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.
Dreamin' again of a train track ending at the edge of the sea
Big black cloud was low and rolling our way
Dog at the barbed wire barkin' at my buzz-cut friends
Friend with a switch blade shinin' in the summer rain
No one on the corner had a quarter for the telephone
Everybody bitchin' there's nothing on the radio
Dreamin' again of a city full of fathers and their white clothes
Chatterin' boys and a chicken at the choppin' block
All of us lost at the crosswalk waitin' for the other to go
Didn't find the field but boy you're really waterlogged
Someone bet a dollar that their daddy wasn't comin' home
Everybody bitchin' there's nothing on the radio
Dreamin' again that it's freezin' and my mother's in a flower bed
Long dead rows of daffodils and marigolds
Changin' her face like a shadow on the ground
No one lives forever and the devil never sleeps alone
Everybody bitchin' there's nothing on the radio
Big black cloud was low and rolling our way
Dog at the barbed wire barkin' at my buzz-cut friends
Friend with a switch blade shinin' in the summer rain
No one on the corner had a quarter for the telephone
Everybody bitchin' there's nothing on the radio
Dreamin' again of a city full of fathers and their white clothes
Chatterin' boys and a chicken at the choppin' block
All of us lost at the crosswalk waitin' for the other to go
Didn't find the field but boy you're really waterlogged
Someone bet a dollar that their daddy wasn't comin' home
Everybody bitchin' there's nothing on the radio
Dreamin' again that it's freezin' and my mother's in a flower bed
Long dead rows of daffodils and marigolds
Changin' her face like a shadow on the ground
No one lives forever and the devil never sleeps alone
Everybody bitchin' there's nothing on the radio
Lyrics submitted by Mellow_Harsher
The Devil Never Sleeps Lyrics as written by Samuel Ervin Beam
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Great version of a great song,
Wow all the iron and wine lyrics are amazing.
I interpreted this song to be about how there is so much going on in our world, but "everyone bitching theres nothing on the radio" Like we are all focusing on the wrong things. There is a war, and kids saying things like "you're dad's not coming home" the mom in the flowerbed, and she seems very upset and distracted and I didn't think she was dead, i think it was more about how she is in her flowerbed while the kids are out and possibly getting into trouble because she has kind of lost all hope.
I think the "No one on the corner had a quarter for the telephone" thing is about how no one helps each other out anymore, and then it kind of continues to paint a picture of a family that is falling apart with the father away, the mother distracted in the flowerbed and the kid out getting into trouble and no one doing anything just giving up with because “No one lives forever and the devil never sleeps alone”