
But you’ll just be Hollywood for the rest of your life
You could have been New Orleans
But you’ll just be Hollywood for the rest of your life

I saw us drowning with our neck in a rope
She was covered handy by the river of dope
I guess it caught her fancy just to be by his side
She had no answer when she tried to get high
Turn to the prison of the camera’s strobe
Fame is religion by the river of dope
My brain is tired of how the woman can cope
It just don’t matter to the river of dope

The door’s no longer open for my name on their breath
So long I’ve waited for the coming of death
Will I be united with my innocence gone
Will I burn to cinders as the river rolls on
Hmmm…river, we sleep in your mud.
You give us poison, when we drink your blood
I saw your woman with a seven-foot rope
Hang your dirty laundry by the river of dope
I watched your mother abandon her hope
And she watched you drowning by the river of dope
It felt so damn special to be damaged and free
To have her hairs not feel you. Look in my eyes and you’ll see
That I flow with the river, and I’m a slave to his song
and I will drown forever where so many have gone
Goodbye you people who have abandoned your hope
Parade in early morning to the river of dope
Hmm, yeah the river of dope


Lyrics submitted by cuomo

River of Dope song meanings
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3 Comments

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  • 0
    General Comment

    This song is Seriously Eerie, considering the Demise of it's author.

    I'm surprised people haven't reacted as much on the web as I thought they would;

    StandAbsolvedon December 01, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    Considering the circumstances of hte demise of the author, and The CLEAR similarity.

    StandAbsolvedon December 01, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    I think Jeff was in a very dark place when he wrote this as well as most (if not all) of the other songs on Sketches, but whether he had escaped from that darkness at the time of his death, I am not really sure. What is evident in his lyrics though, is that he was haunted by the memory of his father, lost loves, and the corrupt nature of fame, among other things. I don't know if he consciously chose to walk into the river to die, but I do feel that at a certain point, it would have made sense to him and maybe he just did not fight it. Perhaps he even knew he would drown, (dare I say, he may have wanted to...). He was such a water creature, even astrologically. Water always symbolizes emotion and sensitivity, of which he obviously had in abundance... enough to drown in. He was so intensely spiritual, it comes as no surprise to me that he would die in such an enigmatic yet strangely prophetic way.

    lilynymphon January 07, 2013   Link

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