You guys are waaaaay over thinking these lyrics. You have to consider the context of the period in which they were written.
It is about drugs and the wreakage they make of your life.
"Come down off your throne" = The grandiosity and the euphoria created by the drugs.
"Leave your body alone" = stop taking drugs
"Some body must change" = You gotta do what ever it take to man up and take responsibilty for your own addictions
"You are the reason/I've been waiting here so long" = I LOVE YOU, J@ck@$$
"Somebody holds the key" = Help! Help! What are the magic words that will penetrate his doped out core??
"But i'm near the end" = I'm near the end
"And i just ain't got the time no" = I mean it. I'm near the end. I have a life to live.
"Well i'm wasted and I can't find my way home" = in today's lingo it would translate roughly to "Dude, where is my car?" but there is a more urgent cut to it. This person has sacrificed his life(her life). Sort of, 'I have walked this path with you and now we are both lost, and if you don't come out of that drug hazed cloud it will all be for nothing. What a waste of talent/intellect/skill/gift.
And it doesn't have to be a romantic relationship in the offing here. Friendships can be even more enduring than romances. Often these people, especially from this era, where pals in childhood, so they followed each other into the drug culture, because that is where much of this talent was doing it's most outstanding work, and their lives were indelibly altered by both the music and the drugs. You have but to read the life stories of the people who wrote the songs and you know what they were talking about.
And it doesn't have to be a romantic relationship in the offing here. Friendships can be even more enduring than romances. Often these people, especially from this era, where pals in childhood, so they followed each other into the drug culture, because that is where much of this talent was doing it's most outstanding work, and their lives were indelibly altered by both the music and the drugs. You have but to read the life stories of the people who wrote the songs and you know what they were talking about.
That is not to say that, as art, and as with any other art medium, it is shaped and molded by whoever sees it. we all see it from our own frame of reference and so, we shape it by what it says to US and that, too, is a totally legit interp. What the artist was saying can,and often does, get lost in the morphology brought on through the years.
i dont think stevie w really knew --- they were just streams of consciousness and vocal sounds that you can interpret anyway you want.
u should really ask him.
not as obvious as "sea of joy" or "presence of the lord" (the hippie "jesus freak" fad of the time as in Godspell and JC Superstar. how do i know this? i was there and part of it)
and to muddy the waters further it was suggested a long time ago that "had to cry today" was a lament of Kent State. the song was written and released way before that tragedy, but it...
i dont think stevie w really knew --- they were just streams of consciousness and vocal sounds that you can interpret anyway you want.
u should really ask him.
not as obvious as "sea of joy" or "presence of the lord" (the hippie "jesus freak" fad of the time as in Godspell and JC Superstar. how do i know this? i was there and part of it)
and to muddy the waters further it was suggested a long time ago that "had to cry today" was a lament of Kent State. the song was written and released way before that tragedy, but it just shows to go ya, u can read whatever the heydeeho u want into these lyrics :-0
@PoeMax I agree completely. At its heart, this is a Brit drinking song. Steve Winwood wrote a lovely story about getting fall-down drunk/stoned/high/wasted. Wonderful Tonight is another lovely Brit drinking song. My girlfriend LOVES Wonderful Tonight, but she is less receptive to a scenario where we go to a party, I get fall-down drunk and have her drive me home and give me a hummer while a verge on passing out (hitch is what WT is about).
@PoeMax I agree completely. At its heart, this is a Brit drinking song. Steve Winwood wrote a lovely story about getting fall-down drunk/stoned/high/wasted. Wonderful Tonight is another lovely Brit drinking song. My girlfriend LOVES Wonderful Tonight, but she is less receptive to a scenario where we go to a party, I get fall-down drunk and have her drive me home and give me a hummer while a verge on passing out (hitch is what WT is about).
@PoeMax This song has been in my mind since the first time I heard it..what, 45 years ago. I think about it a lot, but I have to say I disagree with your analysis, being from those days myself, and having watched the video of him doing this song in 1971, while blazing on acid......."come down off your throne"--stop being so stuck-up and holier than though......"leave your body alone"---get natural, stop being fake......."you are the reason I've been waiting so long"---I've been hoping you would get it together for a long time now so we can have a real...
