Tripping Billies by Dave Matthews Band

Album: Crash (1996)

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Before he played "Tripping Billies" on the VH1 show Storytellers, Dave Matthews explained that the song is about the first time he took acid. He was on a beach with friends, and when he took the acid he decided he did not want to trip, but the acid got him and he decided to just go with it. They had a blast sitting around a camp fire, and the next thing he knew he was talking to the cops, which is a "Billy." This song is about all the fun he had and how he did not want it to end.
Matthews has offered varied explanations of the lyrics over the years. When he talked about it in a 1996 interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, he said: "Well, see, you've got billy goats. A herd of billy goats. Tripping goats. Hillbillies on acid, maybe that's another possibility. Maybe there's a party and maybe everybody's venturing into the shadowy corners of their mind, and maybe someone at the party is upset about what they find in the recesses of their mind. And other people say, 'Look, we're at a party, you should enjoy things, forget about those dark, little corners in your head.'"
The line, "dragons were smoked," is a nod to the 1963 song "Puff The Magic Dragon," which was rumored to be about smoking pot but is actually a very innocent children's song.
"Tripping Billies" is one of the earliest Dave Matthews Band songs. Matthews wrote the song and they started playing it live in 1991 soon after they formed. Live versions circulated because the band encouraged fans to tape their shows, and in 1993 they included a live version on their first album, Remember Two Things. The album was released on their own label, although it was later revealed that they had already signed a record deal with RCA, which helped market it. This gave the band an opportunity to make an album on their own while banking some indie cred, which was a big deal in the '90s as listeners were mistrustful of bands whose debut albums were on major labels, a tip-off that they were manufactured acts.

Their first RCA album was Under The Table And Dreaming in 1994. "Tripping Billies" isn't on it, but a lot of the songs from Remember Two Things are, including "Ants Marching" and "Satellite." Songs from the album got loads of airplay and the band became very popular. A studio version of "Tripping Billies" appeared on their next album, Crash, in 1996 five years after they started playing it live. It was released as a single but didn't get all that much airplay. The song, though, is one of the band's most-played live songs and considered a DMB essential.

Comments: 11

Reimtime from Orland, CaI think Dave has so much fun playing with people in his comments during interviews, the crazy stories he'll tell, the affected nervousness he exhibits. I've heard him explain the song is simply about his love of life and its fleetingness, a topic in many of his songs. A critic reviewed the band in one of DMB's early live shows, writing that they sounded like a bunch of "tripping hillbillies." Dave was so amused by the description he worked it into a song, "Tripping Billies." Come on, everyone should understand by now how irrepressibly zany Dave will be in an interview format.
Ziggy from Maybecrazy2@gmail.comAs for the comments on LSD, don't hold it against people for repeating what they have been told or taught. When the drug first came out it was demonized to the public in an effort to turn people away from it. Have you ever seen Refer Madness the movie about marijuana, some people still believe that to be a realistic view on how it will/can make people act after smoking it. We know that to be nonsense now but for years people thought it was like that. I have done it (LSD) more times than I can count, in the thousands of times for sure. I'm 47 now and haven't done anything in 20 years or so, the only health problems I have steaming from my wild younger days is from smoking a pack a day for 25 years. COPD sucks, I have done every drug out there many times, the long term effects of smoking is far worse than all of them combined and the drugs were much more FUN!
Christopher from Bridgeport, CtAaron: "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we shall die" is attributed to the ancient Greek philosopher, Epicurus
Rob from Simsbury, CtMatthew ur a f--king dumbass. i made an account just to post this comment. i cant stand it when people like u give of false facts about drugs. LSD is not toxic at all and is actualy out of your system within the 24 hrs u have injested it. i have done LSD multiple times (20-25) and let me tell u, not one time have i had a "flasback". also, not one time have a had a though as to throw myself out of a several story window. everytime ive done it its been a very peaceful, beautiful, and valueable learning lesson. you are confused with the anti-drug propaganda which is false information.
Dave from Philadelphia, PaIn "Road to Big Whisky" presented on fuse, Dave explains in an interview that the song Tripping Billies got its name because while the band was writing it, dave called his girlfriend in South Africa and played it for her. She responded by saying it sounds like a bunch of hillbillies on acid. Therefore, the song got its name "Tripping Billes".
Ryan from Littleton, CoAnd FYI, I have PERSONALLY done cocaine with Dave at Miller's in VA. Big deal. He's a damn rockstar. Oh no, not LSD !!! Pahleasee....
Ryan from Littleton, CoIt's about Dave and his friends dropping acid and sitting around a campfire.
Aaron from Bowling Green, KyI am sorry I meant 1 cor 15:32. However this is a common quote in the Bible also used found here...
Isaiah 22:13. And the be merry part is used in Luke 12:19 as well as Ecclesiastes 8:15. Its quite obvious Dave does or once studied scripture. On the matter of drugs Matthew 15:11 "It is not what goes into a mans mouth that defiles him, but what comes out of his mouth that defiles him."
Aaron from Bowling Green, KyThe chorus of the song is a biblical quote.

1 cor 16:32 If in the manner of men, I have fought with the beasts at Ephesus, what advantage is it to me? If the dead not to rise, "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die".
Evan from Durham, NcMatthew, you will find that much of those ideas about LSD are myth, not scientific fact. It is indeed not addictive, however it is fully metabolized by the body within 24 hours of ingestion and reported "flashbacks" are an entirely psychological phenomenon - they have nothing to do with any residual chemical in the body. Also, LSD is considered to be nontoxic: the LC-50 is so high that the quantity is unknown.

On another note, this is easily my favorite DMB song. It was amazing when they played it as an encore at Virginia Tech this year!
Matthew from Milford, MaWait a minute... Dave Matthews took LSD once? That drug is extremely dangerous... It may not be addictive, but it can never be purged from the body by the body's own devices (unless the body is in perfect or near-perfect homeostasis, which is extremely unlikely if one is taking drugs of any sort!) In other words, it remains in your system forever, and can cause flashback hallucinations at any time! Just taking LSD once is enough for the drug to leave enough residue for the possibility of flashbacks, and subsequent doses would probably leave behind even more! Theoretically, this might allow several doses of LSD to cause permanent hallucinations, but I doubt it; you would be dead before you could get that much in your system, either through poisoning or an incredibly stupid decision (such as leaping out of a window several stories above the ground in the belief that you can fly.)

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