wandering child wild rivers song meaning

Meaning of Wandering Child by Wild Rivers

"Wandering Child" by Wild Rivers is a heartfelt reflection on the journey of self-discovery and the pursuit of personal freedom within the confines of a relationship. The lyrics capture the speaker's longing to have met their partner at a different stage in life, symbolizing a desire for more maturity and experience. The repeated references to being a "wandering child" highlight the speaker's inherent wanderlust and reluctance to be tied down. There is a sense of vulnerability and fear of losing oneself in the midst of love, expressed through the hesitation to fully commit and the struggle to break free from their own tendencies. The song ultimately conveys a deep yearning for authenticity, individuality, and the courage to follow one's own path, even in the face of uncertainty and doubt.

This meaning interpretation was written by AI. Help improve it with your feedback

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Wild Rivers Flow with Energy at Eddie’s Attic

Posted by Mary Mangual | Sep 28, 2018 | A & E | 0

Mary Mangual/Contributing Writer

Toronto folk band Wild Rivers filled a small space with big sounds Sept. 20 at Eddie’s Attic in Decatur, Ga. The intimate Eddie’s Attic is a tight space with the stage only inches off the ground. The four musicians — Khalid Yassein, Devan Glover, Andrew Oliver and Julien Laferriere — made no grand entrance. They simply got on-stage, set up their equipment and jumped into their first song without an introduction. The moment they hit the first chords, they captured the room’s undivided attention.

The first song they played, “A Week Ago,” started the show on a high note. From the moment Devan opened her mouth, I was captivated. Just as I found a word to describe her sound, the dynamic would change, proving the range of her talent. At some points, her voice was soaring and gliding with the clean, sharp movements of a hawk. At others, it rippled and swelled like the path of a rolling stream. Her texture provided a beautiful contrast to Yassein’s rich and smooth vocals. The chemistry in their harmonies was like peanut butter and jelly; it just worked.

“I feel like it’s going OK so far,” Yassein said after a few songs. The room agreed with him. Khalid decided, after a few upbeat songs, that it was time to play a sequence of breakup songs.

One breakup song the band played, “Mayday,” was inspired by situations in which your friend won’t stop texting you with all the personal details of their recently ended relationship. Yassein said he wrote the song about his friend Kevin. Apparently, Kevin sent Yassein a rather comprehensive picture of a relationship, partially characterized by a shared love for the Canadian T.V. show “Mayday,” a documentary series about plane crashes. The metaphor is pretty obvious.

Yassein admitted to copying and pasting the text messages directly into the lyrics, which include lines like: “I’ve been setting fire to my bedsheets. / Don’t twist your tongue just to protect me. / Just scream ‘Mayday, we’re going down.’ ”

The next song, “Speak Too Soon,” was more upbeat and funky. I was almost tricked into thinking the concert had reached its climax but then Glover suddenly pulled out a tambourine, and what’s better than a tambourine? Very, very little.

Perhaps one reason that the songs resonated so well was because the band was singing about themes relevant to college students. They sang about leaving and returning home, relationships that begin one way and turn out another and growing into a better person. One song went, “I love this city but I’m not really from here” and “I’ve got bones to break and miles to go alone.”

That song was titled “Paul Simon,” one of many references to other artists embedded in Wild Rivers’s music. In “Paul Simon,” the band borrows the line “I am a rock, I am an isle” and mentions that “one day I’ll start writing like I’m Leonard Cohen.” The song “Do Right” shouts out band Death Cab for Cutie and incorporates the title of the Postal Service song, “Such Great Heights.”

Toward the end of the show, Yassein said, “We’re going to do ‘The Thing’ if you’re all on board.” I assumed “The Thing” was an encore, and I was right. They went through the motions of leaving the room for about five seconds before coming back. “Thank you for indulging us,” Yassein said, adding, “I love ‘The Thing.’ ”

Their encore song was called “Wandering Child,” named for the lyrics “May my body and heart remain wild / For I’m a wandering child.”

When the song ended, the energy levels remained high. Glover promised that the next was really going to be the last song — the band broke into “I Won’t be Back.” It began like a traditional folk song, but exploded at the refrain. Then the tambourine returned and my heart was flying. Who needs love when there are harmonicas and tambourines? Not me.

Mary Mangual

About the author.

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"Wandering Child" lyrics

• Wild Rivers Lyrics

Wandering Child: Translation and Lyrics - Wild Rivers

• Wandering Child

Wandering Child is the new single from Wild Rivers taken from the album ' Wild Rivers ' published on Sunday 7 January 2024.

The album is composed by 9 songs. You can click on the songs to see the corresponding lyrics and translations:

• Already Gone
• Speak Too Soon
• Rolling Stone
• Heart Attack

Other Albums of Wild Rivers

Audio and video of wandering child by wild rivers.

