What does Carry Me, Carrie mean?

Dr Hook: Carry Me, Carrie Meaning

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Album cover for Carry Me, Carrie album cover

Song Released: 1972


Carry Me, Carrie Lyrics

Second Street and Broadway
Sittin' in a doorway
Head held in his hands
Looked to all the world
Like he was prayin'
Foot wrapped in old rag
Bottle in a brown bag
I saw him trying to stand
Then I heard the words that he was sayin'

He...

  1. anonymous
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    Sep 18th 2023 !⃝

    He is calling out for his dead wife. Since she died, he lost all hope and fell into despair through alcohol. Everything in life is meaningless for him. He wants to die and join her but he can’t seem to do it by himself. Also, He doesn’t feel that he is worthy to go to heaven, where she resides. He is is pleading that she carries him through death and to heaven, where she is.

  2. anonymous
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    Mar 5th 2023 !⃝

    I see it as a man who has been struggling with mental health issues asking for his estranged daughter to come help him. The line I carried you makes me think this.

  3. GuitarmanTJ
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    Jan 16th 2021 !⃝

    Well I have read and understand the other interpretations and I agree that there is a person that’s down as far as they can go, and the struggles that they are dealing with is more than they can endure so they pray out loud for help.
    I cry when I play and sing this song and I absolutely love it, I first heard it when I was around 9 or 10yrs old and really loved it and it’s been in my head ever since. I sang it during the lip sync craze and the karaoke phase and learned to play guitar so I could sing it anytime I want. It’s the little things I guess, ya know..... but I still carry it in my heart for over 40 yrs now and all I can say is “ Thank you Dr. Hook and the medicine show for the gift.
    Sincerely: GuitarmanTJ. Aka Tracy Woody of Chattanooga TN.
    Live good live free and BELIEVE.

  4. anonymous
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    Nov 29th 2020 !⃝

    I take from this song that he is asking God to carry him because he can't walk for himself. He cannot make it over the mountain alone. Too many people in my life with drug and drink issues. Jesus saves us all when we hit rock bottom and turn to him!!!

  5. anonymous
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    Mar 31st 2020 !⃝

    This is a person who is at the lowest he has ever been. He had hope for so long and has almost given up. Still he holds on to his last shred of hope that he will overcome the mountain. He begs (his hope) to see him through and bring him out as a survivor.

  6. anonymous
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    Mar 1st 2019 !⃝

    I think anyone can interpret this song into their life.
    In todays world, I can feel this personally.
    A lifelong friend with an addiction problem, who seems to want to be the victim in every situation, whom although I love very dearly, I have come to the very painful decision her life is the toxicity in my daily life.
    I have chose to let go for a little while, to seek peace and positivity, so that I may heal physically and mentally from the disease that threatens my actual physical life, not my imaginary one.
    Although I know she is in pain and wants to reach out, its the fact that she doesn't that is most painful. She would rather wait and "prove" that I need her in my life, rather than admit she has a problem.

  7. anonymous
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    Feb 25th 2018 !⃝

    I think he’s actually singing to his legs to carry him one more time

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  8. anonymous
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    Apr 10th 2017 !⃝

    I am of the mind... its a lost love..long gone that wrecked a man many years before....
    I carry my Carrie (Kathy) with me who died 18 yrs or so ago after a long fight with brain cancer..
    I carried her many many times in search of a cure..there wasnt one and she died in my arms looking into my eyes trying to tell me something she never had the strength to.. (try living with that)...
    we were childhood sweathearts and had almost 20 yrs together starting out with nothing to gaining something in life...
    I still love her and I still miss her and almost cry a lot still and the frustration and emotion you feel in that song is very real as I too have that.

    To me the song is saying this man had nothing left and turned to drink after Carrie went (died?) as he was living with her in his mind and still speaking to her (as I do)...he could do anything for her or to get to her even climb that mountain if she were only there to point the right direction (as I could)...as he has lost all direction since losing her..much as I did for 5 yrs after losing my Kathy and still to this day...I live with my regrets as he is with his.. one day My "Carrie" Kathy will be there to point the right direction.

  9. Peter Merchant
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    Mar 6th 2016 !⃝

    A clever and succinct retelling of Theodore Dreiser's novel Sister Carrie.

  10. anonymous
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    Nov 19th 2015 !⃝

    Most people say it's about mans need for a woman's help. But I see it also as the man carrying alcohol for many years and now asking the alcohol to carry him for the last few miles before death. The love he has for the alcohol is well... The alcohol is all he has, his replacement of woman and friend.


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