if you really read the lyrics its about an adolescent boy with hormones he can't control as he's imagining a beautiful young woman in his dreams and he just wants to know what it would be like to have a sexual encounter with her.

Thats my opinion and im sure many have stated it.

Into your heart I'll beat again
Sweet like candy to my soul
Sweet you rock
and sweet you roll
Lost for you I'm so lost for you

Those are some of the best lyrics i have ever heard.
i always just assumed this song was a love song to his wife..

i think the first lines,'You've got your ball, you've got your chain, tied to me tight tie me up again' means tht the memory of this person is holding them back or weighing them down, but they cant move on from them and they wish they were still with them.
'You come crash into me' i think could mean her falling into his arms and just letting go of herself, 'And I come into you' i think is self explanatory,
When he talks about a boys dream, maybe he means tht it was a passionate love he has when he was a teenager, like first love as a teenager or something.

My favorite line from this song is on the album DMB Live Trax vol. 6. I love the line 'I'm the king of the castle you're the dirty rascal' it always makes me smile, and also the line 'I'll be your Dixie Singer if you'll be my Tennessee lamb and we can walk togeather down in Dixie Land.'

So Snatch518, why would you post a comment about lyrics on a page with lyrics to a completely different song? Perhaps it was a mistake. And while drugs are a horrible thing, who cares if he was on them when he wrote those lyrics. That song is amazing.

I really think this song is about kinky sex. He references being tied up a lot throughout the song and i'm pretty sure "I come into you" is has a not so hidden meaning. Its a beautiful song, yet the meaning is so raunchy, really shows the contrast of most of Dave's songs. Almost an irony between the lyrics and the music.

Hey Guys-Just trying to figure out (since we are all DMB fans) what your fav. song(s) are and why! I love talking about DMB! So hit me up!

i love this song. its mine and my girlfriends song. i think it doesn't have to be about a past relationship. He could be dating whoever he is singing about and feeling like he has a boys dream because well when your a boy, younger, your always fantasizing about what to do or you could do with the person your dating. He just wants to feel love and closeness to the person he is with. my opinion i do love this song though. He makes it poetic and not trashy sounding. its hard to do and its not generic sounding.

i have been listening to this song for years and now that i looked up the lyrics this song is hilarious!
Dave is an amazing artist and musician. i have been listening to him scince i was around 5 years old. good stuff

about the Julia Roberts thing...that's what Dave said the song was about in one interview...totally ruined the song for a good lot of people who heard that interview. of course according to previous posts on here...he's said it was about a few different things...musicians, oi.

for years i thought this was about a stalker who wanted the chick he was after to be his dominatrix...haha...and then i found out what it was really about and it just killed it for me...thank you Julia Roberts...killed the song.

Although this song is written from the perspective of a “peeping-tom” imagining that he is making love to a woman, as it is laden with sexual innuendo, I believe it is a beautiful love song written by a man for the woman he loves.

You’ve got your ball
you’ve got your chain
Tied to me tight tie me up again

When a ball and chain is tied to a person by another, it means that their relationship is strong. When it is tied to them tightly, and it is repetitively tied to them again and again, it means it is even more than that: it is unbreakable.

Who’s got their claws
in you my friend
Into your heart I’ll beat again

Something is holding her back in a negative manner from him. Either it’s another relationship or set of ones, not necessarily romantic, or something else. Thus, the reference to claws, which generate the image of these sharp nails piercing the skin, and not letting go. This has nothing to do with him, but it is something external that affects her for one reason or another, that is not allowing her to be open or honest with him. He sees her as a friend first, which is a precondition to a love-based relationship, but he also knows that he’ll always be within her heart as more than that. Previously, something may have removed him from her heart, and it may have been due to whatever had their claws in her. But, he is optimistic that he will regain his presence inside of it.

Sweet like candy to my soul
Sweet you rock
and sweet you roll
Lost for you I’m so lost for you

Just like candy is revered by a child, in particular, a boy, whichever way she moves, while sleeping or otherwise (yes, even sexually), he is completely smitten with her.

