Possum Kingdom

I thought it was a song about pedophile killer's thoughts. Gosh, what the mind can perceive.

This comment is coming so late in the chronology of comments.....however 15 years in passing of this song I give it a solid 10 as a single. I loved it then and still do. INHO this is a vampire song straight up.
1. I'm not gonna lie I want you for mine, my flesh and blood....
2. I can promise you, you will be as beautiful with dark hair and soft skin forever.
3. Give it it up to me......do ya want to be my...
4. Do ya wanna die, do ya wanna die, do wanna die?
5. I can't see any other analogy for this.

I'm surprised True Blood hasn't picked up on this. If I'm wrong and it is about lakeside murders then oh well....I like my Vampire interpretation better.

Your intelligence is showing, x34460, anytown, FL.
I always thought the meaning was about luring a young lady for sex for the first time, but the line that seems to point to something darker is "Do you wanna die". Besides being about a rape or rape & murder I think that another interpretation could be that the man becomes angry and possibly violent ... from the girl saying "no".
I never did and still don't intrepet anything about vampirism. The dark secret is his desire. Or in a worst case, his murderous plan. Rather, the lyrics about becoming "my blushing bride, my lover" about "staying young and beautiful forever" points to the young lady giving up her virginity, implied virginity that is. The girl is forever young and beautiful as he would remember her. Of course, the staying young and beautiful forever could also point to her memory, her condition when she would be raped and/or murdered.

To add, I don't believe it is about both. I think it is about murder. But I am not gonna argue in defense of my opinion nor to protest another. I just like the song. Bass was killer

Screw what "evidence" the video gives us. A lot of videos to a lot of songs make no sense. Not saying that this one does not, just saying you can't always get an interpretation to lyrics from a video. Why can't this song simply be about a rape and a murder? Compromise people. No reason to speculate given we did not write the song. Just enjoy it for whatever reason you do. At the end of the day, no matter how sure we are, we are never completely sure because ultimately, we just don't know.

dammit bloodaxe. you just wasted 5 minutes of my life with that story.

THE TRUTH FINALLY: The Toadies hooked into a confidential and unpublished bizarre "kidnapping" spree that went on in 1982 at Possum Lake. Nobody knew it was "murder" because the bodies were never found. In fact, the families of the missing girls supposedly stated they had "seen" their missing daughters months later, walking along roads near their homes, but their "daughters" ran when the family member stopped to try to talk to them.

How I learned of this story was by accident. I went to my dad's ranch back in the early 80's - only a few miles from Graham, Texas. Graham was only a few miles from Possum Kingdom Lake. My dad was a detective in Graham, one of only three guys who handled homicide and other felonies.

The day before I was to return to California, my dad came home very late, his face very WHITE - like paper white. He first wouldn't talk, but I saw the little beads of sweat on his upper lip and hairline. I went "whoa pop, what's up with you? You look like sh*t". He just dropped into a chair at the kitchen table. He didn't want to talk, but I had brought out a full bottle of Jack Daniels for a celebration of my bon voyage party. He just pointed at it and said "give me the bottle". He hit that whisky hard.

I've never seen my dad that way, so I was very curious about what was freaking him out. He waited a few minutes while he took gulps from the whisky bottle. He asked me to turn off all the lights in the house except the kitchen light. He pulled out his side holster with his pistol and laid it on the table. Then he asked me to make sure all the doors in the house were closed and locked. After I did this, I asked him what the hell was up. He paused for another minute (seemed like 10 minutes) and then said he was working on a disappearance case of a young teen girl from Possum Kingdom lake (PKL). I asked him why this was so disturbing to him, a simple "missing person" case, and he answered "because this is the fifth girl missing in the last two years."

Whoa. I never heard that story in the news - either there or back in LA. I'd been in Graham almost a week, and had visited Possum Kingdom Lake several times to go fishing, and nothing like this was mentioned by anyone I met. The local populace didn't seem to be in some paranoid mode where they knew five teenage girls disappeared from PLK in less than 2 years. Tourism provides about 60% of the local economy.

I'm not proud to say that I got him drunk and I listened to one damn scary story. I wish my father's white face hadn't made me so curious. I promised not to talk about it back then. However, my dad no longer lives there, so I can finally discuss what he told me. It has haunted me for almost 20 years now, and every time I hear this song, I cringe, although it is a strangely beautiful song.