Lyrics of Wandering Child by Wild Rivers

Latest translations and lyrics added wild rivers.

Latest Translations and Lyrics Added

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Premiere: Wild Rivers Reckon with Heartache in Dynamic “I Do”

A catchy, bittersweet folk-pop journey through a relationship’s rocky aftermath, Wild Rivers’ new single “I Do” captures the heartrending ache of longing through charming harmonies and poignant, relatable lyricism.

Stream: “i do” – wild rivers.

L ove doesn’t end at the breakup point; as Wild Rivers so poetically point out in their new single, it can take some time to reckon with one’s mixed feelings toward an ex, before they can finally find closure and move on. A catchy journey through denial, nostalgia, and acceptance, “ I Do ” captures the heartrending ache of longing through charming harmonies and poignant, relatable lyricism.

The sweater on your bedroom floor You can take that You don’t want my love no more Honey I can shake that

I come you go, back around, back around i see your ghost on a train downtown chasing it out, but we go way back.

Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering “I Do,” out August 9 via Nettwerk Music Group . Wild Rivers’ second single of 2019 and their first since the single “Moving Target” in January, “I Do” is a bittersweet personal retelling of the trails and tribulations following the moment two souls depart from one another.

“We wrote ‘I Do’ in Toronto in the summer of 2017 with our friend Robyn Dell’Unto,” Wild Rivers tell  Atwood Magazine . “We were all hanging out and chatting about where we were at in our career and our personal life. When we got talking about relationships and breakups, we all were laughing about the way people deny having feelings after a relationship is over.”

The continue, “‘I Do’ is about everything you tell yourself after a relationship ends… There’s a denial that happens, when you convince yourself and your friends that you’ve moved on… You convince all of your friends that you’re completely over it, and that you couldn’t care less about the other person. You continue to tell yourself that all of the keepsakes from that person and the songs you used to listen to don’t mean anything to you anymore. But then there’s a moment where you accept that maybe you’re not over it, and the irony is that that’s the moment that you can actually start to move forward. ‘I Do’ is about that admission.”

The Toronto-based foursome of Khalid Yassein (vocals, guitar), Devan Glover (vocals), Andrew Oliver (guitar, bass) and Julien Laferriere (drums), Wild Rivers have been active for about five years; their self-titled debut album released in 2016, and has seen multiple songs receive millions of global streams in the years since then. 2018’s EP Eighty-Eight found Wild Rivers further embracing the heartland elements in their music, expanding into bigger arrangements and melodies while expertly harnessing the guy/girl vocals of Yassein and Glover that have always been the central focus of the band’s sound.

It’s just a baseball cap, I ain’t even missing Or a Springsteen track, I don’t listen And the way I act like I don’t go thinking but I do, I do Just an old habit, I don’t gotta kick Or all your best friends’ pictures, I don’t check em Cause you look so different like you don’t go thinking But I do, I do

That same folk-pop warmth continues to dazzle throughout “I Do,” which flows with a tighter pop structure and sound than many of Wild Rivers’ previous releases. The band sound especially sure of themselves as Yassein and Glover swap verses, each lamenting the pain they feel in the wake of breakup and ultimately coming together to share their harmonies in an achingly poignant chorus.

Over time, you can get to a place where you come to terms with the fact that you do still care and miss these things, and there’s a certain relief in that.

The pain in “I Do” is one that is too often covered up and shielded from the world, and notably those who are feeling it the most. What this song creates is a pathway to self-expression: It’s a means of saying, “It’s okay to feel bad. It’s okay to miss that other person, and to still feel feelings of love toward them.” We cannot expect our complex emotional circuitry to rewrite itself overnight; love takes times, and healing takes time.

Now I’m driving by the place we met Could you go there? Seems like we’re getting on I ain’t getting nowhere

I come you go back around, back around i see you out at bar downtown and now you wanna talk babe i don’t care.

There’s no love lost on the fact that the words “I Do” are typically used to express someone’s deepest intents in love; that’s not the case for Wild Rivers’ song.

“I Do” acknowledges the difficulty in moving on by reckoning with the inner turbulence felt in love’s aftermath. It tells a relatable story full of reminiscing as the narrator(s) return to special moments and places of important in that relationship’s life. Sometimes you can change a room around in order to rid it of old, lingering memories; other times, you’re stuck passing by the same intimate space again and again, forced to relive that love until the day comes where, finally, it doesn’t matter anymore.

Until that day comes, “I Do” offers the perfect mix of nostalgia and bittersweet folk-pop warmth. Stream Wild Rivers’ exciting new single exclusively on Atwood Magazine !

Now I come you go, back around back around I see you out in a bar downtown But you look so different like you don’t go thinking but I do Oh I do

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Discover new music on atwood magazine, :: stream wild rivers  ::.

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