You come crash into me
And I come into you,

When something crashes into you, it causes a “boom”, and it’s usually unexpected. That’s how he feels about these feelings he’s having for her. When someone crashes into another, both affect each other, and so he also “comes” into her. This part of the song is also sexually suggestive, and I won’t go into detail how.

Touch your lips just so I know

As the lips are suggestive of love as they are what we kiss with, he’s making a request to her to give him a sign on whether she feels the same way about him as he does about her by requesting her to touch her lips.

In your eyes, love, it glows so

As the eyes are the “windows to the soul”, he can see and feel that she loves him too, even though he desires a sign like the one requested in the previous verse.

I’m bare-boned and crazy for you

He’s completely open and naked (emotionally, psychologically, romantically, etc.), although even more than that, as the metaphor suggests even his skin is completely gone which is the first barrier against body damage from external elements. Also, metaphorically, we wear different skins to protect ourselves on an emotional level. He’s so in love with and is so trusting of her, he feels no need to wear any skins.

In a boys dream

The experience is so surreal, that it feels like the fantasy of a boy who is infatuated with that beautiful woman he sees as unattainable but has somehow captured.

If I’ve gone overboard
Then I’m begging you
to forgive me
In my haste

He’s thinking that maybe he revealed too much, or is being too quick and open with his feelings, and it has scared her away. If so, he’s pleading with her to not hold it against him because of this hold she has over him. It reminds me of Brian Adam’s lyrics “Please forgive me, I know not what I do. Please forgive me, if I can’t stop loving you. Don’t deny me, this pain I’m going through. Please forgive me, if I need you like I do.”

When I’m holding you so girl…
close to me

Although this holding can be seen as physical, it is also metaphorical. She’s very near to him, very close.

Hike up your skirt a little more
and show the world to me
Hike up your skirt a little more
and show your world to me

This is the most sexually suggestive part of the song, but it is more than that. He’s asking her to open up, to let her emotional guard down, to become naked, and uses sexual imagery to do so. Everyone knows what a woman’s skirt hides, so I will leave it at that. It represents something private, not to be given lightly, and treasured. What’s key in these lines, is he moves from the impersonal, as in a “boy’s dream” - “the world” - to the personal, as in reality - “your world” - when he requests her to essentially show everything to him.

Oh I watch you there
through the window
And I stare at you
You wear nothing but you
wear it so well

She not only looks physically beautiful to him when naked as he looks at her through the window, watching her through her eyes - again, which are the “windows to the soul” - he sees her soul as beautiful when it is bared. She’s beautiful without the front of clothing, and without her own self-imposed, personal barriers.

Tied up and twisted,
the way I’d like to be
For you, for me, come crash
into me

He doesn’t care if he’s all tied up and twisted with emotions for her, this emotional binding made explicit through the imagery of physical binding and coming full circle with the beginning of the song, it’s the way he wants to be. So he says, “crash into me” for the sake of both of us.

I’m the king of the castle,
you’re the dirty rascal

Playfulness is part and parcel of a love-based relationship.

THIS SONG OWNS.

4 Replies

Although this song is written from the perspective of a “peeping-tom” imagining that he is making love to a woman, as it is laden with sexual innuendo, I believe it is a beautiful love song written by a man for the woman he loves.

You’ve got your ball
you’ve got your chain
Tied to me tight tie me up again

When a ball and chain is tied to a person by another, it means that their relationship is strong. When it is tied to them tightly, and it is repetitively tied to them again and again, it means it is even more than that: it is unbreakable.

Who’s got their claws
in you my friend
Into your heart I’ll beat again

Something is holding her back in a negative manner from him. Either it’s another relationship or set of ones, not necessarily romantic, or something else. Thus, the reference to claws, which generate the image of these sharp nails piercing the skin, and not letting go. This has nothing to do with him, but it is something external that affects her for one reason or another, that is not allowing her to be open or honest with him. He sees her as a friend first, which is a precondition to a love-based relationship, but he also knows that he’ll always be within her heart as more than that. Previously, something may have removed him from her heart, and it may have been due to whatever had their claws in her. But, he is optimistic that he will regain his presence inside of it.

