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.
I wouldn't dream of ever following this trail
If I was seen it was a hollow self and frail
Under that sheening of her hair about the wind
And I am clean feeling the air upon my skin
Follow that gleaming to the hallow of this field
Cathedrals greening in the hallow of these trees
Offering me on the all hallow of my knees
And I am free on this the hallowest of eves
chorus:
This whistled lore
Is now a hum
This thistled floor
Now smooth and spun
This listening shore
Is now undone
This glistening chorus
Is now a drum
To feel the cold dirt in the clawing of my toes
Tear off my old shirt or the shawl that is my clothes
My step's most surely in the footfall of the host
In glowing turf there is a healing in the smoke
Perhaps you've seen them only then you've just believed
And when they're fleeing then you feel you've been deceived
But in that feeling something ancient's been retrieved
And in the meantime something new's being conceived
And now the glowing in the halo of the moon
Rising so slowly in the palest of the gloom
The heel and toe now moving closer through the foam
Pulling the flow of all the waves of ocean home
The oak the ash the thorny apple in the breeze
Pale glow of lichen phosphorescent silver green
No thorny crown no iron nails hung in the trees
Only these sounds sung on this hallowest of eves
If I was seen it was a hollow self and frail
Under that sheening of her hair about the wind
And I am clean feeling the air upon my skin
Follow that gleaming to the hallow of this field
Cathedrals greening in the hallow of these trees
Offering me on the all hallow of my knees
And I am free on this the hallowest of eves
chorus:
This whistled lore
Is now a hum
This thistled floor
Now smooth and spun
This listening shore
Is now undone
This glistening chorus
Is now a drum
To feel the cold dirt in the clawing of my toes
Tear off my old shirt or the shawl that is my clothes
My step's most surely in the footfall of the host
In glowing turf there is a healing in the smoke
Perhaps you've seen them only then you've just believed
And when they're fleeing then you feel you've been deceived
But in that feeling something ancient's been retrieved
And in the meantime something new's being conceived
And now the glowing in the halo of the moon
Rising so slowly in the palest of the gloom
The heel and toe now moving closer through the foam
Pulling the flow of all the waves of ocean home
The oak the ash the thorny apple in the breeze
Pale glow of lichen phosphorescent silver green
No thorny crown no iron nails hung in the trees
Only these sounds sung on this hallowest of eves
Lyrics submitted by ruben
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This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
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So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
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This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
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This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
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I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
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This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,