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.
Along indian summer stretches
Of orange highways west
The sunbeams dancing to slient songs
Of memory and disappointment
Kiss the ground, all the stories it owns
In tangled, rusted arms.
Desperation is something different.
Our dignified dreams of dying young.
Lonelyness is a Sunday afternoon
with no sun and less to do.
A dream of you I can't get back into
Lost to air and split in two.
Against indian summer stretches
I'll fall into cynical sleep.
Hope slips away through the same-old days
And lonelyness is this town's name
A thousand tired offramps
Across the richest country in the world
Where gonowhere jobs and threedeckers
Seep into us like cheap alchoal.
Wait for escape in 4/4 time,
In the town where you were born
Where everyone is sad and proud
By the time they're twenty-four.
Clutching a beer and a few hopes
With dirty fingernails.
Of orange highways west
The sunbeams dancing to slient songs
Of memory and disappointment
Kiss the ground, all the stories it owns
In tangled, rusted arms.
Desperation is something different.
Our dignified dreams of dying young.
Lonelyness is a Sunday afternoon
with no sun and less to do.
A dream of you I can't get back into
Lost to air and split in two.
Against indian summer stretches
I'll fall into cynical sleep.
Hope slips away through the same-old days
And lonelyness is this town's name
A thousand tired offramps
Across the richest country in the world
Where gonowhere jobs and threedeckers
Seep into us like cheap alchoal.
Wait for escape in 4/4 time,
In the town where you were born
Where everyone is sad and proud
By the time they're twenty-four.
Clutching a beer and a few hopes
With dirty fingernails.
Lyrics submitted by MooWasHere
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