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.
Suddenly every machine stopped at once
And the monitors beeped the last time
Hundreds of thousands of hospital beds
And all of them empty but mine
Well, I was lying down with my feet in the air
Completely unable to move
The bed was misshaped, and awkward and tall
And clearly intended for you
You checked yourself out when you put me to bed
And tore that old band off your wrist
But you came back to see me for a minute or less
And left me your ring in my fist
My hair started growing, my face became yours
My femur was breaking in half
The sensation was scissors and too much to scream
So instead, I just started to laugh
Suddenly every machine stopped at once
And the monitors beeped the last time
Hundreds of thousands of hospital beds
And all of them empty but mine
And the monitors beeped the last time
Hundreds of thousands of hospital beds
And all of them empty but mine
Well, I was lying down with my feet in the air
Completely unable to move
The bed was misshaped, and awkward and tall
And clearly intended for you
You checked yourself out when you put me to bed
And tore that old band off your wrist
But you came back to see me for a minute or less
And left me your ring in my fist
My hair started growing, my face became yours
My femur was breaking in half
The sensation was scissors and too much to scream
So instead, I just started to laugh
Suddenly every machine stopped at once
And the monitors beeped the last time
Hundreds of thousands of hospital beds
And all of them empty but mine
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More Featured Meanings
Light Up The Sky
Van Halen
Van Halen
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
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"
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
Holiday
Bee Gees
Bee Gees
@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday".
I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
American Town
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran shares a short story of reconnecting with an old flame on “American Town.” The track is about a holiday Ed Sheeran spends with his countrywoman who resides in America. The two are back together after a long period apart, and get around to enjoying a bunch of fun activities while rekindling the flames of their romance.
i think that “shiva” is the child’s perspective through the painful abortion, and that the tracks that directly precede this one (in order, bear, thirteen, two, shiva) detail the perspectives of the father, the mother and the child as the abortion looms, with this track ending the arc.
i think it makes more sense in chronological order. “bear” is where the baby is first mentioned. written from the father’s perspective:
[there's a bear inside your stomach the cub's been kicking from within]
he’s focusing on how to handle the situation. he doesn’t bear any noticeable hate towards the baby but thinks of the child as something potentially dangerous: a cub, who could become a bear. he sounds like he’s trying to placate the mother:
[we'll make all the right appointments no one ever has to know]
[we'll play charades up in the chelsea drink champagne although you shouldn't be we'll be blind and dumb until we fall asleep]
he also feels that the main problem is not the child or caring for the child or loving the child, but the problem lies within the parents’ complicated relationship:
[well we're not scared of making caves or finding food for him to eat we're terrified of one another and terrified of what that means]
but the father has a clear mindset. he looks at their situation. he tries to fix it. he tries to calm the mother, who is the patient. he doesn’t blame the child, but he knows they’re fucked.
“thirteen” is written from the child. the melody is slow, sad. the lyrics are simple. the baby’s whole world is revolving around the same circle of thought, show through the repetition:
[pull me out pull me out can't you stop this all from happening?]
the child is a child, the child blames the parents. parents are supposed to protect. the child wants to go.
[dig me out oh, dig me out couldn't you have kept all this from happening? dig me out from under our house]
“two” is the mother. her words are more comprehensive, but at the same time, simple. like a young child, she uses basic words to convey the dialogue. this contrasts the perspectives and respective mental stability of the mother and the father because suddenly her world seems to be torn apart:
[he brought me out into the hall (i could have sworn it was haunted) and told me something that i didn't know that i wanted to hear: that there was nothing that i could do to save you the choir's going to sing, and this thing is going to kill you something in my throat made my next words shake and something in the wires made the lightbulbs break]
i think the chorus revolves around the baby:
[you were just a little kid, and they cut your hair then they stuck you in machines, you came so close to dying they should have listened, they thought that you were lying]
very literal in the way it describes their intentions, but it also shows that the mother shares the same childish nuance of blaming the people they deem as their protectors.
[daddy was an asshole, he fucked you up built the gears in your head, now he greases them up]
she blames the father for fucking it all up, and maybe suggests that their plans for what is to happen to the baby differ. another major motif referenced in these lyrics is the rings. im not sure if the rings are placed on the mother and father, or the mother and the child, but the rings act as a sort of chain that binds the two wearers together.
[there's two people living in one small room from your two half-families tearing at you two ways to tell the story (no one worries) two silver rings on our fingers in a hurry]
the two people living inside on small room is her and her baby. the half families are the mother and the father of the child and the war that rages between them about their child. but it seems like the mother continuously closely references the father and the child, the lack of a distinction highlighting her mental vulnerability and her confusion.
in track “shiva”, it returns to the child’s perspective, post-abortion.
[suddenly every machine stopped at once and the monitors beeped the last time]
the beep signifies the death of the child.
[well, i was lying down with my feet in the air completely unable to move the bed was misshaped, and awkward and tall and clearly intended for you]
the position referred to could be the fetal position. the baby has no motor skill and is lying alone in a hospital bed that he knows was for the mother, who is not there.
[you checked yourself out when you put me to bed and tore that old band off your wrist but you came back to see me for a minute or less and left me your ring in my fist]
im not sure if it truly was an abortion. i don’t think the mothers give birth to the child if it is killed during the first trimester. it could have been an induced miscarriage, but i believe that the baby was physically born. the mother leaves him but comes back to look at him, and then goes again, leaving the baby the ring, signifying that their bond is broken.
I think the loud crash and bang at the end of two was the baby being born, so shiva is about the baby's perspective as though it could speak like an adult. Talking about how her hair started growing and her face became yours, as if she was growing into her mother/father. That's what wake is, the beginning describes the adults trouble dealing with their unwanted child.