Creedence Clearwater Revival: Lookin' Out My Back Door Meaning

Song Released: 1970

Lookin' Out My Back Door Lyrics

Just got home from Illinois, lock the front door, oh boy!
Got to sit down, take a rest on the porch.
Imagination sets in, pretty soon I'm singin',
Dude, dude, dude, lookin' out my back door.

There's a giant doing cartwheels, a statue...

1. 1TOP RATED

   #1 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

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   Sep 26th 2009 !⃝

   Some say it's about drugs - the images (giant doing cartwheels...statue wearing high heels... all the happy creatures...wonderous apparition...magician...) perhaps conjured by LSD - the "flying spoon" = coke or heroin (what else might one use a spoon for with drugs?)
   
   But it's been said and written by CCR and others as well that CCR wasn't into hard drugs - they admit to "dabbling" with pot and seem a bit allusive in regards to LSD - but deny using drugs like heroin and coke and pills -
   
   One interpretation is that Fogerty had a baby son at the time and that the song was for him - dad just got home from the road, settled in with his baby son, and in this sense the "flying spoon" is a spoon with baby food on it - he's doing the "airplane" thing with the spoon while feeding his son - and all the creatures and animals are from children's stories and imaginings -
2. anonymous

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   Apr 12th 2020 !⃝

   Bunch of young guys enjoying each other's talent and creativity bringing to life the poetry of the moment....whatever that was for him/them then. Drugs, kids who really cares. It brings happiness.....fun music. One thing is certain anyone who listens to it will never forget it.
3. anonymous

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   Mar 6th 2020 !⃝

   multiple street prostitutes... freebase cocaine... orgy sex in high gear... enemas and pegging... pantyhose... high heels... nipple rings... female ejaculation... first time anal for a recent high school grad... prostate milking.. fellatio... crack pipes in art... dark corners downtown with strange women... cooking crack in a coffee pot in a hotel room with a German shepherd puppy named HPD... crackhead girls dismantling the a/c unit... the hockey Puck sized 4oz crack cookie made in a 800ml beaker.. the exotic dancers that help smoke it all in 2 days... the antibiotics you'll need after a weekend like this.. 302 baby
4. anonymous

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   Jan 29th 2020 !⃝

   And Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was about a drawing Julian made. RIIIIIGHT.
5. anonymous

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   Nov 21st 2017 !⃝

   I think you may be mildly retarded ...
   
   The "Flying Spoon" is a carnival ride (like a tilt-a-whirl). The whole song's about a carnival/circus/side show. It says "imagination set in." It's not an LSD induced hallucination.
   
   I'm surprised we don't have some religious nut job trying to convince us that "a giant doing cart wheels" refers to the rapture.
   
   Wow.
6. anonymous

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   Aug 10th 2017 !⃝

   "provided by magician"....a common form of LSD was tabs with Mickey Mouse on them...Mickey is depicted in his role as the Sorcerer's Apprentice--a magician. Far fetched maybe...maybe not.
7. anonymous

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   Mar 10th 2017 !⃝

   It's about apartheid

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
8. anonymous

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   Nov 26th 2016 !⃝

   About the time, Memorial Day, 1970, kickapoo rock fest, Heyworth,Il.
9. anonymous

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   Apr 2nd 2015 !⃝

   Could be he was just watching his children, or child and other children, playing in the back yard. Since he was in a band and a singer, the children could be pretending they are in a band. Even in play costume clothes. I have seen them do this, so why not?
10. steve55green

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    Oct 10th 2012 !⃝

    This song is about a cartoon John watched with his child on a Saturday morning. AND THAT'S A FACT !
11. anonymous

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    Sep 30th 2012 !⃝

    Uh. It's not, "dude dude dude, lookin out my backdoor".
    It's DOOT DOOT DOO.
    
    Sorry, but this aggression will not stand, man.
12. anonymous

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    Feb 13th 2012 !⃝

    This song is about his son and behind his house there was a carnival/circus and the wonder that was in his son's eye's when he say all teh lights, people, heard the music, etc.
13. johnnyarson

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    Apr 1st 2009 !⃝

    This song is about being happy with what you have and taking pleasure in the simple things in life. Can't really make much sense of the "tambourines and elephants are playing in the band, won't you take a ride on the flying spoon" part.

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