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.
Credit cards, sealed lifts and covert sanitation, processed meat and a national waste disposal system:
The scale of deception begs the question what it is we're burying.
Cosmetics, contact lenses and plastic surgery:
Bulk orders for yet more imperial finery.
Double-glazing for phasing out suspicions that this is really happening.
It seems this season the cool kids are sporting white canes and braille zines.
And when i close my eyes am I invisible?
An embarrassed smile and you assume that I'm being rhetorical.
But if I don't see it die, this animal is invincible.
I won't catch your eyes tonight,
I will stutter my way through naked poverty until I'm across the street (safe).
I justified giving my eyes to Stevie Wonder with some spiel about a sense of wonder to discover,
But I was hiding under cover of the excuse of helplessness.
I fell in line with the cool kids and spared my eyes instead of change.
I just called to say that someone moved my furniture around,
And so i fell down,
And I hatched a plan here sprawled on the ground.
So hey, what do you say,
We pack our things and call it a day.
Some come round,
Let's lose that frown,
And you and I will leave this town behind.
The scale of deception begs the question what it is we're burying.
Cosmetics, contact lenses and plastic surgery:
Bulk orders for yet more imperial finery.
Double-glazing for phasing out suspicions that this is really happening.
It seems this season the cool kids are sporting white canes and braille zines.
And when i close my eyes am I invisible?
An embarrassed smile and you assume that I'm being rhetorical.
But if I don't see it die, this animal is invincible.
I won't catch your eyes tonight,
I will stutter my way through naked poverty until I'm across the street (safe).
I justified giving my eyes to Stevie Wonder with some spiel about a sense of wonder to discover,
But I was hiding under cover of the excuse of helplessness.
I fell in line with the cool kids and spared my eyes instead of change.
I just called to say that someone moved my furniture around,
And so i fell down,
And I hatched a plan here sprawled on the ground.
So hey, what do you say,
We pack our things and call it a day.
Some come round,
Let's lose that frown,
And you and I will leave this town behind.
Lyrics submitted by Harry_Manback
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"the song is supposed to say something about wilfully not seeing things. all the stuff listed at the beginning are things that seem to me to be deliberate obfuscations. credit cards (yr not really spending money) sealed lifts (yr not really moving up and down) covert sanitation (likewise) processed meat, national waste disposal system... etc. you get the picture. it pisses me off when people don't call a spade a spade, basically. thus also "i will stutter my way through naked poverty until i'm across the street, safe." oh, and there's a bit about my old dog in there too - he used to think that if his eyes were shut, no one could see him, so he'd steal food with his eyes closed."
that's what frank said on the message board.
<font color=#ff66cc>Frank is great :D</font>
I emailed Frank asking him what it was about and here's what he replied:
um, it's a song about how we disguise the truth of things from ourselves, very deliberately, so we don't have to think about the real impact of what we're doing, and how lame that is. example: hamburgers don't look like flesh. if everyone had to kill their own food i thin there'd be a lot more vegetarians. something along those lines. the title is a reference to Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
So there you have it.
the song is more or less about how blind most people are to current trends and social issues. still it rocks pretty hard, especially the Wah-wah solo at the end.
<font color=#ff66ff face=comic sans><b>"And when i close my eyes am I invisible?"
Frank posted the meaning for this song on the Million Dead forum website. I can't really remember it all, but the line above was inspired by his old dog who thought that when we closed his eyes, no one could see him, so he went about stealing food with his eyes closed!</font></b>
Its like The Matrix, we're all smiling uneasily through the bars of our beautiful jail.
He's got an awesome voice. Sucks they don't sell their cds in my town.