Vance Joy’s “Riptide” Lyrics Meaning

First off let it be noted that Vance Joy himself has described “Riptide” as a “weird mish-mash of ideas”. And he further acknowledged that during its penning he wasn’t really thinking “if (the words) make sense or not”. Or stated otherwise, he was more concerned with how “Riptide” sounded as opposed to its overall lyrical cohesiveness, so to speak. And considering that this was in fact one of the biggest songs of 2013, then he obviously accomplished his goal.

So from the jump, we know that this song may not feature a linear narrative. And accordingly he begins talking about his fear of “dentists”, “the dark” and “starting conversations” with “pretty girls”. In other words, the singer is recounting certain aspect of his childhood. But then he goes on to give a shoutout to the addressee, whom he refers to as “the magician’s assistant in their dreams”. 

This is once again based on his real life but his adulthood this time around. And why? Because shortly before writing the lyrics to this song he tried to kick it to a lady whom he discovered was in fact a magician’s assistant. So basically he is giving her a shoutout and in the process uses metaphors to allude to her beauty.

Meaning of “Riptide”

And apparently this is the same “lady” he is singing to in the chorus. Now here it should be noted that the title of this song also calls back to Vance’s childhood, as it is actually the name of a motel that he and his family used to frequent. 

But he is using the word, albeit metaphorical, more along the lines of its common usage, as referring to a strong sea current. But outside of that, based on what has already been explained in the first paragraph of this post, let’s not go too far trying to understand the intricacies of this passage. 

Rather what is easily discernible is that once again he is smitten by a certain lady and in the chorus is telling her that he want to be her “left-hand man”, which going a tad bit out of limb we will presume means he wants to be romantically involved with her.

Midnight Cowboy

Meanwhile the second verse is based largely on the singer’s recollections of the movie “Midnight Cowboy” (1969), which he saw a couple of years prior to writing these lyrics. Now this is not to imply that said film had any type of profound effect on Vance or is related to the overarching romantic theme of the track. 

Rather these lyrics are indicative of the aforementioned hodge-podge nature of the tune, as Joy even admitted that he “don’t even know how (they) came into his head”.

But for the most “Riptide” features the singer admiring this lady, presumably the selfsame “magician’s assistant”.  And as such its lyrics are primarily focused on Vance Joy praising her and expressing his desire to be her man.

In Closing

So at the end of the day the neatest way to describe this tune is as a love song. Yes it may go off on tangents, especially at the beginning of the first and second verses. But again, about a good 80% of it is dedicated to the female addressee, who is a romantic interest of the singer’s.

When did Vance Joy release “Riptide”?

This song came out via Atlantic Records, Liberation Music and Infectious Music on 1 March 2013. It served as one of the five songs featured on Vance Joy’s debut EP, which is entitled “God Loves You When You’re Dancing”. And in 2014 Vance also included it on his debut album, “Dream Your Life Away”.

More Facts

Vance Joy wrote and co-produced “Riptide”. And the other producers are John Castle and Edwin White.

The music video to this track had two directors, Dmitri Basil and Laura Gorun.

Famous artists who are known to have covered “Riptide” include Taylor Swift in 2014 and Grace VanderWaal in 2018. In fact Tay Tay even took Vance Joy on tour with her in 2015.

This track scored a number one on the UK Indie Chart and on two of Billboard’s US-based lists (Alternative Songs and Rock Airplay).

Overall it charted in almost 20 nations. And whereas it didn’t top the ARIA chart in Vance Joy’s homeland of Australia, “Riptide” did set a record by mid-2015 for being the song which remained on the list longer than any other track ever had. And in that regard it had broken a record set by Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” of 106 weeks. By the time all was said and done, “Riptide” spent 123 weeks as part of ARIA’s top 100.

So overall this song was a massive international success. It has been certified mutli-Platinum in five countries, including Australia, the UK and US. And overall it has sold in excess to six million copies worldwide. It also lead to Vance Joy signing a contract to drop five albums under Atlantic Records.

Moreover in a poll held by a popular Australian radio station called Triple J, “Riptide” was voted the top song of 2013. Furthermore this track took home two APRA Music Awards in 2014 in the below categories:

• Pop Work of the Year 
• Song of the Year.