@PoeMax This song has been in my mind since the first time I heard it..what, 45 years ago. I think about it a lot, but I have to say I disagree with your analysis, being from those days myself, and having watched the video of him doing this song in 1971, while blazing on acid......."come down off your throne"--stop being so stuck-up and holier than though......"leave your body alone"---get natural, stop being fake......."you are the reason I've been waiting so long"---I've been hoping you would get it together for a long time now so we can have a real relationship......."somebody (her?) holds the key"......."but I'm weary and I just ain't got the time"---I can't wait much longer, I'm getting tired of holding on......."and I'm wasted and I can't find my way home"----not Dude, where's my car, more like, I'm wasted (literally and figuratively)and can't figure out my life, and where home is (see All come to look for America, S and G)--we were the lost generation who saw beyond our parent's 50s empty lives, but didn't quite know how to take our more enlightened state and find peace within it....."come down on your own"---you have to do it for yourself, nobody can enlighten you but you.
Its one of the best songs of the 60s, actually. One my friends and I always have loved a lot.
@PoeMax, Agree it's about dope and too much dope! He's lost his identity. He's forgotten who he used to be. In wartime, soldiers who endured the worst used to say "I'm not sure I'll ever find my way home". Meaning, they don't know where home is because the don't know who they are. It's the title of the song and in this case, the title is everything. I feel he does have hope though. Which is good, as some who are so lost, give up.
@PoeMax, Agree it's about dope and too much dope! He's lost his identity. He's forgotten who he used to be. In wartime, soldiers who endured the worst used to say "I'm not sure I'll ever find my way home". Meaning, they don't know where home is because the don't know who they are. It's the title of the song and in this case, the title is everything. I feel he does have hope though. Which is good, as some who are so lost, give up.
@PoeMax I agree to the interpretation but it is to himself - he is talking to himself. This song's theme has spured "Snow" by Chili peppers and "I can't feel my face" by Weekend
@PoeMax I agree to the interpretation but it is to himself - he is talking to himself. This song's theme has spured "Snow" by Chili peppers and "I can't feel my face" by Weekend
@PoeMax I always thought it was about addiction and he is at the end of his toleration for it. Like a final intervention. His way of getting help has not worked so do something that will. Something has
got to change.
@PoeMax I always thought it was about addiction and he is at the end of his toleration for it. Like a final intervention. His way of getting help has not worked so do something that will. Something has
got to change.
You guys are waaaaay over thinking these lyrics. You have to consider the context of the period in which they were written. It is about drugs and the wreakage they make of your life. "Come down off your throne" = The grandiosity and the euphoria created by the drugs. "Leave your body alone" = stop taking drugs "Some body must change" = You gotta do what ever it take to man up and take responsibilty for your own addictions "You are the reason/I've been waiting here so long" = I LOVE YOU, J@ck@$$ "Somebody holds the key" = Help! Help! What are the magic words that will penetrate his doped out core?? "But i'm near the end" = I'm near the end "And i just ain't got the time no" = I mean it. I'm near the end. I have a life to live. "Well i'm wasted and I can't find my way home" = in today's lingo it would translate roughly to "Dude, where is my car?" but there is a more urgent cut to it. This person has sacrificed his life(her life). Sort of, 'I have walked this path with you and now we are both lost, and if you don't come out of that drug hazed cloud it will all be for nothing. What a waste of talent/intellect/skill/gift.
It really is very straight forward.
And it doesn't have to be a romantic relationship in the offing here. Friendships can be even more enduring than romances. Often these people, especially from this era, where pals in childhood, so they followed each other into the drug culture, because that is where much of this talent was doing it's most outstanding work, and their lives were indelibly altered by both the music and the drugs. You have but to read the life stories of the people who wrote the songs and you know what they were talking about.
And it doesn't have to be a romantic relationship in the offing here. Friendships can be even more enduring than romances. Often these people, especially from this era, where pals in childhood, so they followed each other into the drug culture, because that is where much of this talent was doing it's most outstanding work, and their lives were indelibly altered by both the music and the drugs. You have but to read the life stories of the people who wrote the songs and you know what they were talking about.
