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.
I remember a girl so very well
The carnival drums all mad in the air
Grim reapers and skeletons and a missionary bell
Oh where do we go now but nowhere
In a colonial hotel we fucked up the sun
And then we fucked it down again
Well the sun comes up and the sun goes down
Going round and round to nowhere
The kitten that padded and purred on my lap
Now swipes at my face with the paw of a bear
I turn the other cheek and you lay into that
Oh where do we go now but nowhere
Oh wake up, my love, my lover wake up
Oh wake up, my love, my lover wake up
Across clinical benches with nothing to talk
Breathing tea and biscuits and the Serenity Prayer
While the bones of our child crumble like chalk
O where do we go now but nowhere
I remember a girl so bold and so bright
Loose-limbed and laughing and brazen and bare
Sits gnawing her knuckles in the chemical light
Oh where do we go now but nowhere
You come for me now with a cake that you've made
Ravaged avenger with a clip in your hair
Full of glass and bleach and my old razorblades
Oh where do we go now but nowhere
Oh wake up, my love, my lover wake up
Oh wake up, my love, my lover make up
If they'd give me my clothes back then I could go home
From this fresh, this clean, antiseptic air
Behind the locked gates an old donkey moans
Where do we go now but nowhere
Around the duck pond we grimly mope
Gloomily and mournfully we go round again
And one more doomed time and without much hope
Going round and around to nowhere
From the balcony we watched the carnival band
The crack of the drum, a little child did scare
I can still feel his fingers pressed in my hand
Oh where do we go now but nowhere
If I could relive one day of my life
If I could relive just a single one
You on the balcony, my future wife
Oh who could have known, but no one
Oh wake up, my love, my lover wake up
Wake up, my love, my lover wake up
Oh wake up, my love, my lover wake up
Oh wake up, my love, my lover wake up
The carnival drums all mad in the air
Grim reapers and skeletons and a missionary bell
Oh where do we go now but nowhere
In a colonial hotel we fucked up the sun
And then we fucked it down again
Well the sun comes up and the sun goes down
Going round and round to nowhere
The kitten that padded and purred on my lap
Now swipes at my face with the paw of a bear
I turn the other cheek and you lay into that
Oh where do we go now but nowhere
Oh wake up, my love, my lover wake up
Oh wake up, my love, my lover wake up
Across clinical benches with nothing to talk
Breathing tea and biscuits and the Serenity Prayer
While the bones of our child crumble like chalk
O where do we go now but nowhere
I remember a girl so bold and so bright
Loose-limbed and laughing and brazen and bare
Sits gnawing her knuckles in the chemical light
Oh where do we go now but nowhere
You come for me now with a cake that you've made
Ravaged avenger with a clip in your hair
Full of glass and bleach and my old razorblades
Oh where do we go now but nowhere
Oh wake up, my love, my lover wake up
Oh wake up, my love, my lover make up
If they'd give me my clothes back then I could go home
From this fresh, this clean, antiseptic air
Behind the locked gates an old donkey moans
Where do we go now but nowhere
Around the duck pond we grimly mope
Gloomily and mournfully we go round again
And one more doomed time and without much hope
Going round and around to nowhere
From the balcony we watched the carnival band
The crack of the drum, a little child did scare
I can still feel his fingers pressed in my hand
Oh where do we go now but nowhere
If I could relive one day of my life
If I could relive just a single one
You on the balcony, my future wife
Oh who could have known, but no one
Oh wake up, my love, my lover wake up
Wake up, my love, my lover wake up
Oh wake up, my love, my lover wake up
Oh wake up, my love, my lover wake up
Lyrics submitted by stanlavisbad2, edited by Mellow_Harsher
Where Do We Go Now But Nowhere? Lyrics as written by Nicholas Cave
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
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Great version of a great song,
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i think mixing your views so that the child did die of a disease and the wife tried (maybe only metaforacly) kill the husband, would give the best explanation. But this isn
t from caves life, is it? Or did he have a child that died?