The song lyrics were written by the band Van Halen, as they were asked to write a song for the 1979 movie "Over the Edge" starring Matt Dillon. The movie (and the lyrics, although more obliquely) are about bored, rebellious youth with nothing better to do than get into trouble. If you see the movie, these lyrics will make more sense. It's a great movie if you grew up in the 70s/80s you'll definitely remember some of these characters from your own life. Fun fact, after writing the song, Van Halen decided not to let the movie use it.
Sun cuts loose from the frozen
Until it joins with the African sea
In moving it changes its cold and its name
The reason I come and I go is the same
Animal game for me
You call it rain
But the human name
Doesn't mean shit to a tree
And if you don't mind heat in your river and
Fork tongue talking from me
Swim like an eel fantastic snake
Take my love when it's free
Electric feel with me
You call it loud
But the human crowd
Doesn't mean shit to a tree
Change the strings and notes slide
Change the bridge and string shift down
Shift the notes and bridge sings
Fire eating people
Rising toys of the sun
Energy dies without body warm
Icicles ruin your gun
Water my roots the natural thing
Natural spring to the sea
Sulfur springs make my body float
Like a ship made of logs from a tree
Oh, redwoods talk to me
Say it plainly
The human name
Doesn't mean shit to a tree
Snow called water going violent
Damn the end of the stream
Too much cold in one place breaks
That's why you might know what I mean
Consider how small you are
Compared to your scream
The human dream
Doesn't mean shit to a tree
Until it joins with the African sea
In moving it changes its cold and its name
The reason I come and I go is the same
Animal game for me
You call it rain
But the human name
Doesn't mean shit to a tree
And if you don't mind heat in your river and
Fork tongue talking from me
Swim like an eel fantastic snake
Take my love when it's free
Electric feel with me
You call it loud
But the human crowd
Doesn't mean shit to a tree
Change the strings and notes slide
Change the bridge and string shift down
Shift the notes and bridge sings
Fire eating people
Rising toys of the sun
Energy dies without body warm
Icicles ruin your gun
Water my roots the natural thing
Natural spring to the sea
Sulfur springs make my body float
Like a ship made of logs from a tree
Oh, redwoods talk to me
Say it plainly
The human name
Doesn't mean shit to a tree
Snow called water going violent
Damn the end of the stream
Too much cold in one place breaks
That's why you might know what I mean
Consider how small you are
Compared to your scream
The human dream
Doesn't mean shit to a tree
Lyrics submitted by FearAndLoathing
Eskimo Blue Day Lyrics as written by Grace Wing Slick Paul L Kantner
Lyrics © Wixen Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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A powerful song about humans and the environment...one of my personal favorite Airplane songs. This song should get an awful lot of airtime with the current global climate crisis, IMO.
The human dream doesn't mean shit to a tree.
So true.
Love this song. The comments above are pretty much dead on with respect to the song's environmentalist themes. I think one additional dimension to the human-trees dynamic is that trees (and other species) don't even comprehend us because they're utterly alien to us. Just as we humans can't fathom how (or if) they think or dream, they can't understand or care about our ideas, values, etc.
I've always liked that the bridge of the song is about the bridge of a guitar or other stringed instrument: "Change the strings and the notes slide/Change the bridge and the strings shift down/Shift the notes and the bridge sings". A connection between these lines and the verses first made sense to me after I tried to adjust the intonation on my guitar -- a procedure that includes making adjustments to the height and angle of its bridge. Unlike tuning the guitar, in which you focus on the pitch of each string individually, intonation affects all strings at once. A small mistake to correct one string can put ALL strings out of adjustment; shift the bridge to bring one string into proper position and you may put the others out of whack. Everything's interrelated, like tundra snows, the African sea, icicles and sulphur springs.
Environmental concerns, yes, but more specifically, man's self-importance and the fact that all his great works, thoughts, institutions, etc., mean nothing to an Earth that has had many life forms come and go over its long history, the insignificance of man's pomposity.
most of it doesnt seem to have much meaning, but some parts definitely have an environmental message. The sound at the end of the song is a big tree falling (apparently after being chopped down).
very deep to natural theme, i like it,
¡Consider how small you are Compared to your scream The human dream Doesn't mean shit to a tree ¡
its perfect, i always think about it we are so small and believe we are the best, but what really is the best is the nature, a tree worths more than some humans, ANIMAL GAME FOR ME!!
i like that wording "the pomposity of man". i had this song in mind during a debate in my high school environmental science class last year. someone on the "go ahead and keep on choppin' on" side said "survival of the fittest". i said "oh, well in that case the exsistence of trees has far outlasted amd will always have outlasted whatever the length of the exsistence of mankind ends up being. they even live longer naturally than humans do, and no body's cutting us down, cept other humans sometimes. We're fit, we're not fit for apocolypse. On that note, this songs a little unsettling at times. We are as life forms as insignificant or significant as dinosaurs, and other extinct creatures. Eventually some kind of being i can't even begin to comprehend in my wildest dreams, nightmares, or trips is gonna be digging up the bones of my kind and bein like "what the fuck is that, i needa keep diggin and find some answers." only difference is itll be a little more organized. maybe not in comoparison to what organization would mean to them. we my be entirely inferior. maybe not. maybe we're more significant cause we might actually fuck this up so bad there isn't a planet for anything after us. subconsciously selfish. more pomposity. "blah blah I blah blah I blah ME. MINE. Blah blah. Needa print money, people want to make money, needa build more homes people wanna have more babies than they can physically or economically, or at least properly raise." but the human dream doesn't mean shit to a tree.
oh forgot to mention, if all goes well those uncomprehendable life forms that dig up all the bones we so well posotioned for them will probably still walk through a few forests regardless of whatever became of us.
Haha, it's almost like a psychedelic version of Shelley's Ozymandias. Though, naturally, Shelley could never sing like Grace...