Sweet like candy to my soul
Sweet you rock
and sweet you roll
Lost for you I’m so lost for you

Just like candy is revered by a child, in particular, a boy, whichever way she moves, while sleeping or otherwise (yes, even sexually), he is completely smitten with her.

You come crash into me
And I come into you,

When something crashes into you, it causes a “boom”, and it’s usually unexpected. That’s how he feels about these feelings he’s having for her. When someone crashes into another, both affect each other, and so he also “comes” into her. This part of the song is also sexually suggestive, and I won’t go into detail how.

Touch your lips just so I know

As the lips are suggestive of love as they are what we kiss with, he’s making a request to her to give him a sign on whether she feels the same way about him as he does about her by requesting her to touch her lips.

In your eyes, love, it glows so

As the eyes are the “windows to the soul”, he can see and feel that she loves him too, even though he desires a sign like the one requested in the previous verse.

I’m bare-boned and crazy for you

He’s completely open and naked (emotionally, psychologically, romantically, etc.), although even more than that, as the metaphor suggests even his skin is completely gone which is the first barrier against body damage from external elements. Also, metaphorically, we wear different skins to protect ourselves on an emotional level. He’s so in love with and is so trusting of her, he feels no need to wear any skins.

In a boys dream

The experience is so surreal, that it feels like the fantasy of a boy who is infatuated with that beautiful woman he sees as unattainable but has somehow captured.

If I’ve gone overboard
Then I’m begging you
to forgive me
In my haste

He’s thinking that maybe he revealed too much, or is being too quick and open with his feelings, and it has scared her away. If so, he’s pleading with her to not hold it against him because of this hold she has over him. It reminds me of Brian Adam’s lyrics “Please forgive me, I know not what I do. Please forgive me, if I can’t stop loving you. Don’t deny me, this pain I’m going through. Please forgive me, if I need you like I do.”

When I’m holding you so girl…
close to me

Although this holding can be seen as physical, it is also metaphorical. She’s very near to him, very close.

Hike up your skirt a little more
and show the world to me
Hike up your skirt a little more
and show your world to me

This is the most sexually suggestive part of the song, but it is more than that. He’s asking her to open up, to let her emotional guard down, to become naked, and uses sexual imagery to do so. Everyone knows what a woman’s skirt hides, so I will leave it at that. It represents something private, not to be given lightly, and treasured. What’s key in these lines, is he moves from the impersonal, as in a “boy’s dream” - “the world” - to the personal, as in reality - “your world” - when he requests her to essentially show everything to him.

Oh I watch you there
through the window
And I stare at you
You wear nothing but you
wear it so well

She not only looks physically beautiful to him when naked as he looks at her through the window, watching her through her eyes - again, which are the “windows to the soul” - he sees her soul as beautiful when it is bared. She’s beautiful without the front of clothing, and without her own self-imposed, personal barriers.

Tied up and twisted,
the way I’d like to be
For you, for me, come crash
into me

He doesn’t care if he’s all tied up and twisted with emotions for her, this emotional binding made explicit through the imagery of physical binding and coming full circle with the beginning of the song, it’s the way he wants to be. So he says, “crash into me” for the sake of both of us.

I’m the king of the castle,
you’re the dirty rascal

Playfulness is part and parcel of a love-based relationship.

THIS SONG OWNS.

2 Replies

Apparently he said in an interview that it is a fantasy from a voyeurs persepective...or something. But I agree with the view that it is a boy, just sexually awakened. Boy because "in a boys dream" and the way the lyrics are expressed is very childish, and in the song the words "I'm the king of the castle and you're the dirty rascal" is sung, which is a childrens rhyme (the double meaning of dirty also very sexual).
The S and M references are also there. Which fits as, when a boy first becomes interested in sex, it's quite intense and his fantasies will be vivid and overpowering and rather explicit rather than loving (he never says he loves her, it's all about her body). He's also clearly inexperianced - "if i've gone overboard forgive me".
This song just sounds like a hormone ridden teenage boy!

wow, this is about no 15 year old boy's fantasies.

this is about an amazing love, and amazing love a man has with a woman.

something most 15 year old boys can't even comprehend at their young age.


this is such an incredible song, the man in this song is so captivated by this woman. he is so completely and fully in love. & i agree with selfwilledfate, sex is a beautiful thing when u share it with someone you are in love with.

