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.
I've seen this one before, the girl she gets away
Everybody knows it but no one tries to stop it
Cause she barely even knows him but if she could see inside
Everything is quiet as she waits to tell him who she is
Is this all we get to be absolute
Quiet but I'm sure there is something here
Tell me everything 'cause I want to hear
It's a kiss that sits upon on her lips, that waits for planes and battle ships
She wants to be a dancer and he has got a picture
On his wall and it's a sailor in a new port every night
Yet man was born to trouble like sparks fly upwards innocent
Is this all we get to be absolute
Quiet but I'm sure there is something here
Tell me everything 'cause I want to hear
Quiet but I'm sure there is something here
Tell me everything 'cause I want to hear
All we are and all we want
Forty years come and gone
All we are in photographs
Will never be taken
Quiet but I'm sure there is something here
Tell me everything cause I want you here
Quiet but I'm sure there is something here
Tell me everything cause I want to hear
Everybody knows it but no one tries to stop it
Cause she barely even knows him but if she could see inside
Everything is quiet as she waits to tell him who she is
Is this all we get to be absolute
Quiet but I'm sure there is something here
Tell me everything 'cause I want to hear
It's a kiss that sits upon on her lips, that waits for planes and battle ships
She wants to be a dancer and he has got a picture
On his wall and it's a sailor in a new port every night
Yet man was born to trouble like sparks fly upwards innocent
Is this all we get to be absolute
Quiet but I'm sure there is something here
Tell me everything 'cause I want to hear
Quiet but I'm sure there is something here
Tell me everything 'cause I want to hear
All we are and all we want
Forty years come and gone
All we are in photographs
Will never be taken
Quiet but I'm sure there is something here
Tell me everything cause I want you here
Quiet but I'm sure there is something here
Tell me everything cause I want to hear
Lyrics submitted by tulipsareblue
Absolute Lyrics as written by Isaac Slade David Welsh
Lyrics © Wixen Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
Light Up The Sky
Van Halen
Van Halen
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Little Feat
Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
I Can't Go To Sleep
Wu-Tang Clan
Wu-Tang Clan
This song is written as the perspective of the boys in the street, as a whole, and what path they are going to choose as they get older and grow into men. (This is why the music video takes place in an orphanage.) The seen, and unseen collective suffering is imbedded in the boys’ mind, consciously or subconsciously, and is haunting them. Which path will the boys choose? Issac Hayes is the voice of reason, maybe God, the angel on his shoulder, or the voice of his forefathers from beyond the grave who can see the big picture and are pleading with the boys not to continue the violence and pattern of killing their brothers, but to rise above. The most beautiful song and has so many levels. Racism towards African Americans in America would not exist if everyone sat down and listened to this song and understood the history behind the words. The power, fear, pleading in RZA and Ghostface voices are genuine and powerful. Issac Hayes’ strong voice makes the perfect strong father figure, who is possibly from beyond the grave.
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
I'm almost tempted to put this in a Christian perspective, though it can be interpreted a bunch of ways. I would only do so on the basis that Isaac Slade grew up as a minister's son and he and Joe King both went to Faith Christian Academy, as well as on the basis of the Biblical quote: "Man was born to trouble like sparks fly upward." (Job 5:7)
Anyway, if you do take this from a Christian/religious perspective, it could be about the futility of a Godless life, the emptiness ("Is this all we get to be") and searching for the "something" that is there even in the "quiet", referring to God, and about the narrator's wish to be closer to God ("Tell me everything cause I want You here.")
Of course, to be fair, this is easily translated otherwise as well. This could be about a guy who is too timid in his relationship, and the girl who just wants to know him better ("Cause she barely even knows him but if she could see inside") and who wants him to know her better ("Everything is quiet as she waits to tell him who she is") but who is put off by his introverted lifestyle ("The girl, she gets away"). The "photographs [that] will never be taken" could be those from the dates they never had, the memories they never made, etc.
Another possible translation: Perhaps he is in the military, and she waits for him to come home ("It's a kiss sits upon on her lips that waits for planes and battleships"). Maybe he never came home, and this is what Slade is referring to with the Job reference. Maybe the photographs never taken were of their lives had he come home.
There's a few ideas. I'm not really sure which I like best.