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 scraped my knees while I was praying
And found a demon in my safest haven, seems like
It's getting harder to believe in anything
Then just to get lost in all my selfish thoughts
I wanna know what it'd be like
To find perfection in my pride
To see nothing in the light
But turn it off
In all my spite
In all my spite
I'll turn it off
And the worst part is
Before it gets any better
We're headed for a cliff
And in the free fall I will realize
I'm better off when I hit the bottom
The tragedy, it seems unending
I'm watching everyone I looked up to break and bending
We're taking shortcuts and false solutions
Just to come out the hero
Well, I can see behind the curtain (I can see now)
The wheels are cranking, turning, so on the way we're working
Towards a goal, that's non existent
It's not existent, but we just keep believing
And the worst part is
Before it gets any better
We're headed for a cliff
And in the free fall I will realize
I'm better off when I hit the bottom
I wanna know what it'd be like
To find perfection in my pride
To see nothing in the light
But turn it off
In all my spite
In all my spite
I'll turn it off
Just turn it off
Again
Again
And the worst part is
Before it gets any better
We're headed for a cliff
And in the free fall I will realize
I'm better off when I hit the bottom
And the worst part is
Before it gets any better
We're headed for a cliff
And in the free fall I will realize
I'm better off when I hit the bottom
And found a demon in my safest haven, seems like
It's getting harder to believe in anything
Then just to get lost in all my selfish thoughts
I wanna know what it'd be like
To find perfection in my pride
To see nothing in the light
But turn it off
In all my spite
In all my spite
I'll turn it off
And the worst part is
Before it gets any better
We're headed for a cliff
And in the free fall I will realize
I'm better off when I hit the bottom
The tragedy, it seems unending
I'm watching everyone I looked up to break and bending
We're taking shortcuts and false solutions
Just to come out the hero
Well, I can see behind the curtain (I can see now)
The wheels are cranking, turning, so on the way we're working
Towards a goal, that's non existent
It's not existent, but we just keep believing
And the worst part is
Before it gets any better
We're headed for a cliff
And in the free fall I will realize
I'm better off when I hit the bottom
I wanna know what it'd be like
To find perfection in my pride
To see nothing in the light
But turn it off
In all my spite
In all my spite
I'll turn it off
Just turn it off
Again
Again
And the worst part is
Before it gets any better
We're headed for a cliff
And in the free fall I will realize
I'm better off when I hit the bottom
And the worst part is
Before it gets any better
We're headed for a cliff
And in the free fall I will realize
I'm better off when I hit the bottom
Lyrics submitted by aristuma21
Turn It Off Lyrics as written by Joshua Neil Farro Hayley Nichole Williams
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I see a lot of you are published by the meaning of this song. Luckily, I have a copy of Hayley Williams song lyric journal and I will type it up.
In accordance with "Playing God" this song is the emotional result. How I feel when I think about the stupidity displayed by so called Christians and it seems that people who don't fall back on faith seem to have life figured out. Or at least it works fairly smoothly on the surface. What I've found out is there is beauty in "figuring out"... I hope I never have life figured out for myself. I want to be in a content state of learning and growing and I hope God can always show me from the bottom there are more ways to look up.