The summary ending to what happened is really still unanswered. The real "person" supposedly responsible for these five girls' disappearance is a bizarre mystery that very few people who KNOW the eyewitness reports won't discuss it because the story is so freaky - like, who could protect them if they told?

My dad said his partner and other officers were definitely questioning their own stories, and sanity. The regular beat cops didn't even want to patrol the area around Seminole Trail Road where pieces of each victim's clothing were found. My dad said they were just small pieces, one from each girl: a monogrammed sock, a scarf, a bracelet, a pendant, and a butterfly hairclip. Each of these pieces of evidence were enough for the families of the missing girls to say "yes, those belonged to her."

My dad said that he and his partner were talking back at the station about what they saw that night, trying to keep their voices low. What they didn't realize was two young deputies were in a cloakroom at the time, peeking in another cop's locker to find some naked photos of the cop's wife he bragged about. The deputies froze and hid when my dad and his partner came back into the station, so they were within 10 feet of my dad's office and heard everything my dad and his partner discussed about what they saw that night. The two deputies quit within a week, they were so freaked out.

The police in several jurisdictions around PKL wouldn't release ANY details to the media, who were only getting sketchy info anyways. The problem was that all the girls who disappeared were from families camping in the area, and none lived in Texas. There wasn't a "panic" that hit the populace. Only small rumors that grew but nothing that would be substantiated by the police. The reason for this was because after the fourth girl disappeared, some prominent men in the area formed a vigilante crew to hunt down the "monster". Even though there was never any bodies found, something strange was going on at the lake.

My dad said what really put the "lock" on any info coming out of the police dept (hence no local media coverage), was that about 15 men of the small town went on a vigilante hunt, and wrongfully killed two local teen boys. The boys were out, ironically, hunting possums and ran into the vigilantes deep in the woods. The boys were carrying a kerosene lantern which glowed strangely in the misty woods. A younger vigilante got spooked and shot one of the boys point blank - and with the sound of that shot, several other vigilantes opened fire on the shadows around that kerosene lamp. The two boys were slaughtered by the vigilantes by mistake. The local news reported it as a "hunting accident". The police backed it up, nobody wanted this info to become public.

Since the town (and the Possum Lake tourism chamber) didn't want the bad publicity to get out, even the local newspaper and one radio station preferred to keep the story buried to avoid possibly scaring away tourists. The final deal was to just say that some drifter was being "sought" for the disappearance of a camper. The truth was dropped into a big hole, and only a few people knew what was down in that hole, my dad being one of them.

So what was the incident that my dad and his partner saw that night that freaked him and so many others who worked with him? The final report, which the police dept totally ERASED from their records months later DENIED was this:

My dad and his partner were driving up from Navajo Trail to Arrowhead Trail. They went north up Seminole Trail and soon saw a tall, slender young man, darkhaired and very "white", almost translucent, holding hands with a pretty longhaired blonde girl, about 16 years old. They were walking slowly alongside the small road. It was after midnight. My dad pulled the car up just ahead of them, grabbed their flashlights and got out to walk back to meet them and talk. As they go up about 10 feet away, they noticed the girls was emotionless, but her hand was "clenched" to this boy's hand. My dad said it looked like their hands were "glued" together.

The tall boy, very handsome in spite of his very white skin, grinned softly to my dad and his partner. He said "Hello officers. What seems to be your concern?" My dad said he said "It's after midnight, don't you think you kids should be back with your parents?". It was just then my dad recognized the boy. He had seen him at least five times before, usually hanging out in parking lots outside some of the local nightclubs, late at night. They had brought him in one time for "underage" drinking, but they couldn't establish when his date of birth was. My dad called his parents, but they didn't speak English, and could only say "send Varamount home please." He found out later that "Varamount's" parents were government protected immigrants from east Europe. He couldn't find out any info on them.

However, on this encounter that night, "Varamount" just raised his hand to my dad as he walked up to him and the girl. "Stop sir, for your own good". My father was stunned for a moment, and then went to reach for his gun because it sounded like a threat to him. My dad saw his partner's eyes transfixed, and his body frozen. My dad's hand froze on his gun. Then my dad told me the weirdest thing I've ever heard in my life:

"This kid, Varamount, put his hand back down, turned to the young girl, who wrapped her arms around him, and as he wrapped his arms around her, they just faded into nothing... no sparks, no flash, smoke, just disappeared."

