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.
Sometimes I don't know what to think about the world
When this guy is burnin' up in the street with gasoline
And the flames show no mercy
So when you really need someone to talk to you
It doesn't always work like it's supposed to
You can love yer brain
Even if it slips down the drain
Man, I'm not no drug addict
But a person's gotta have something
To keep him from going insane
Well, this man kills this other man
Who's killed this other man, so it's okay
And this fourteen year old's sittin' in the electric chair
Smilin' and smokin' a cigarette
So I guess I was right all along readin' Mad magazine
When this guy is burnin' up in the street with gasoline
And the flames show no mercy
So when you really need someone to talk to you
It doesn't always work like it's supposed to
You can love yer brain
Even if it slips down the drain
Man, I'm not no drug addict
But a person's gotta have something
To keep him from going insane
Well, this man kills this other man
Who's killed this other man, so it's okay
And this fourteen year old's sittin' in the electric chair
Smilin' and smokin' a cigarette
So I guess I was right all along readin' Mad magazine
Lyrics submitted by Mellow_Harsher
Love Yer Brain Lyrics as written by Richard English Michael Ivins
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
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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:
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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
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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.
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The first line is delivered with such heartbreaking fragility, and really makes me think about another one of my favorite opening lyrics from the velvet underground's 'heroin': "I don't know just where I'm going But I'm gonna try for the kingdom, if I can 'Cause it makes me feel like I'm a man When I put a spike into my vein And I'll tell ya, things aren't quite the same When I'm rushing on my run And I feel just like Jesus' son And I guess that I just don't know" These both make me feel about being at the brink of adulthood, there are so many possibilities of what to do with your life that it makes you freeze up. You don't know what path to take. Not surprisingly, both these are off of the first albums from these bands, when both wayne coyne and lou reed were at that very age. And both songs seem to suggest drugs as a way to deal with this terrifying indecision. "man, i'm not no drug addict, but a person's gotta have something to keep him from going insane."
"love yer brain" seems to be more philosophical, dealing with an inability to make sense of the world. Wayne talks about violent images of the street on fire and alienation, not knowing who to turn to in order to recieve direction at this juncture. "when you really need someone to talk to you, it doesn't always work like it's supposed to" saying that maybe the system is breaking down, maybe he's not meant to be a college boy and take the path through the system that most people choose. he's still philosophically undecided, unable to reconcile the notions of good and evil that have been taught to him with what he sees going on in the world, which is what i think he's saying in the line "Well, this man kills this other man, Who's killed this other man, so it's okay."
In the end, he decides that the world is a crazy place and it's going to drive him crazy as well, so he may as well come to terms with it. "so i guess i was right all along reading Mad magazine" Kickass song, love yer brain.