I think Jeff was in a very dark place when he wrote this as well as most (if not all) of the other songs on Sketches, but whether he had escaped from that darkness at the time of his death, I am not really sure. What is evident in his lyrics though, is that he was haunted by the memory of his father, lost loves, and the corrupt nature of fame, among other things. I don't know if he consciously chose to walk into the river to die, but I do feel that at a certain point, it would have made sense to him and maybe he just did not fight it. Perhaps he even knew he would drown, (dare I say, he may have wanted to...). He was such a water creature, even astrologically. Water always symbolizes emotion and sensitivity, of which he obviously had in abundance... enough to drown in. He was so intensely spiritual, it comes as no surprise to me that he would die in such an enigmatic yet strangely prophetic way.
I think Jeff was in a very dark place when he wrote this as well as most (if not all) of the other songs on Sketches, but whether he had escaped from that darkness at the time of his death, I am not really sure. What is evident in his lyrics though, is that he was haunted by the memory of his father, lost loves, and the corrupt nature of fame, among other things. I don't know if he consciously chose to walk into the river to die, but I do feel that at a certain point, it would have made sense to him and maybe he just did not fight it. Perhaps he even knew he would drown, (dare I say, he may have wanted to...). He was such a water creature, even astrologically. Water always symbolizes emotion and sensitivity, of which he obviously had in abundance... enough to drown in. He was so intensely spiritual, it comes as no surprise to me that he would die in such an enigmatic yet strangely prophetic way.