My dad and his partner tried to follow up on the case the next day by going to Varamount's listed home address. It was an empty house.

My dad to this day doesn't want to talk about the case, and says "it's not what you want to hear or find out about, so just leave it at that." ©2010 Domain owners of Tammy Keith dot com

Ive heard a lot of the different theories about this song's meaning. One i havent seen mentioned is the Zodiac Killer.The Zodiac killer used to say in his letters that he killed people so they would be his slaves in the afterworld which fits with the line i promise youll stay beautiful forever. he also killed a woman picnicking with her BF by a lake wich would explain the mentioning of a lake. i dont know, its up to you which interpretation you believe

I always thought it was about luring a virgin for her first time.

lol i play this song when we go possum runnin!
and i just think its hilarious

This song always hooked w/those beginning guitar riffs, then the words of seduction...wait, something is terribly wrong here. Funny, after "my dark secret" I took it to be a man enticing a girl into a suicide pact. So I can kind of see where people got the vampire idea, from the stay you & beautiful and I took the "I will treat you kind" to mean it would be painless.I usually shut it off at about the "do you wanna die?" point. kinda reminds me of watching Rocky Horror, great fun until things fall apart & really go wrong. Because I like the beginning, I am just going to listen & forget about the the rape story, it's not they're giving us a life lesson.

The great thing about art/music is it is open to interpretation. Maybe this is why the band never appointed a true meaning to the song. Before reading anything about the song, it struck me as either a song about eternal youth, either from becoming a vampire or thru death (you don't age if you die). But, after reading much about the satanic influence in the music industry, I think another interpretation could be: "make up your mind decide to walk with me around the lake tonight by my side"=decide to side with evil, walk around the "lake" as in "lake of fire", tonight as in always night in hell; "i didn't mean to scare you so help me jesus"=the devil wants to appear as your friend/trustworthy and mocks jesus by using his name in vain; "you'll stay as beautiful, etc."=the devil makes false promises to tempt people to his side; "give it up to me, do you wanna be my angel?"=give your soul to me and be one of my "angels" as in fallen angels. Like I said, it's open to interpretation and this is just one of the possibilities. Y'all take care.

this song is not about vampires. it's possibly just a sick, dark interpretation of a murder at Possum Kingdom, and the lyrics really explain the insanity and evilness of whatever events took place there, whether it was murder or something perhaps more extreme.

Its not about a vampire ar tard, its about a rapeist that lures girls to a lake called possum kngdome, go read twilight

I agree with "Mel!ssa" from PA and "x34460" from FL.
The lyrics speak to me about a vampire.
"I'll show you my dark secret"

"I can promise you You'll stay as beautiful
With dark hair And soft skin...forever"

"Make up your mind"
(Note: Rape victims really have no choice)

Just my take. Regardless of what the band says.

This song is about murder.
possiably rape,google it.
If you watch the video,pay no mind to the song,play the video slowly if it moves to fast for you but pay attention to the detail its about murder and any one who has stated this before is correct.

Heres a google maps link to Possum Kingdom. Theres a state park there.

I really cant believe people would think this is about vampires when all us, quote, "dumb rednecks" in Texas. know what its about.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Possum+Kingdom&ie=UTF8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&hl=en&cd=1&geocode=Fa5d9gEd3voh-g&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=23.875,57.630033&ll=32.831135,-97.875824&spn=0.891983,1.785278&z=10

Response to Epsie: In the vid, he is dragging a body. The ice block is separate, it's not inside the body bag. At 2:22 it becomes clear that the ice block is not within the bag. At 2:38, he is shown clearly dragging two objects and there are two ropes. In the vid he is digging a grave and sculpts the ice block into a bust as a marker. The ice block is not buried. The song is clearly about a murder, both in the lyrics and the accompanying video.

As many have been saying, it is CLEARLY obvious that this song is about rape... Lyrics "give it up to me, give it up to me, do you wanna be my angel?" has set that strait for me. I got into an argument last night about this song with someone, they claimed it was about asking forgiveness for something they did wrong in a relationship.. WRONG.. And as far as was The Toadies said as in the questioning, OBVIOUSLY no one wants to admit their song is about rape. On the same cd this one is on they have another song ALSO about rape. READ BETWEEN THE LINES!

