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.
Do you remember when you walked with me
Down the street into the square
How the women selling rosemary
Pressed the branches to your chest
Promised luck and all the rest
Ran their fingers through your hair
I had met you just the day before
Like an accident of fate
In the window there behind your door
How I wanted to break in
To that room beneath your skin
But all that would have to wait
In the Carmen of the Martyrs
With the statues in the courtyard
Whose heads and hands were taken in the burden of the sun
I had come to meet you with a question in my footsteps
I was going up the hillside and the journey just begun
My sister says she never dreams at night
There are days when I know why
Those possibilities within her sight
With no way of coming true
Cause some things just don't get through
Into this world although they try
In the Carmen of the Martyrs
With the statues in the courtyard
Whose heads and hands were taken in the burden of the sun
I had come to meet you with a question in my footsteps
I was coming up the hillside and the journey just begun
And all I know of you is in my memory
And all I ask is you remember me
Down the street into the square
How the women selling rosemary
Pressed the branches to your chest
Promised luck and all the rest
Ran their fingers through your hair
I had met you just the day before
Like an accident of fate
In the window there behind your door
How I wanted to break in
To that room beneath your skin
But all that would have to wait
In the Carmen of the Martyrs
With the statues in the courtyard
Whose heads and hands were taken in the burden of the sun
I had come to meet you with a question in my footsteps
I was going up the hillside and the journey just begun
My sister says she never dreams at night
There are days when I know why
Those possibilities within her sight
With no way of coming true
Cause some things just don't get through
Into this world although they try
In the Carmen of the Martyrs
With the statues in the courtyard
Whose heads and hands were taken in the burden of the sun
I had come to meet you with a question in my footsteps
I was coming up the hillside and the journey just begun
And all I know of you is in my memory
And all I ask is you remember me
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I´ve never really heard Suzanne talking about this song, but I´ve always known it is set in Granada, a city in the south of Spain. There, by the entrance to the cathedral and the royal chapel (burial place of the catholic monarchs), groups of gypsy women gather, trying to push rosemary branches to the tourists. It´s supposed to be good luck if you take the branch and then let them read your fortune. There´s also a beautiful building with a courtyard, close to the Alhambra palace, called "el carmen de los mártires " (the carmen of the martyrs). I can imagine Suzanne as a young woman, visiting all those places (probably because of the New york artists' -cohen, reed, etc,- fascination with Lorca, who was born and killed in Granada).