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.
When I arrived on planet health
In the state of being well
So I altered my self conscious messes
And body images
I visited the food pyramid
In the desert of vitamins
I found a desired heart rate
And a mouth to resuscitate
I am feeling great tonight
I am feeling great tonight
I am feeling great tonight
I am feeling great tonight
I was trained in diversity
In the garden of puberty
Where they Heimlich maneuvered me
And they showed me how to make a baby
I found my friends in the forest of loves
Where we just said no to drugs
Our intercourse was well protected
We made love with each others' eyes
We're feeling great tonight
We're feeling great tonight
We're feeling great tonight
We're feeling great tonight
Then I found out where you're sent
When you're sick and sad and old
They kick you off of planet health
Into a universe of cold
Stop drop and roll
Just stop drop and roll
Stop drop and roll
Gotta stop and put out the fire
Stop drop and roll
Just stop drop and roll
Stop drop and roll
Gotta stop and put out the fire
Feeling great tonight
I am feeling great tonight
I am feeling great tonight
I am feeling great tonight
In the state of being well
So I altered my self conscious messes
And body images
I visited the food pyramid
In the desert of vitamins
I found a desired heart rate
And a mouth to resuscitate
I am feeling great tonight
I am feeling great tonight
I am feeling great tonight
I am feeling great tonight
I was trained in diversity
In the garden of puberty
Where they Heimlich maneuvered me
And they showed me how to make a baby
I found my friends in the forest of loves
Where we just said no to drugs
Our intercourse was well protected
We made love with each others' eyes
We're feeling great tonight
We're feeling great tonight
We're feeling great tonight
We're feeling great tonight
Then I found out where you're sent
When you're sick and sad and old
They kick you off of planet health
Into a universe of cold
Stop drop and roll
Just stop drop and roll
Stop drop and roll
Gotta stop and put out the fire
Stop drop and roll
Just stop drop and roll
Stop drop and roll
Gotta stop and put out the fire
Feeling great tonight
I am feeling great tonight
I am feeling great tonight
I am feeling great tonight
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Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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I love this song so much. It's like someone took what was so bad about the eighties, and made it good, musically.
And as to the meaning, that quote is exactly what I thought, but not so straight forward or literal. I was thinking it was just a reflection on the modern view of body image and health. It's a testament that the perfect, healthy lifestyle just isn't healthy for the mind. This is an idea I have always been adamant about. I love the lilting, dreamy tone of this song, as if everyone singing it is in a trance. Then the chanting of "Stop Drop and Roll." It's as if everyone is repeating it as a prayer to safety, and that the cry of "Stop!" is either a break from the mold of perfection, or a frenzied zealot of this "Planet Health" cult.
I think the song is trying to make kind of a stabbing and sardonic representation of societal expectations. A lot of people would assume that being healthy and making healthy children and leading a "healthy life" is something to really try to strive for right? As a means of preservation of life. The problem with this methodology of existence though is that it outcasts all people who do not fit into the criteria of being entirely fit to live on "Planet Health", or by society's expectations of a person living their life the "right way". Thus, they are sent into the cold abyss of nothingness so as to preserve the "perfect" utopia, Planet Health.
very dreamy song, definite 80's feel
love this song, helps me get straight :)
the meaning of this song? rehab?
btw, great song!
Maybe a near-death experience? Or drugs? Or both?
I just read somewhere that this song is about health classes in school. Makes perfect sense.
"Like the plot to a lost dystopian sci-fi, the song outlines life on "Planet Health" -- a place where body-image has become a tyrannical philosophy. Here, advice on healthy diet and sexuality has become law and the food pyramid has become a church. Of course non-attendance means eviction from Planet Health.
Planet Health is Mount Olympus sans the fun; a place where David Cameron and Gillian McKeith make out into eternity, never aging, never putting on weight. It's the other side of Radiohead's 'Fitter Happier', where the new caring conservatives have slapped lippy on the pig on antibiotics and called it 'sexy'. " NME 8/5/08
Amazing song. The lyrics here are a bit wrong though.
It's "surrounded by self-consciousnesses", not "so I altered my self-conscious messes". It's "garden of puberty", not "garden of purity". It's "forest of lungs", not "forest of loves".