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.
Oh hard as hell black stone as he stood
Intellect like statue with face in the sun
Don't toy with the heavens, sing to the satellites
Cold steel slicing up the ruins
Live by words, die by spite
My mind is no more mine
The world is a tomb, killed by critics
Pride with no shame, aim with no guide
A spear in the author
Another puppet dies, the audience sighs
More blood please for the turbines
Those lost in the dark shall find new shadows to chase
But never even wonder where the light comes from
My momma told me I was cold steel in my darkest hour
Then said "friend, how does it feel?"
This dirt, this dream run dry
This idea to sell, what success feels like
The world is turning under your feet, will you be swept away or hit the whirlwind?
Concrete holds the memory, but cracks refuse to slip through
Waiting for an earthquake to swallow my work
What came first, the bullet or factory?
What came last, the ad or the article?
I want to be normal, not mediocre
I want to be principle, but not a martyr
Want to be a planet, not a super nova
Live my life like a novel, not a cheap poster
Don't want to be every man, cause every man ain't me
Happily married in a cabin, but not lost at sea
So many sycophants get more props than me, that's what we call democracy
But it's corrosive nonsense, we got hopeless posture
This corpse will sing underwater
Six years in the millennium, I'm loosing my defense against the pendulum
Cynicism at my center, a thousand bloody pens marching my medulla
Plague after plague, the crows want to kill me but the feast remain staged
Painstakingly I push my pen to say all the things that don't make sense to me
Terror in the water and the drowning hope
Bullet proof career in a rifle scope
The world is a sham, the salt in my wounds
And the voices say I blast fiend, cause they kiss no crosses
My father was a fisherman and I'm a fisher man's son
Now the fish are gone
Who needs a ocean, we got farms
Bloody in the bathroom with The Will to Power
Fumbling I rumble wicked notes, these solitary jeers just devoured
Rent is paid, took a few years off and my mind is gray
When I'm lonesome, wrote some lonesome shit
Not late for the train, it was hijacked
Whoever mocks me makes me stock up ammo
No more manifestos, the world ain't hollow
It's full of pillows, full of people like to make fossils, hostiles
But you said you had no apostles, fall of your cross they want to talk
In the electric chair, nervously they watch you
Wanted Hollywood, but I was mostly stone
Made of stars, so I have no home
It's a wasteland, a place where you face for months at a time
People changes sides like the drop of a penny
When I was full, the friends are many
When the sky turns dry, hell's a short trip
It'll hail you taxi
Intellect like statue with face in the sun
Don't toy with the heavens, sing to the satellites
Cold steel slicing up the ruins
Live by words, die by spite
My mind is no more mine
The world is a tomb, killed by critics
Pride with no shame, aim with no guide
A spear in the author
Another puppet dies, the audience sighs
More blood please for the turbines
Those lost in the dark shall find new shadows to chase
But never even wonder where the light comes from
My momma told me I was cold steel in my darkest hour
Then said "friend, how does it feel?"
This dirt, this dream run dry
This idea to sell, what success feels like
The world is turning under your feet, will you be swept away or hit the whirlwind?
Concrete holds the memory, but cracks refuse to slip through
Waiting for an earthquake to swallow my work
What came first, the bullet or factory?
What came last, the ad or the article?
I want to be normal, not mediocre
I want to be principle, but not a martyr
Want to be a planet, not a super nova
Live my life like a novel, not a cheap poster
Don't want to be every man, cause every man ain't me
Happily married in a cabin, but not lost at sea
So many sycophants get more props than me, that's what we call democracy
But it's corrosive nonsense, we got hopeless posture
This corpse will sing underwater
Six years in the millennium, I'm loosing my defense against the pendulum
Cynicism at my center, a thousand bloody pens marching my medulla
Plague after plague, the crows want to kill me but the feast remain staged
Painstakingly I push my pen to say all the things that don't make sense to me
Terror in the water and the drowning hope
Bullet proof career in a rifle scope
The world is a sham, the salt in my wounds
And the voices say I blast fiend, cause they kiss no crosses
My father was a fisherman and I'm a fisher man's son
Now the fish are gone
Who needs a ocean, we got farms
Bloody in the bathroom with The Will to Power
Fumbling I rumble wicked notes, these solitary jeers just devoured
Rent is paid, took a few years off and my mind is gray
When I'm lonesome, wrote some lonesome shit
Not late for the train, it was hijacked
Whoever mocks me makes me stock up ammo
No more manifestos, the world ain't hollow
It's full of pillows, full of people like to make fossils, hostiles
But you said you had no apostles, fall of your cross they want to talk
In the electric chair, nervously they watch you
Wanted Hollywood, but I was mostly stone
Made of stars, so I have no home
It's a wasteland, a place where you face for months at a time
People changes sides like the drop of a penny
When I was full, the friends are many
When the sky turns dry, hell's a short trip
It'll hail you taxi
Lyrics submitted by Ru1ner
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