This is a response to what Thomas from Rochester said... if you watch the video in the end you find out the thing he is dragging in a bag is an Ice Sculpture not a body...

Having read all the vampire chronicles by Anne Rice...this song is the perfect picture of Louis becoming a vampire. Well, I guess images from the movie help a bit, too. The movie came out in 1994 and this song was released in 1995. So..

YOU ARE ALL A BUNCH OF.....
Music enthusiasts who are all correct in their individual interpretations of this song's "real meaning". Whatever anybody thinks the song is about is right. Nobody is "wrong". While the band may know what they meant when they wrote it, whatever it means to you is why you enjoy it, therefore making it "right".
I was 21 when this song was new and today is my first time seeing the video, as a result of this topic.
I'm glad cable tv was not available in my area back then because it saved me from having to be SHOWN what the MUSIC is supposed to mean versus listening with my ears and allowing my mind's eye to create it's own imagery and meaning.

Videos are nice and I appreciate the creative efforts of a great many of them but consider this: ever said to yourself or heard someone say "loved the movie but the book was much better"? same idea applies here.
This song means whatever it means to you just as all songs should. That's what makes each memorable song so important to us as individuals. We appreciate it because of what it means to us.
-x

This is info I found on the net. This comes from an interview with the band called "TOADIES Rubbernecking across the States"
Published in: RIP Date: December 1995 pg. 34 Texas Tall Tunes 'N' Tunes by jennifer clay

"When we were in Detroit a stripper came up...and we were making fun of the news clipping we got that [said] strippers in Fort Worth were dancing to 'Possum Kingdom', and she was like, 'Oh, are you guys upset about that?'" recalls Umbarger. "And I'm like, 'No, not really. I just think it's kind of funny.' And she said, 'Oh good, 'cause I'm a stripper and last night I danced to 'Possum Kingdom.' "

"I asked her if she knew what it was about," continues Lewis. "And she goes, 'Yeah, the nasty!' Those strippers have their fingers on the pulse of the music world."

"And a lot of other things..." Herbert interjects.

"I heard that strippers made Green Day what they are. I heard that before Green Day even got radio play, strippers were dancing to Green Day," Umbarger continues.

Laughing, Lewis says: "Strippers broke that new Alanis Morissette record!"

Stripper aside, "Possum Kingdom" is not about "doing the nasty." It, like most of Toadies' tunes, are stories, as Umbarger explains while Lewis excuses himself to grab a tissue. "They're just these silly stories he's heard his family tell. Like 'Tyler' and 'Possum Kingdom' are just like stories...In Texas, there's just this big storytelling thing - whenever your family gets together, they sit and talk and tell all these stories. 'Possum Kingdom' is a ghost story."

"Possum Kingdom is a lake. One of the ten best fishin' spots in the U.S.," Lewis says upon returning.

Is it a about a ghost or vampire at the lake?

Everyone laughs. Man-of-mystery Lewis replies: "I don't know."

?It's not about vampires," Umbarger insists. "Even though we have a big underground vampire following in Florida. They come with their teeth and everything. I'm not lying about that, that's a real story. They'll show up and you'll be talking to someone, and they'll smile and it's like, 'Jesus Christ! You've got fangs!' And they're like, 'Yeah. It's a vampire thing.' So we have this big vampire underground following, and 'Possum Kingdom' has kind of stirred it up."

So what's it really about, then?

Not missing a beat, Lewis replies: "Vampires."
Laughter breaks out yet again. "It's just a story I heard long ago; it's just a really cool, eerie lake, and some stuff I heard and some stuff I just make up. I tend to do that," Lewis explains about the watering hole where his family used to hang out and barbecue. "They dammed up this big river up there, and it's got all these spooky names like Hell's Gate. It's really cool."

watch the music video, it pretty much explains what the song is about.

if you guys watch the vid, its more than obvious that there is a body being dragged through water. this is big proof that this song is about murder @ possum kingdom. dont believe me? http://youtube.com/watch?v=F5Cf5OusjrQ

And theres only one possum kingdom.

