“Geronimo” by Sheppard is a song about falling in love and taking the plunge.

Inspiration Can Strike at Any Time

For this song, the original spark came quite spontaneously out of the blue, as many great creative ideas do. The inspiration might not have come at the most convenient time, but it’s what led to the song that fans now know and love.

In an interview that can be found on YouTube, Jay Bovino said, “It kind of started five minutes before a show, really, just warming up backstage and started playing the opening chords, and then brought George and Amy in, and we kind of bust out the early melodies, and then had to go and perform and kind of forgot about it for a few months until we pulled out our iPhones and started listening to old recordings.”

In that same interview, Amy Sheppard explained how each member has their own approach to the songwriting process: “Well, for Jay, it’s probably guitar chords, but for me it’s melody.”

George explained, “There’s no certain formula to it. Just like every song that we write has a different beginning or it happens in a different way. We don’t ever try and force anything. It’s all very organic.”

For Amy, the spark that got “Geronimo” going was the opening guitar guitar line.

Of this song, George Sheppard said, “It was very engaging and it made you feel a certain way and you just started singing. It was really easy to come up with hooks for that song and the lyrics and the melodies.”

George estimated only took about two hours to put words to the music they had started forming in that pre-show warmup session.

“Yeah, it just worked,” Jay Bovino said. “It worked really well, the three of us. Just spitfired melodies. And it all came together really quickly.”

There was no shortage of creative inspiration as Amy Sheppard boasted, “We had to cut out hooks because he has no room.”

Just Do It

“Geronimo” is an uplifting song about taking a leap of faith and losing yourself to a feeling. The rhythm is fast and the lyrics are upbeat. “Bombs away” is a refrain used to say that the narrator is taking a chance metaphorically.

George Sheppard can be seen in a video from another interview describing the song’s meaning: “It’s really about taking a leap of faith, like trying to do something that you think is probably going to completely fall apart, but just having the faith to just kind of go for it and do it anyway.”

Chasing Waterfalls

Sheppard uses the metaphor of a waterfall to describe love:

“I can see you through the curtains of the waterfall”

This specific water feature serves as the perfect metaphor for love in this context. The choice can help represent the liquidity of emotions. The character’s thoughts fall in curtains and can be read as doubts or hopes, but in either case, they are veiled and hidden. However, the narrator of the song can break through these barriers just by looking.

The real Geronimo was a leader of the Apache. After his mother, wife and children were all massacred by Mexican soldiers, he fought against U.S. and Mexican authority for 30 years.

Since then, his name has become a coming thing to yell before you jump off of something. As such, it served as the perfect title and refrain for this song. After all, “Geronimo” the song is all about jumping into something new and leaping into love where before there was hesitation.

Lyrics

Can you feel it?
Now it’s coming back we can steal it
If we bridge this gap
I can see you
Through the curtains of the waterfall

When I lost it
Yeah you held my hand
But I tossed it
Didn’t understand
You were waiting
As I dove into the waterfall

So say Geronimo!
Say Geronimo!
Say Geronimo!
Say Geronimo!
Say Geronimo!
Say Geronimo!
Say Geronimo!

Can you feel my love?
Bombs away
Bombs away
Bombs away
Can you feel (my love, my love, my love, my love, my love) my love?
Bombs away
Bombs away
Bombs away
Say Geronimo!

Well we rushed it
Moving away too fast
That we crushed it
But it’s in the past
We can make this leap
Through the curtains of the waterfall

So say Geronimo!
Say Geronimo!
Say Geronimo!
Say Geronimo!
Say Geronimo!
Say Geronimo!
Say Geronimo!

Can you feel (my love, my love, my love, my love, my love) my love?
Bombs away
Bombs away
Bombs away
Can you feel (my love, my love, my love, my love, my love) my love?
Bombs away
Bombs away
Bombs away

Well I’m just a boy
With a broken toy
All lost and coy
(At the curtains of the waterfall)
So it’s here I stand
As a broken man
But I’ve found my friend
At the curtains of the waterfall

Now I’m falling down
Through the crashing sound
And you’ve come around
At the curtains of the waterfall

And you rushed to me
And it sets us free
So I fall to my knees
(At the curtains of the waterfall)

So say Geronimo!
Say Geronimo!
Say Geronimo!
Say Geronimo!
Say Geronimo!
Say Geronimo!
Say Geronimo!

Say Geronimo!
Say Geronimo!
Say Geronimo!
Say Geronimo!
Say Geronimo!

Bombs away
Bombs away
Bombs away (Say Geronimo!)

Say Geronimo!

Make this leap
Make this leap
Make this leap
Make this leap
Can you feel my love?

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Amy Louise Sheppard / George Josef Sheppard / Jason Bovino

Geronimo lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Universal Music Publishing Group