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.
The big man arrives
Disco dancers greet him
Plain clothes cops greet him
Small town, big man, fresh lipstick glistening
Sophomore jive
From victims of typewriters
The band sounds like typewriters
The big man, he's not listening
His eyes hold Edith
His left hand holds his right
What does that hand desire
That he grips it so tight
Edith in the ring
The passed-over girls are conferring
The man with the diamond ring is purring
All claws for now withdrawn
One by one they bring
His renegade stories to her
His crimes and his glories to her
In challenge they look on
Women he has taken grow old too soon
He tilts their tired faces
Gently to the spoon
Edith in his bed
A plane in the rain is humming
The wires in the walls are humming
Some song, some mysterious song
Bars in her head
Beating frantic and snow blind
Romantic and snow blind
She says, his crime belongs
Edith and the kingpin
Each with charm to sway
Are staring eye to eye
They dare not look away
You know they dare not look away
Disco dancers greet him
Plain clothes cops greet him
Small town, big man, fresh lipstick glistening
Sophomore jive
From victims of typewriters
The band sounds like typewriters
The big man, he's not listening
His eyes hold Edith
His left hand holds his right
What does that hand desire
That he grips it so tight
Edith in the ring
The passed-over girls are conferring
The man with the diamond ring is purring
All claws for now withdrawn
One by one they bring
His renegade stories to her
His crimes and his glories to her
In challenge they look on
Women he has taken grow old too soon
He tilts their tired faces
Gently to the spoon
Edith in his bed
A plane in the rain is humming
The wires in the walls are humming
Some song, some mysterious song
Bars in her head
Beating frantic and snow blind
Romantic and snow blind
She says, his crime belongs
Edith and the kingpin
Each with charm to sway
Are staring eye to eye
They dare not look away
You know they dare not look away
Lyrics submitted by pumkinhed, edited by princejoni
Edith and the Kingpin Lyrics as written by Joni Mitchell
Lyrics © TuneCore Inc., Kanjian Music, Reservoir Media Management, Inc.
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In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
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I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
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Hissing intially did well but chilled out because of un-astute reviews. The only Joni album I listened to more than this was For the Roses... (BarandGrill and Electricity motivated me to learn open D tunings (not dropped-D but full blown Open D so that every fingering changes!) on guitar...).
The song ends with them staring eye to eye and daring not look away, which is almost as pregnant a phrase as Dylan's "Two riders were approaching and the wind began to howl..." They are at the threshold of a relationship that is already fraught with danger... they are "Romantic and snowblind"... good luck guys! The song is a still life of how the promise of intimacy is challenged by the very social scenes necessary for people to meet. What makes a man desirable in that milieu? Well, he's a Big Man, an alpha male, on the hunt, and he's back in the same woods where partners from previous trysts (that did not grow into long-term or he would not be back on the hunt) make up a kind of public foreplay for being chosen, which involves the passed-over girls giving Edith the heads-up and his gangster moves... and the toxic risk of getting involved with a coke-king and his "aging-powder"... every line in the song shades the subtext of what this scene is... I love the reference to her song "Electricity" (which is basically a schematic of a real good erotic circuit board) with the line "the wires in the walls are huh-hu-huh-hummmming"... and the closing line leaves us with a tableaux of the two of them and a future both anxious and hopeful...