I am from Graham, Tx. Its about ten minutes from Possum Kingdom lake. There were no murders, and Possum kingdom is not a place in Texas. The song is about a single rape that happend in the 90's.

the song is not about a vampire. That is absurd. I am from Texas and the song is definitely about a rape that happened at Possum Kingdom.

I feel like this song is definitly about a sexy vampire who has found his blushing bride and wants to make her his. that is the dark secret. the song is incredibly sexy!! The vocals are dark and sensual. The whole song is hot.

In response to Bluejay from Keamy, NJ.

You've misinterprted the lyric. He sings, "I want you for mine, my blushing bride."

Another interpretation is that it's based on the 17th century poem "To His Coy Mistress" by Andrew Marvell, in which he tries to convince his mistress to have sex with him.

funny thing... when this song came out on the radios.... i was dating my first b/f... he worked at a boatdock... and i had my first kiss at the boat house with him...

he is dead now... but this song reminds me of those days... and his dark secret... R.I.P. Mike F.

I go to possum kingdom (PK) every year and the rumor is in fact true i dont know how but it is trust me..

The meaning is obvious,,i cant believe so many people come up with so many different opinions. Its about the murders in Possum Kingdom TX,,whether they are factual word for word or varied to fit into lyrics is irrelevant. Only thing that matters is the song is kick ass. And the dude was a psycho who killed women. All of the vampire interpretations are hilarious tho,,keep up the ahhhh, ummm, good work.

I don't have any backing for this opinion, but I think it is about a guy "luring" a girl/his girlfriend to some place that they can be alone to have sex. To me, the lyrics imply that she is a virgin, and nervous with going through with it. He seems honest at times ("I'm not gonna lie, I'll not be a gentleman"), yet I can't say he is actually entirely being kind; he seems to be lying a bit so he can get laid lol ("I can promise you, you will stay as beautiful"). Nothing seems forced ("don't be afriad, I didn't mean to scare you"). It seems like the decision is up to her to come with him ("make up your mind"). The other supposed factual reports pretty much prove this mostly incorrect haha. Anyway..just my interpretation.

ok they may say its not about a vampire, but anyone who knows knows it is. Anne Rice always speaks of the vampire as having, "the dark secret" as do othe authors. Everyone knows that vamipres "stay young with dark hair forever". Even more obscure vampire fans know that COunt Vlad, upon which Dracula is based lived his final days at Lake Snagow in Eastern Europe and was often escorted to his home after impaling or toturing vicims by the monks by boathouse and there was a boathouse at Lake Snagow.The lyrics become so simple after you view them in context. E-mail me wit your opinions.

An interview with the band that I read said that the song is their elaborating or adding fiction to an alleged murder that took place near the lake, but that also the song is open to other meanings. The band definitely said it is NOT about a vampire.

The song is about a couple who broke up. The guy took his girlfreind behind the boathouse at opossum (yes opossum)Kingdom and brutally murdered her.(stabbed or strangled, one or the other)

What Cari from Moscow, Texas posted was exactly correct. A matter of fact actually, making opinions irrelevant.

Sorry, Bluejay, the lyrics read "blushing bride," not "flesh and blood." One for the misheard lyrics sites, perhaps?

i thnk the song says "i want you for mine, my blushing bride"

the meaning actaully was disclosed. its about a vampire.

I think this song is a bout the devil - trying to get someone to sell there soul to him - and in return she/he will have eternal life, and be beautiful for the rest of life - but just an opinion.

I always thought it was the vampire thing. If you listen to the lyrics it sounds like hes trying to get her to like him even though hes a vampire. And when he says do you wanna die? i think he means something like do you wanna die and live forever with me. Like if he bites her she'll die but she'll be a vampire. Just my thought but i thought it out pretty well.

I always thought this song was a little dark, but I never thought it was about murder. I assumed they meant death in the french sense of the word meaning "little death".

possum Kingdom, Texas is known for the horrible murders that happened in its state park. The song is the bands interpretation of what happened in those murders. The remains of a boathouse as mentioned in the song were still at the campgrounds as of 2001. The murderer supposedly lured the women to his boathouse, then raped and murdered them...

the band never did disclose the actual meaning of the song leaving it open. Another interpretation is that it is about incest, the speaker says, "I want you for mine, my flesh and blood." Although there is more than one lake named Possum Kingdom, the band in question is from Texas.