Composition
The song features a memorable opening guitar riff, containing a sound very reminiscent of the alternative music scene of the time. The riff has also been said to bear a striking resemblance to a riff in Jim Croce's famous 1970s hit, "I Got a Name". Overall, the song has a notably country-western or Southern rock feel to it, reflective of the "leaving on a Southern train" lyrics.
According to Weiland, the song dealt lyrically with a number of themes, particularly "honesty, lack of honesty, my new relationship with heroin." At the time he was having relationship troubles with his girlfriend, as he was using heroin while recording Purple but told her he no longer was.
Read more about this topic: Interstate Love Song
Famous quotes containing the word composition:
“When I think of God, when I think of him as existent, and when I believe him to be existent, my idea of him neither increases nor diminishes. But as it is certain there is a great difference betwixt the simple conception of the existence of an object, and the belief of it, and as this difference lies not in the parts or composition of the idea which we conceive; it follows, that it must lie in the manner in which we conceive it.”
—David Hume (1711–1776)
“The composition of a tragedy requires testicles.”
—Voltaire [François Marie Arouet] (1694–1778)
“At painful times, when composition is impossible and reading is not enough, grammars and dictionaries are excellent for distraction.”
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)