Matthews described this song as being about "the worship of women," albeit from a voyeur's perspective, and subsequently does a humorous impression of the woman being watched through the window complaining to the police. He ends by saying that he wrote this song instead of getting arrested.

its about a peeping tom, or however you wanna think of it, maybe its a young boy thinking of having sex with a girl

You are missing some of the lyrics


Crash into me...
Crash into me...
Crash into me...

You know, I'm the king of the castle,
And you're the dirty rascal, crash into me.
Please crash into me, baby...

Oh, no no no...
Yes,
I see the wave come and crash into me.
I See the wave come and crash into me.
Crash into me.

This song always makes me a little misty eyed. When I got married, I had a small backyard wedding. We hadn't planned anything like music or decorations. My husband decided the music that I was going to walk to and it was this song. For me, for us, this song represents absolute devotion and that kind of lusting for another person that never goes away.

It's like a little game of cat and mouse. Him chasing and her running because he chases. I always loved the opening line:

"You've got your ball you've got your chain, tied to me tight, tie me up again"

I see it as being happily bound to another person. It's so poetic and touching in it's expression of love and attraction.

I think maybe he's just intriuqued... Yeah... No idea if I spelled that one right... But anyway, lol... He's fascinated by this woman... And she's got a hold on him... (It's like a subconcious thing... She doesn't know how he feels about her... Maybe she's just out of his league... But it could also be a memory that he can't let go, like looking back... years down the road... remembering this woman...) with the whole ball and chain thing... But maybe it's like a first love or something... Or a first introduction to the opposite sex... and he just wishes she would fall into his arms, maybe see him the way he sees her.. But she's apparently much much older... and he's just starting out... Who the hell knows... Lol... Either way... there's my opinion... I just love this song so damn much because it's so freaking mellow... A perfect song of the 90's era when everything was chill... Times change... So does music... But at least we can always come back to the songs that remind us of simplicity... well, at least for me... I'm not trying to speak for anyone else... : )

this is some straight up dirty teeen age boy's fantasy.
he likes a girl wants to get tied up and be loved by the
girl he adores.

2 Replies

these lyrics are missing a part. my favorite part.
"You know, I'm the king of the castle
and you're the dirty rascal"

I think this song is beautiful, a real representation of true love.

Dave Matthews has said in interviews that he worships women. So I think whoever commented "on another note, i think only dave matthews could turn something perverted like ''hike up your skirt a lil more and show your world to me'', and ''i watch you there through the window vhere i stare, you wear nothing but you wear it so well'' into something poetic" is being a little harsh. The human body is a beautiful thing; why is it perverted for a man (or even a teenage boy) to appreciate seeing a woman's bare body? I'm sure you wouldn't think the same thing if it was someone YOU WANTED, checking out YOUR naked body. Just an opinion. Take it however you wish.

Alright, obviously we've established that its about a peeping tom.. still, it has a beautiful interpretation about love if you want to see it that way. Something i didnt see anyone mention is
"You've got your ball you've got your chain tied to me tight tie me up again" And "Oh I watch you there
through the window And I stare at you, You wear nothing but you wear it so well, tied up and twisted, the way I'd like to be"
Makes me think of a man who is friends with a woman he knows he cant get with at the moment, where in the first quote the ball and chain are her emotional troubles he loves to be burdened with for her sake and he wants to take them off her shoulders again. In the second quote there I imagine he's seeing her emotionally exposed but from a distance, naked, with the mask we put on every day thrown off. Seeing her tied up and twisted within her own emotions, he wants to take the burden as a kind of scape goat again.