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.
Let me share the reason of your lecture for a change
Let me tell you how you'll feel
Let me strap you down and put morphine in your veins
Let me share this bed of steel
Cause here come the state inspector
So doctor all the resident records
Truth is he really don't care less
It's just a function of the politics and business
Oh the squalor, Oh the squalor
Let it empty me
Welcome to whatever God may do
It's no secret that you'll never leave
woah. woah...woahh
Cause here comes the state inspector
So doctor all the resident records
Truth is he really don't care less
It's just a function of the politics and business
Deinstitutionalization
Had a wife but left her at the station
And there's women in the stair wells
When their love lives don't fare well
Whoring themselves away in the kitchen
But look see that woman gettin all dressed up
Putting on her earrings and her makeup
And in another world there's a lonely girl
Who's wishing she'd never been a grown up
Oh the squalor...Oh the squalor
Let it empty me
Welcome to whatever God may do
It's no secret that you'll never leave
Maybe today I won't get the wrong meds,
And maybe today I'll get my fourty six cents
And maybe today I'll jump that barbed wired fence
And leave this place altogether
Cause we're calling all the President's men
And we'll shove him in his room, locked in
Won't you do me a favor and give me ten
So I can peek into the hallway again.
Oh the squalor...Oh the squalor
Let it empty me
Welcome to whatever god may do
It's no secret you'll never leave
Let me tell you how you'll feel
Let me strap you down and put morphine in your veins
Let me share this bed of steel
Cause here come the state inspector
So doctor all the resident records
Truth is he really don't care less
It's just a function of the politics and business
Oh the squalor, Oh the squalor
Let it empty me
Welcome to whatever God may do
It's no secret that you'll never leave
woah. woah...woahh
Cause here comes the state inspector
So doctor all the resident records
Truth is he really don't care less
It's just a function of the politics and business
Deinstitutionalization
Had a wife but left her at the station
And there's women in the stair wells
When their love lives don't fare well
Whoring themselves away in the kitchen
But look see that woman gettin all dressed up
Putting on her earrings and her makeup
And in another world there's a lonely girl
Who's wishing she'd never been a grown up
Oh the squalor...Oh the squalor
Let it empty me
Welcome to whatever God may do
It's no secret that you'll never leave
Maybe today I won't get the wrong meds,
And maybe today I'll get my fourty six cents
And maybe today I'll jump that barbed wired fence
And leave this place altogether
Cause we're calling all the President's men
And we'll shove him in his room, locked in
Won't you do me a favor and give me ten
So I can peek into the hallway again.
Oh the squalor...Oh the squalor
Let it empty me
Welcome to whatever god may do
It's no secret you'll never leave
Lyrics submitted by _Snowman
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Light Up The Sky
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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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,
No Surprises
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Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
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Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
I took this as a ong about the paradigm shift in the mental health profession called "Deinstitutionalization." Basically, before this transitions people diagnosed with mental illness were locked up in institutions without the hope of treatment. These were sometimes called Aslyums or State Hospitals. This practice was wrong. Now we have Mental Health Facitlities were care and treatment are priorities. However, the actual process of Deinstitutionalization was a rocky one and to say the institutions were simply emptied of anyone who wasn't a threat to others is not far from the truth. There were a lot of politics involved which of course never help things. While the mental health field is in a better place, the means at which it got there was by no means pleasent or humane.