Lyric discussion by joemdkarda 

New Orleans, Sep 27, 1984

Neil Young introducing the song "Down By The River":

I'd like to sing you a song about a guy who had a lot of trouble controlling himself. He let the dark side side come thru a little too bright. One afternoon he took a little stroll down thru a field and thru a forest, 'til he could hear the water running along there. And he met his woman down there. And he told her she'd been cheatin' on him one too many times. And he reached down in his pocket and he pulled a little revolver out. Said "honey I hate to do this but you pushed me too far".

By the time he got back to town he knew he had to answer to somebody pretty quick. He went back to his house and he sat down on his front porch. About two hours later the sheriff's car pulled up out front. It started sinkin' in on him what he'd done. The sheriff walked up the sidewalk, he said "come with me son, I want to ask you a few questions".

As he heard the jail door shut behind him he sat down on a little wooden bench. And he looked out of the door - thru those bars - at this kind of wimpy looking sheriff out there. He started getting mad again and he realized what he had done.

There wasn't nothing he could do about it now though. He just sat down and put his head down and he started thinking to himself "I'm all by myself here, there's nobody on my side....."

thrasherswheat.org/fot/down-by-the-river.htm

@joemdkarda I agree more with this version, it's a kind of "Hey Joe" song from J. Hendrix.

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