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.
That's a pretty big trunk on my Lincoln town car, ain't it?
Big enough to take these broken hearts and put 'em in it
Now I'm driving 'round on the boulevard, trunk bleeding
And every time the cops pull me over, they don't never see them
They never see them (ow)
And I've got this black suit on
Roaming around like I'm ready for a funeral
Five more miles 'til the road runs out
I'm about to drive in the ocean
I'ma try to swim from something bigger than me
Kick off my shoes and swim good and swim good
Take off this suit and swim good and swim good, good
Got some pretty good beats on this 808 CD, yeah
Memory seats I'm sitting on stay heated (yeah)
I woulda put tints on my windows but what's the difference (no, no)
If I feel like a Ghost (no Swayze) ever since I lost my baby?
I've had this black suit on (ow)
Roaming around like I'm ready for a funeral (ow)
One more mile 'til the road runs out, out
I'm about to drive in the ocean
I'ma try to swim from something bigger than me
Kick off my shoes and swim good and swim good
Take off this suit and swim good and swim good, good
I'm going off (oh my pretty love), don't try stopping me
I'm going off (throw me a line), don't try saving (oh my)
No flares (oh my), no vest (but you're my love), and no fear
Waves are washing me (out)
I'm about to drive (drive) in the ocean (ocean, yeah)
I'ma try to swim from something bigger than me (bigger than me)
Kick off my shoes (good) and swim good (good), and swim good
Take off this suit (take off this suit)
And swim good, and swim good, good
Big enough to take these broken hearts and put 'em in it
Now I'm driving 'round on the boulevard, trunk bleeding
And every time the cops pull me over, they don't never see them
They never see them (ow)
And I've got this black suit on
Roaming around like I'm ready for a funeral
Five more miles 'til the road runs out
I'm about to drive in the ocean
I'ma try to swim from something bigger than me
Kick off my shoes and swim good and swim good
Take off this suit and swim good and swim good, good
Got some pretty good beats on this 808 CD, yeah
Memory seats I'm sitting on stay heated (yeah)
I woulda put tints on my windows but what's the difference (no, no)
If I feel like a Ghost (no Swayze) ever since I lost my baby?
I've had this black suit on (ow)
Roaming around like I'm ready for a funeral (ow)
One more mile 'til the road runs out, out
I'm about to drive in the ocean
I'ma try to swim from something bigger than me
Kick off my shoes and swim good and swim good
Take off this suit and swim good and swim good, good
I'm going off (oh my pretty love), don't try stopping me
I'm going off (throw me a line), don't try saving (oh my)
No flares (oh my), no vest (but you're my love), and no fear
Waves are washing me (out)
I'm about to drive (drive) in the ocean (ocean, yeah)
I'ma try to swim from something bigger than me (bigger than me)
Kick off my shoes (good) and swim good (good), and swim good
Take off this suit (take off this suit)
And swim good, and swim good, good
Lyrics submitted by thatoneguy82101, edited by v8pluver
Swim Good Lyrics as written by Christopher Breaux Charles Gambetta
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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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"
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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In general, it highlights the danger of hidden agendas, manipulation, and distraction, serving as a critique of those who exploit chaos and confusion to control and gain power, depicting a cautionary tale against falling into their traps. It encourages us to question the narratives presented to us and remain vigilant against manipulation in various parts of society.
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I disagree with "readmedotexe" on this one completely; these lyrics definitely need explaining. My interpretation is the following:
The first verse is explaining the pain he has inflicted on others (women) in his past. He's been able to do so thus far without feeling pain himself and no one else (cops) can notice it.
The second verse is when he illustrates the pain that his actions are finally causing him; it is beginning to catch-up to him (a continuation of what is explicitly expressed in the hook)...
The premise of the songs ends up being him wanted to shed his past, and his old "self" to a certain degree, and start anew. The notion of cleansing his sins and starting new as a re-defined man is evoked through the use of the baptism metaphor. The car/lincoln town car is used to parallel himself and/or his body driving (traveling) through life. He has held this in for so long and it is now time for him to shed his past and look for something completely different by becoming someone he aspires to be.
But why is there so much drama in the way he expresses going to the ocean Rio03. I think he knows he cant change his ways, so the only way to heal is if he is dead. Watching the video he ends up at a cliff and below there is so much rock. "THERE IS NO CLEANSING THERE! JUST DEATH".
