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Left a good job in the city
Workin' for the man ev'ry night and day
And I never lost one minute of sleepin'
Worryin' 'bout the way things might have been
Big wheel keep on turnin'
Proud Mary keep on burnin'
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
Cleaned a lot of plates in Memphis
Pumped a lot of pane down in New Orleans
But I never saw the good side of the city
'Til I hitched a ride on a river boat queen
Big wheel keep on turnin'
Proud Mary keep on burnin'
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
If you come down to the river
Bet you gonna find some people who live
You don't have to worry 'cause you have [if you got] no money
People on the river are happy to give
Big wheel keep on turnin'
Proud Mary keep on burnin'
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
Workin' for the man ev'ry night and day
And I never lost one minute of sleepin'
Worryin' 'bout the way things might have been
Big wheel keep on turnin'
Proud Mary keep on burnin'
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
Cleaned a lot of plates in Memphis
Pumped a lot of pane down in New Orleans
But I never saw the good side of the city
'Til I hitched a ride on a river boat queen
Big wheel keep on turnin'
Proud Mary keep on burnin'
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
If you come down to the river
Bet you gonna find some people who live
You don't have to worry 'cause you have [if you got] no money
People on the river are happy to give
Big wheel keep on turnin'
Proud Mary keep on burnin'
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
Rollin', rollin', rollin' on the river
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Regards from Brazil to everybody!!
Some folks says that "Mother Mary" mentioned in "Let it Be" means marijuana too.
What a shit is that? All the Creedence songs is about a drug run?
The Band talks about the Viet nam war in two songs, "Whoo'll stop the rain" and "Have you ever seen the rain" and talk about drugs in "Lookin out my Back door"...This is my opinion about the meaning of Ceedence songs.
Regards from Brazil
And, equally, if not even a bit more ludicrous is (the member) CCR's response (also above).
I gotta say, if I didn't know any better I would have to conclude that the 2 of you must have conversed with each other regarding your opinions on here. You see it makes perfect sense: I don't know anyone could have come up with the 'cow feeding' interpretation theory of this song unless they HAD been tripping out on acid. You 2 must somehow be affiliated or associated with one-another.
But anyway. . .as far as this song goes, no they are not talking about drugs, or cows, or political (or war or anti-war) protest of any kind in any conceivable fashion. This song is about the Riverboat Queen on the Mississippi River, Proud Mary, rolling down the river, just like it sounds. No other in-depth interpretation is necessary. Why can't you all just take this at face value.
And on a related note, I seriously doubt that 'Lookin' Out My Back Door' was about an acid trip, either. This was not CCR's style. It might have been The Beatles' style, and it most definitely is the prevailing style of The Rolling Stones. But not Creedence.
The song is about prostitution. "The Man" was her pimp. She left working for her pimp to hook on her own and found what, for a hooker, was a better life. Most other interpretations of this song cannot explain "Pumped a lot of pain". *A. A hard working hooker is going to be in some pain from being pumped so often. A guy using a hooker is looking to relieve some kind of pain so this lyric has a double meaning, she is also pumping the John and his pain. "Cleaned a lot of plates" is about oral sex. A woman's labial lips when together look like a stack of plates so 'licking the plates clean' lets us know this hooker has branched out with her new found freedom and good life and is now doing women as well. "Big Wheel" is her John and his rhythmic humping is how the Wheel keeps on turning. So now we see clearly how "Proud Mary" is indeed her pussy which she is quite proud of and it's "burning" from so much sex. "Rolling" has long been slang for sexual intercourse. *B. At the end she is trying to recruit more girls without money to become hookers. They will not have to worry, plenty of people on the river will give them money for sex.
Hitching a ride on the river queen is interesting. Fit in with everything else here it just seems to be saying that her lot really improved when she set up shop as a whore on a river showboat instead of just drifting around as a street hooker. But there is a way this could have been kind of a dig, with wild foreshadowing. *C.
*A: It's not 'pane and you don't pump propane anyway. Kudos to osubuckeye420 for thinking this could have been about pumping iron but he didn't tie it all together.
*B: Think "roll in the hay" among other things.
*C: If you know this band you know several things are true. They were from San Francisco, but pretended they weren't from San Francisco. Among themselves they were about the bitchiest band ever. The songwriter's brother, and also a bandmate, died of AIDS. So .... was he trying to take a little jab at someone by saying he hooked up to a River Queen? I don't know if the writer took it up the a.., I don't know if the guys in the band did. In the 60s and 70s you couldn't have had a career if the public knew. But in a song about prostitution maybe he was working in a message to the underground that yeah, some of the band went both ways or maybe they were just pure gay.
Try this at home. For those of you who think with the left hand side of the brain (do a test online if you aren't sure - generally you are quite good at maths, taking words literally and being a bit of a bore, no offense intended) listen to this song and then do things associated with the right hand side of the mind (e.g. watch a film, a play or chat up a chick).
The results are pretty amazing!!
You could I suppose interepret "tane" in your meaning as a slightly coloquialised version of "tang" or "poontang".
It was a highly entertaining interpretation, thanks for the laughs, but sheesh!!
It reminded me of "Don Juan D'Marco" with Johnny Depp where he's doing the psych test telling the shrink what he sees in those big ink smudges on flash cards.
Proud Mary keep on burnin'" as the basis for their song, their version is definetely about getting high haha
Proud Mary keep on burnin'" as the basis for their song, their version is definetely about getting high haha