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.
So you no longer care if there's another day
I guess I have been there, I guess I am there now
You knew what you wanted and you fought so hard
Just to find yourself sitting in a golden cage
In a golden cage
So of course I miss you and miss you bad
But I also felt this way when I was still with you
Yes of course I miss you and miss you bad
But I also felt this way when I was still with you
This city's no longer mine
There's sadness written on every corner
Each lover was made to sign
Now I hear them calling me over and over
I guess I have been there, I guess I am there now
You knew what you wanted and you fought so hard
Just to find yourself sitting in a golden cage
In a golden cage
So of course I miss you and miss you bad
But I also felt this way when I was still with you
Yes of course I miss you and miss you bad
But I also felt this way when I was still with you
This city's no longer mine
There's sadness written on every corner
Each lover was made to sign
Now I hear them calling me over and over
Lyrics submitted by laurentertaining
Golden Cage Lyrics as written by Marcin Tadeusz Oez Erlend Otre Oeye
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
No Surprises
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Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Magical
Ed Sheeran
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How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
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Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
The Whitest Boy Alive - Golden Cage
Judging by the lyrics and the mood of the song, the singer lost his significant other.
[So you no longer care if there's another day I guess I have been there, I guess I am there now You knew what you wanted and you fought so hard Just to find yourself sitting in a golden cage In a golden cage]
Apparently both the singer and his ex are feeling down; every passing day just seems mundane. They fought hard for their relationship, but in the end it didn't work out. The golden cage might represent the fact that they can never be together.
[So of course I miss you and miss you bad But I also felt this way when I was still with you Yes of course I miss you and miss you bad But I also felt this way when I was still with you]
He's saying he misses his ex, but even when they were together, he still felt like he was missing her. This could mean that she grew distant during their relationship. It could also mean that their relationship was growing into an obsesssion; he missed her even when she was there right next to him and never felt like he spent enough time with her.
[This city's no longer mine There's sadness written on every corner Each lover was made to sign Now I hear them calling me over and over]
The city seems like a sad place to him now because it is a lonely place without his significant other. He made a nice metaphor, saying sadness was written on every corner. Other people were going through heartache just like him, and it was time for him to finally give in and join them in their loneliness.
w0rd.
This song to me is about a shitty relationship. The one where you fall for so hard for that one person, then next thing you know everything is shitty..person treats you like shit..no matter how hard you try to make things work they just don't work. you want to leave but you're stuck because you love that person so much you don't want to give up (golden cage).
"Yes of course I miss you and miss you bad But I also felt this way when I was still with you" You miss that person when you try to leave but when you were with them you miss what things use to be like.
"This city's no longer mine There's sadness written on every corner" the way you felt on top of the world when you were in love..
this song is about a man who worked very hard all his life and got everything he wanted. someday he realizes that he missed his life somewhere... and he thinks that now he is in a golden cage...
That's why he started not to care about anything... He noticed that the meaning of his life was his girl friend that he left behind to follow his dreams. He missed her so much.
The city only reminded him the sadness... He thought about returning back to old city... city of love... let's call it Istanbul...
love this song so much. i'm guessing that he's singing about a girl who thought she knew what she wanted, but found herself to be trapped by the results
or what she ended up getting, to clarify, not the results. sortof a "be careful what you wish for", kindof thing. either way, the singer is left alone.
The Whitest Boy Alive - Golden Cage
Judging by the lyrics and the mood of the song, the singer lost his significant other.
[So you no longer care if there's another day I guess I have been there, I guess I am there now You knew what you wanted and you fought so hard Just to find yourself sitting in a golden cage In a golden cage]
Apparently both the singer and his ex are feeling down; every passing day just seems mundane. They fought hard for their relationship, but in the end it didn't work out. The golden cage might represent the fact that they can never be together.
[So of course I miss you and miss you bad But I also felt this way when I was still with you Yes of course I miss you and miss you bad But I also felt this way when I was still with you]
He's saying he misses his ex, but even when they were together, he still felt like he was missing her. This could mean that she grew distant during their relationship. It could also mean that their relationship was growing into an obsesssion; he missed her even when she was there right next to him and never felt like he spent enough time with her.
[This city's no longer mine There's sadness written on every corner Each lover was made to sign Now I hear them calling me over and over]
The city seems like a sad place to him now because it is a lonely place without his significant other. He made a nice metaphor, saying sadness was written on every corner. Other people were going through heartache just like him, and it was time for him to finally give in and join them in their loneliness.
I think it has something do to with succes in life/work. The person in this song worked so hard, and got everything he wants, except the girl that he has falling in love with. I think the golden cage reffers to the person and the outside world. The gold looks nice but he doens't have contact with the outside world, the price that he had the pay to reach his succes in work.
I think it's about to lose a person you really cared about, in this case a lover, because the other person is just moving forward to other things so he or she is leaving his/her significant other behind, so now their relationship is lost, there's no reason for them to stay together, because they've changed, they are not the same so the things that used to keep them together not longer exist, and about the golden cage, I think like it's golden because it is everything she or he ever wanted but it's a cage because the consequence of getting it was to lose a significant other.
yes i agree that this is more about success in life/work than suicide or anything else mentioned before. the lines "of course i miss you and i miss you bad/but i also felt this way when i was with you" maybe points to the fact that the person who the song about was never around during the relationship that much because of work commitments, and maybe that was one of the big factors that caused the relationship to fail...they picked their work/success over the one who loved them.
erlend oye !
wooohoo great song :)