What does this song mean?

[Mr.Charlie]

It's about lost love, "rider" is a term often used in blues/old country songs which references a girl you're with. The whole "headlight on a north bound train" is kind of a lamenting lyric to me, metaphorical in the sense that you wish you could clearly see your way through the hard time of losing your girl, through the inevitable trip north through the cool colorado rain, which is basically breaking up with your rider. Just my two cents.

[st stephen]

lost love...i think its pretty obvious

[BuddhaG]

My interpretation of any given song will change as my life goes through changes itself. It seems that a song will transform in my mind over a period of months or years. Sometimes it oscillates between meanings, becoming pertinent in the sense of what I need at this time in my life.

I hadn't paid that much attention to this song in the past years... just saw it as a nice folky blues about love and moving on. Perhaps being a bad place and getting out of that bad place in your head. The way Jerry sang the Cool Colorado Rain part always gave some great imagery of a beam of light cutting through the confusion (a la Dark Star).

On a personal note, I was listening to a China>Rider one night when hanging out with the girl I've been with recently. We were just chillin, enjoying each others company, and when the band started the first lyrics to the song, we both just looked at each other and understood there was a fundamental sadness in the reality of our situation. She is leaving to Hawaii in a month and though I plan on seeing her again, the song was more true to me than it ever had been before.

I hope next March's Winds will blow me to Hawaii.

[Pete B.]

My rider left upon the midnight flyer...
Singin' like a summer breeze.