I've got to buy some shoes
These ones are getting lose
My feet are shrinking in the
Sun, and it ain't fun
But it looks like rain up ahead
In forty miles.
A big rainbow took the blue sky.

I'm gonna tell my momma, I love
Her so and thank you for
Giving me these bones o gold
I'm gonna run from my home
Jump in the river and let the
Water soak the sin in my soul.

Fine time we all crossed lines
make the music that makes us
Feel fine
Rednecks on sun decks hearing a
Hillside Romeo say "Boys this is the
Good shit, so come on all and eat
A little bit."

And if I ever go back home I'm
Gonna sell
And tell my momma, I love
Her so and thank you for
Giving me these bones o gold
I'm gonna run from my home
Jump in the river and let the
Water soak the sin in my soul.

Don't even say a word, it confuses me
What he says to do, is that we don't
Have to
We don't have to.



Lyrics submitted by bubbrock316

Track duration: 05:33

"I Wonder" as written by Christopher John Thorn, Thomas Rogers Stevens, Brad Smith, Shannon Hoon, Glen Graham

Lyrics © EMI Music Publishing

Lyrics powered by LyricFind


I Wonder song meanings
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17 Comments

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  • +1
    General Comment:I'm confused - the comments seem to be about the right song, but the lyrics above are for the song "Soak in the Sin."

    here are the proper lyrics:
    I wonder Lyrics

    Album: Blind Melon


    All alone in the broadening skies
    Under the every night I will lie
    Scratching claw and grip the rails
    Every day is my living hell

    Oh God you know I've tried
    I know how hard I tried
    and oh I tried
    Ooh

    Hey I'd like to daze away to a
    Place like no one has known
    In a state of mind I could call mine
    That only I could own

    Where I could hum a tune anytime I choose
    And then there is no such thing as time
    Where I can feel no pain just calm and sane
    What a place for one to find

    Now you see I'm watching everything I do
    And they're watching everything I say
    So they will leave me be
    Whoa, leave me be
    Why am I even here?

    I wonder
    You leave me wondering
    You leave me wondering

    Won't you stop watching me
    I said they're watching me, watching me, watching me

    Now in my corner I got the ceiling in my eyes
    Arms holding up my knees
    And rocking back and forth my life
    I didn't mean to feel this way
    When I walked into the door, Lord

    Then they ripped away my memories
    And I cant remember who I was before.
    Now they're watching everything I do
    And they're watching everything I say
    So they will leave me be
    Whoa, leave me be

    And I only wanted to be 16
    And free

    And I wonder
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    my two cents on "I Wonder": Seems like a story about a teenager in a psychiatric facility. He's depressed, but feels victimized by his incarceration, and he can't figure out why he's being punished for thinking and feeling things that simply come naturally to him. He simply tries to keep to himself but the staff are always watching him, examining him for signs that he's either becoming the person that they want him to be, a person that they're molding into their idea of a "sane" person after breaking him down through behavior modification, pschotropic medications and/or electrconvulsive therapy that screws wi/ his self image and recall ability.

    All he ever wanted was to be a teenager that was free to deal with his problems in his own way as he grows and develops without being locked away like a rhesus monkey in a research lab.
    Flag h3rm35on August 22, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Using drugs to expand your mind, but at the same time abusing them and not being able to stop needing them for an experience out of this world. With drugs you can enter a peaceful illusion in your own mind where nobody can interrupt you and you can leave the bullshit that follows reality out the door. Being a free spirit and embracing the soul, but people will try to interfere with the activities you use to reach that enlightenment. Trying to get back to the day's of no stress, and living in a free world without negativity by means of drugs, but they take their tole and naturally it's harder and harder to escape reality as the years pass. Why does it have to be like this? Can't I get what I get from drugs from life? Not everybody can.
    Flag AbsentMindedon June 22, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:the song has a simple meaning its about how shannon just wants to live his life the way he want but he can't be cause hes a figure in the entertainment world and hes being watched and judged
    Flag plush89on June 16, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I think MELONcholy has the best idea about the song - these days, at 16 everything you do is overanalysed by everyone and you can't do anything without there being consequences.. It's a time of your life when all you need is enjoyment and freedom, to express and discover, but you're locked into institutions.
    Flag PhoenixBalmon March 31, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:about his bad experiences with drugs
    Flag Sempreon January 20, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:i think that first phrase, " All alone the broadening skies
    Under the every night I will lie
    Scratching claw and grip the rails
    Every day my living hell
    Oh God you know I've tried..."

    is a bit of forshadowing of how drugs screwed his life up.

    then the next phrase: "Hey I'd like to daze away to a
    Place like no one has known
    In a state of mind I could call mine
    That only I could own
    Where I could hum a tune anytime
    I choose, and then there is no such thing as time"

    basicly is glorifying drugs and what is good about them and the view he had about before he started or when he just started

    then in the next phrase: "Now you see I'm watching everything
    I do and they're watching everything I say
    Why wont they leave me be?
    Why am I even here? I wonder
    You leave me wondering"

    is basucly saying how he doesnt like how people are telling him to stop doing drugs because its helping him discover himself

    and in the next phrase: "
    Now in my corner I got the ceiling in my eyes
    Arms holding up my knees
    And rocking back and forth's my life"

    obviously a powerful feeling he is realizing that drugs are a little more extreme than he thought they were, and he is forgeting who he used to be

    and in this phrase: "I didn't mean to feel this way
    When I walked into the door, Lord
    Then they ripped away my memories
    And I cant remember who I was before."

    again with he didnt mean to feel this way, drugs werent necissarily for him and he cant remember who he was(its not a good feeling)

    then in the end "And I only wanted to be 16 and free." he finally remembers who he was before it all started with the drugs and everything and he wants to go back to his past but he cant

    i dont know if this is exactly how shannon felt when he wrote this but that is how i feel when i listen to this song and listen to the lyrics because this song relates almost perfectly with me

    i started out experimenting and wondering what this whole drug thing was, i tried it out and it was a cool thing to experience at first but then it just started screwing my life up in some points, and i had to realize for myself that the only reason people were watching me and getting mad at me for doing stuff like that is because they cared. and when i "walked in the door" and started using drugs i didnt necassarily mean to feel the way i did.
    Flag trent135on December 09, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:yea you dont even need to blast it that much...i mean there is nothing else really playing durring that part...
    Flag zeppy19991on May 19, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Has anyone noticed that if you completely blast this song (ie volume-wise) that right after Hoon sings
    "I know how hard I tried. and oh I tried......" there is whispering that says "get me out of here. get me out of here man" right before the electric guitar kicks in? its fuckt.
    Flag themeton February 11, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Well this song takes me back to when I would come home stoned out of my face and parents would make me paranoid about some of the shit... and having a bad trip on zoomers. And all you wanted to do was expand your mind and instead he's facing demons rather than being lost in his dreams(the place he'd like to daze away to). That's just how I see it.
    Flag Desertedon September 26, 2005   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:"I only wanted to be sixteen and free." What a statement, simple, but oh so true. I've felt like that so many times when life gets overly complicated and peace of mind seems to be unobtainable. If I were only 16 again with minimal responsibilities and the freedom to f*ck sh*t up and it be ok. Shannon was very much obsessed with youth. In a way, Shannon will be forever young. RIP
    Flag MELONcholyon August 02, 2005   Link

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