Genesis: Ripples Meaning

Song Released: 1976

Ripples Lyrics

Bluegirls come in every size
Some are wise and some otherwise,
They got pretty blue eyes.
For an hour a man may change
For an hour her face looks strange -
Looks strange, looks strange.

Marching to the promised land
Where the honey flows and...

1. 1TOP RATED

   #1 top rated interpretation:
   GregZeigerson

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   Apr 10th 2018 !⃝

   "Ripples" is very clearly inspired by John Crowe Ransom's poem "Blue Girls" about the delicacy and power of youthful beauty and its transience. After all, Rutherford and Banks open the song lyrics with the words "Blue girls", the title of the Ransom poem. Ransom writes, "it is not long since she was lovelier than any of you." Rutherford and Banks write, "seems not very long ago, lovelier she was than any that I know." The "promised land where the honey flows" may mean life's ease to a girl when she is young. I think the opening verse of the song is from the point of view of a rock musician's encounters with young groupies, which starts him thinking about the theme of Ransom's "Blue Girls" poem.

2. 2TOP RATED

   #2 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

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   Jun 13th 2016 !⃝

   "Sail away, away,
   Ripples never come back...
   Gone to the other side.......
   
   Angels never know it's time,
   to close the book and gracefully decline,
   
   Sail away, away,
   Ripples never come back...
   They've Gone to the other side......".
   
   To me these lyrics tell a story of life, love, and death.
   Having experienced the death of my dearest friend at the tender age of seventeen, then the death of my Mom.... Well, they had sailed away,
   Gone to the other side...Ripples never come back....
3. anonymous

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   May 12th 2022 !⃝

   Ripples never comes back is simply
   As it's meant to be, a ripple in the water starts goes across the water and simply never comes back .
4. anonymous

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   Dec 23rd 2021 !⃝

   I look at it as accepting the aging process. Our youthful physical beauty are the ripples that never come back.
5. anonymous

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   May 3rd 2021 !⃝

   I first heard this song when I was about 15,And I was lucky to watch genesis live at knebworth, and the song will always have a place in my heart, because it means so much to me. Ripples never come back, bad memories do.
6. anonymous

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   Aug 29th 2020 !⃝

   Look at the album cover for the band is hinting meanings..as to ripples, the woman looks in the mirror and sees only a wish.
7. anonymous

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   Jun 3rd 2020 !⃝

   To me it's a song for suicide. Just like ripples never come back, one can't bring back to life after death. The very first time I've heard the song, I pictured a beautiful young girl just about to take off her life. She knows she can't turn anything back yet she's leaving everything behind. I could literally physically feel her pain. And her determination. This is the magic of art - to make us all feel and picture different stories depending on our own feelings, experience, thoughts...
8. anonymous

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   Mar 10th 2020 !⃝

   Water in any way above below or skimming flat stones at eye level have you ever thrown a rock or anything into water?
   How about diving into water wherever waterskiing boating fishing ripples of ocean
   Waves etc either way it's up to us to feel or see it to get the effectiveness of ripples
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
9. anonymous

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   Nov 28th 2019 !⃝

   The endless, unstoppable march of time.
10. anonymous

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    Dec 20th 2018 !⃝

    I see it as the demise of my dad who died with dementia, ripples are information going into our heads then they run away
11. anonymous

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    Sep 11th 2018 !⃝

    This is a story of English citizens leaving for America. The face is sinking. Blue bells are English blood
12. anonymous

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    Jun 19th 2017 !⃝

    This is one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard. But if you write songs the meaning is often unclear even to you. They evolve, and of course ripples do come back it just depends where you throw the pebble. I spent so much money playing this song on the Norwich City College Southwell Lodge students' bar juke box in (1976?)I finally bought the album - just bought it again. Probably the last brilliant fantasy album of the 70's. I'd love to hear it reworked by Genesis while Phil Collins is still up to it. Blue girls might relate to intellectual women in the 19th century (blue stockings). Best bet is to ask Mr R and Mr B!
13. anonymous

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    Dec 29th 2014 !⃝

    Regrets in life which are too late to do anything about as she is too old and she wishes she hadn't left it too late to do something about.
14. DiaRoot14622

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    Jul 9th 2011 !⃝

    I have always found Ripples meaning speaking to the consideration of living one's life cognisant of the past is always the past,once the moment has past its done. The song starts out with the character marching off to the promised land, but becomes disenchanted with her quest. She sees her reflection in a pool and realizes her looks are fleeting and she is no longer the young thing she once was...

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