Recently I have been listening to the song Grey Street. I try to read the lyrics and get some story or meaning out of it, but it’s difficult (for me) and not to clear. I want to know if the song is supposed to mean something.
Lyrics can be found here .
All that I can infer is that it is about lost hope and resignation.
Yes! A Dave question!
First of all, let me start off by saying that Dave Matthews is so hot and I would like nothing more than to bear his children. 
Now onto Grey Street…
There are two camps out there in the interpretation of Grey Street. The first camp says that this song is written about his ex-girlfriend Julia Grey. He asked her to marry her three times (!) and all three times she said no. The song Halloween is about their break up and the song I’ll Back You Up is written for her. Apparently Julia had some sort of mental issues, which you would have to to turn down marriage from Dave Matthews, and Grey Street is about these issues. I think I read somewhere that she tried to commit suicide after Dave finally dumped her but I’m not 100% sure that is correct. One reason alot of people think the song is about Julia Grey is because of the spelling of “Grey” as opposed to “Gray” in the title.
Now the other camp says that all the above is complete bullshit. They say the spelling of “Grey” is not really that significant because Dave was raised in South Africa and they tend to use the British spelling of words such as “Grey”. They also say that the song is not about Julia because it was written waaaaaaaaaay after he and Julia broke up and after his marriage to Ashley. The song was originally recorded during what us fans refer to as “The Lillywhite Sessions” where basically the Busted Stuff album was scrapped in favor of the pop album Everyday. During The Lillywhite Sessions, Dave was dealing with alcoholism and depression and this is what this camp thinks the song is about. They believe the song is about, just like you said Karl, lost hope and resignation but actually Dave’s lost hope and resignation.
I hope this helped. I can provide many links to pages about Dave Matthews and song interpretations.
Mmm…thanks! Yes, I would appreciate if you provided some links, I had difficulty googling for sites.
I would try the forums at www.nancies.org www.antsmarching.org and www.anyoneseenthebridge.com and search them for grey street. There have been countless numbers of them talking about the meaning. They are also great fan sites for learning more about DMB!
Thanks for the links. I read the lyrics of the other version. Much better to understand, IMHO.
First of all, let’s keep in mind that ther are two different versions of a song with the title “Grey Street”, both by Dave Matthews, with the same beat, and similar lyrics.
But: the overall tone of the two songs are different.
In one version, he seems to be reaching out to the woman, trying to offer her help and encouragement (So, don’t lose your heaven/ don’t convince youself you’re done/ just cause the things around you seem heavy/ doesn’t mean you can’t get off this ground).
The other version is much darker, and just seems to chronicle her last days (There’s a loneliness inside her/ and she’ll do anything to fill it in/ and though it’s red blood bleeding from her now/ it feels like cold blue ice in the heart).
In both songs, I feel the color grey symbolizes despair and hopelessness, but in the first version, “the colors mix togerther to grey” conveys the idea (in my humble opinion) that the woman feels despair but is given encouragement to keep trying at the end.
In the second version, the “colors mix together to grey” paints a picture of her blacking out, probably from the loss of “red blood bleeding from her”.
Oh, and the darker version is slower.