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 will gain an extra life, when I get the high score.
You could respawn anywhere
I am one with the furniture, more inanimate than amateur
Like a television set! Gangrene knuckle announced so audibly!
I will boost my
Attention span, soon my clock will have a minute hand
You've become a smithereen!
(I'm watching that!)
Foxhound frolic on the abattoir floor, up in
Heaven it's symmetrical oh
Airbrush!
What have you done with my father?
Why does he look like a carving?
How do I live in the present?
I make my
Own density?
And Ah-Ah-Ah!
Who did your Photoshop handsome?
You ready for
Reincarnation?
Gotta come back as something organic,
Or come back as
Something else!
Just come back as something else!
More dollar!
Less scholar!
Less time!
My teeth dazzle like an igloo wall,
I inhabit, I
Inhibit y'all!
Can you operate alone?
Chest pumped elegantly elephantine,
Southern hemisphere by Calvin Klein
Watch your dorsal fin collapse! I know
Nothing about my history!
I put a rain forest in an Oxo cube! Struck by
Lightning if I take the tube!
Thank your chromosomes for that
I have skin
Like a waxen peel,
And a face that I can never feel but
Airbrush!
What
Have you done with my landscape?
Flooding the fields with this clone
Shape?
Where is the country you died for?
And what is the century?
And
Ah-Ah-Ah!
Who did your Photoshop handsome?
You ready for
Reincarnation?
Gotta come back as something less frantic
You gotta banish
That army of panic
Gotta come back as something organic,
Come back as
Something organic, or come back as something else!
I will gain an extra
Life,
I will gain an extra
Airbrush!
What have you done with my father?
Why does he look like a carving?
How do I live in the present?
I make my
Own density?
And Ah-Ah-Ah!
Who did your Photoshop handsome?
You ready for
Reincarnation?
Gotta come back as something organic,
Or come back as
Something else!
You could respawn anywhere
I am one with the furniture, more inanimate than amateur
Like a television set! Gangrene knuckle announced so audibly!
I will boost my
Attention span, soon my clock will have a minute hand
You've become a smithereen!
(I'm watching that!)
Foxhound frolic on the abattoir floor, up in
Heaven it's symmetrical oh
Airbrush!
What have you done with my father?
Why does he look like a carving?
How do I live in the present?
I make my
Own density?
And Ah-Ah-Ah!
Who did your Photoshop handsome?
You ready for
Reincarnation?
Gotta come back as something organic,
Or come back as
Something else!
Just come back as something else!
More dollar!
Less scholar!
Less time!
My teeth dazzle like an igloo wall,
I inhabit, I
Inhibit y'all!
Can you operate alone?
Chest pumped elegantly elephantine,
Southern hemisphere by Calvin Klein
Watch your dorsal fin collapse! I know
Nothing about my history!
I put a rain forest in an Oxo cube! Struck by
Lightning if I take the tube!
Thank your chromosomes for that
I have skin
Like a waxen peel,
And a face that I can never feel but
Airbrush!
What
Have you done with my landscape?
Flooding the fields with this clone
Shape?
Where is the country you died for?
And what is the century?
And
Ah-Ah-Ah!
Who did your Photoshop handsome?
You ready for
Reincarnation?
Gotta come back as something less frantic
You gotta banish
That army of panic
Gotta come back as something organic,
Come back as
Something organic, or come back as something else!
I will gain an extra
Life,
I will gain an extra
Airbrush!
What have you done with my father?
Why does he look like a carving?
How do I live in the present?
I make my
Own density?
And Ah-Ah-Ah!
Who did your Photoshop handsome?
You ready for
Reincarnation?
Gotta come back as something organic,
Or come back as
Something else!
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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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great band, great song. undeniably catchy and hard-hitting.