That is not to say that, as art, and as with any other art medium, it is shaped and molded by whoever sees it. we all see it from our own frame of reference and so, we shape it by what it says to US and that, too, is a totally legit interp. What the artist was saying can,and often does, get lost in the morphology brought on through the years.
i dont think stevie w really knew --- they were just streams of consciousness and vocal sounds that you can interpret anyway you want. u should really ask him. not as obvious as "sea of joy" or "presence of the lord" (the hippie "jesus freak" fad of the time as in Godspell and JC Superstar. how do i know this? i was there and part of it) and to muddy the waters further it was suggested a long time ago that "had to cry today" was a lament of Kent State. the song was written and released way before that tragedy, but it...
i dont think stevie w really knew --- they were just streams of consciousness and vocal sounds that you can interpret anyway you want. u should really ask him. not as obvious as "sea of joy" or "presence of the lord" (the hippie "jesus freak" fad of the time as in Godspell and JC Superstar. how do i know this? i was there and part of it) and to muddy the waters further it was suggested a long time ago that "had to cry today" was a lament of Kent State. the song was written and released way before that tragedy, but it just shows to go ya, u can read whatever the heydeeho u want into these lyrics :-0
@PoeMax I agree completely. At its heart, this is a Brit drinking song. Steve Winwood wrote a lovely story about getting fall-down drunk/stoned/high/wasted. Wonderful Tonight is another lovely Brit drinking song. My girlfriend LOVES Wonderful Tonight, but she is less receptive to a scenario where we go to a party, I get fall-down drunk and have her drive me home and give me a hummer while a verge on passing out (hitch is what WT is about).
@PoeMax I agree completely. At its heart, this is a Brit drinking song. Steve Winwood wrote a lovely story about getting fall-down drunk/stoned/high/wasted. Wonderful Tonight is another lovely Brit drinking song. My girlfriend LOVES Wonderful Tonight, but she is less receptive to a scenario where we go to a party, I get fall-down drunk and have her drive me home and give me a hummer while a verge on passing out (hitch is what WT is about).
@PoeMax This song has been in my mind since the first time I heard it..what, 45 years ago. I think about it a lot, but I have to say I disagree with your analysis, being from those days myself, and having watched the video of him doing this song in 1971, while blazing on acid......."come down off your throne"--stop being so stuck-up and holier than though......"leave your body alone"---get natural, stop being fake......."you are the reason I've been waiting so long"---I've been hoping you would get it together for a long time now so we can have a real...
@PoeMax This song has been in my mind since the first time I heard it..what, 45 years ago. I think about it a lot, but I have to say I disagree with your analysis, being from those days myself, and having watched the video of him doing this song in 1971, while blazing on acid......."come down off your throne"--stop being so stuck-up and holier than though......"leave your body alone"---get natural, stop being fake......."you are the reason I've been waiting so long"---I've been hoping you would get it together for a long time now so we can have a real relationship......."somebody (her?) holds the key"......."but I'm weary and I just ain't got the time"---I can't wait much longer, I'm getting tired of holding on......."and I'm wasted and I can't find my way home"----not Dude, where's my car, more like, I'm wasted (literally and figuratively)and can't figure out my life, and where home is (see All come to look for America, S and G)--we were the lost generation who saw beyond our parent's 50s empty lives, but didn't quite know how to take our more enlightened state and find peace within it....."come down on your own"---you have to do it for yourself, nobody can enlighten you but you.
Its one of the best songs of the 60s, actually. One my friends and I always have loved a lot.
@PoeMax, Agree it's about dope and too much dope! He's lost his identity. He's forgotten who he used to be. In wartime, soldiers who endured the worst used to say "I'm not sure I'll ever find my way home". Meaning, they don't know where home is because the don't know who they are. It's the title of the song and in this case, the title is everything. I feel he does have hope though. Which is good, as some who are so lost, give up.
@PoeMax, Agree it's about dope and too much dope! He's lost his identity. He's forgotten who he used to be. In wartime, soldiers who endured the worst used to say "I'm not sure I'll ever find my way home". Meaning, they don't know where home is because the don't know who they are. It's the title of the song and in this case, the title is everything. I feel he does have hope though. Which is good, as some who are so lost, give up.
@PoeMax I agree to the interpretation but it is to himself - he is talking to himself. This song's theme has spured "Snow" by Chili peppers and "I can't feel my face" by Weekend
@PoeMax I agree to the interpretation but it is to himself - he is talking to himself. This song's theme has spured "Snow" by Chili peppers and "I can't feel my face" by Weekend
@PoeMax Best interpretation yet. Thanks
@PoeMax Best interpretation yet. Thanks
@PoeMax I always thought it was about addiction and he is at the end of his toleration for it. Like a final intervention. His way of getting help has not worked so do something that will. Something has got to change.
@PoeMax I always thought it was about addiction and he is at the end of his toleration for it. Like a final intervention. His way of getting help has not worked so do something that will. Something has got to change.