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.
We had our passports out
And the kits to fix 'em up with.
And the hurricane lamp
threw our shadows on the ceiling.
I watched 'em box with one another up there
Punch and Judy.
It was lovely, it was awful,
It was that kind of feeling,
when you said it was real sure,
and there was nothing standing in our way.
And the lie ran off and hid itself
in the alleys all across Bombay.
I saw you knock the lamp over
while reaching for the scissors
and I wondered how we'd ever
get by without it.
And you fell into my arms then,
sweet and gentle.
Poison in the water
little doubt about it.
And you said that one of us
would be all alone someday.
And the truth of it echoed
inexhaustibly up and down the thoroughfares
all across Bombay.
And the kits to fix 'em up with.
And the hurricane lamp
threw our shadows on the ceiling.
I watched 'em box with one another up there
Punch and Judy.
It was lovely, it was awful,
It was that kind of feeling,
when you said it was real sure,
and there was nothing standing in our way.
And the lie ran off and hid itself
in the alleys all across Bombay.
I saw you knock the lamp over
while reaching for the scissors
and I wondered how we'd ever
get by without it.
And you fell into my arms then,
sweet and gentle.
Poison in the water
little doubt about it.
And you said that one of us
would be all alone someday.
And the truth of it echoed
inexhaustibly up and down the thoroughfares
all across Bombay.
Lyrics submitted by darnee
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There are two westerners in Bombay, lovers. They're in a lot of trouble and they know it. They're altering their passports in an attempt to escape from Bombay. Their enemies catch up with them (they were always going to--the end of verse one tells us that they kind of knew their desperate attempt was gonna fail) and poison the water, killing his girl/partner in crime. The end leaves open the possibility that he didn't drink the water or that he might still be able to escape without her. Or maybe he only has to be alone until he, too, is caught.
The fact that they were altering their passports with scissors and do-it-yourself kits highlights the desperation of their situation, as does the fact that their plan, whatever it is, depends on a kerosene lamp which they aren't going to be able to replace. The lamp tells us that this is a night-time escape, and that the song probably (I think?) has a pre-modern setting.
*And the truth of it echoed inexhaustibly up and down the thoroughfares all across Bombay.
They're doing something illegal. Fixing up passports? Are the smuggling something? Fugitives? Why conceal their identities? The whole "Box with one another like Punch and Judy" seems so important to me in that it suggests something about the alpha couple. The mention of the British puppets in what was the epicenter of the British eastern empire...
ideas anyone?
It's about a trip that gets ruined by this one thought that "one of us would be all alone someday."