I think he's expressing the pain & hurt of ending or the end of a relationship. & how it's something very hard for you to do & accept, considering the fact that you are in love & don't want to leave because of it being soo hard. & when you do, you feel empty, lost & almost nonexistant without the one you love( by him saying "when i feel like a ghost no schwayze, ever since i lost my baby").
I feel he's also associating it with like commiting suicide or the "death" of a once good relationship. & trying to leave behind all of the hurt (hearts) & baggage attached to the situation by driving the car (with them inside it) into the ocean to be forgot about. & then he swims away from all of it, meaning he's letting it go.
I relate to this ALOT as far as a ending of a relationship & having to let go of all the baggage & hurt to move on. When you do try to let it go it does feel like your commiting suicide because when your in love, that person becomes apart of you. & to let go, it is like killing an other half of you. It really hurts alot but you know its something you have to do :/
Just for everyone's information, seeing as replies seem to be hidden away: The line "like a Ghost, no Swayze.." Frank is referring to the 1990 Patrick Swayze film GHost where Swayze plays a ghost in love with a living woman. Fitting reference I guess..
The song is interesting because cars are usually vehicles of independence, there are allusions to swimming, diving, roaming, kicking of shoes...
maybe he's no longer running but in the process of figuring out what you do after you stop running.
He moves from road analogies, to water... maybe he's not "running" when he enters the water, but confronting his own emotionality, literally diving into it. Diving into his pain, his real pain. Taking off the layers of death around him, and allowing himself to be impacted by real life.
If you watch the video as well as listen to the song you see there are purposely multiple meanings to this song because he is going through a metamorphosis of who he is. You see and hear this feeling of regret as well as a metaphorical need to "Swim Good" he has the regrets and pain (Hearts in his Trunk) with him and as he has been shackles to the shoes and suit he wears to the empending funeral of his old self. When he drives his car into the water he is leaving all of that at the bottom of the sea and letting the waves wash over him as he removes the past (shoes and suit) so that he may swim good. He uses the audiotune of Kanye from his 808 heartbreak album and uses references to that in order to decribe the pain. At the very end the sing you hear seagulls and peaceful waves so that you know he saw good and after struggling to see if he actually wanted to do this change. He is finally at peace with the man that he was and will be
Don't think the lyrics need much explaining. All I care to say is that this song plays in my head all day, every day.
I think this song is definetely about escaping, leaving your past and your mistakes behind. You start fresh if you swim good enough. Swimming is an analogy to Running away or making yourself free to enter a new chapter in your life.
alright so i love this song, i understand most of it. there's just this one part that i can't seem to get.
"when i feel like a ghost no shwayze"
what exactly does he mean when he says 'no shwayze' ?
"when i feel like a ghost no Schwayze" is a reference to the romantic hit movie Ghost starring the late actor Patrick Swayze as the male main character. Swayze dies but his spirit returns and saves the day. Hence Frank Ocean is describing the feeling of being a ghost like Swayze but without the happy ending.<br /> <br />
Patrick Swayze was in a movie called Ghost
Just for everyone's information, when he says "Like a Ghost, no Swayze.." He's referring to one of Patrick Swayze's old movies, called Ghost. And in the film Patrick Swayze plays the heartbroken ghost of a man who died, effectively losing his loved one.
Just for everyone's information, seeing as replies seem to be hidden away: The line "like a Ghost, no Swayze.." Frank is referring to the 1990 Patrick Swayze film GHost where Swayze plays a ghost in love with a living woman. Fitting reference I guess..
This song is about self pity and suicide. You have this guy who is used to breaking girls hearts and getting away with it. Now he's met a cold-hearted girl who he happens to have fallen in love with. He's goin to commit suicide coz he's heart broken. He wants the girl to feel something but she doesn't, and this is wht pisses him off.
Thank you, this is the first comment I read to mention suicide. To me this song is literally, on the surface about suicide or murder suicide. metaphorically it speaks to all the relationship stuff everyone is else is talking about. Also the story in this song brings to mind Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart". In the literal way and in the metaphorical sense his guilt manifests itself in his surprise that no one can see what he's done to these people. I would love to know if Poe was his inspiration while writing.