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 want to love you like the monster loves a flower
disarming as a bird flying backwards
and my heart is a pomegranate
and how long have I ached for your hands on my stomach?
I want to love you like the monster loves the flower
Tenderly
I want to know you like the clock knows the hour
I want to see you with both my eyes forward
In the fields of rye and up in the rafters
Hungrily
And oh to know the nape of your neck;
It would be the length of my whole self
To swoon if for to stretch beneath a fleshy ground
Peacefully
Into a blood red sea
In the wax of a whale
Meet me down there, deep down
Where I am dark and pale
This longing I inherit, how it makes me shameful
This armor how I wear it till I can no longer
And all the while in your blue so sallow
As bitter as the snake that craftily crallows
On the cracked tongue of the quake in the shadows
Silently
I am a ribcage, I'm a sailor, I'm an arrow
I am a monster with the wings of a blind sparrow
And I want to touch you like the seed touches the soil
I want to hold you like the milk holds the spoil
Sing to me
Cling to me
And what of this cacophonous-these broken strings?
And what of this, the blood red kiss, the beast in the sea?
I'll hush it now and I will sing it songs to put it to sleep
And leave it there without a care that it might know a dream.
disarming as a bird flying backwards
and my heart is a pomegranate
and how long have I ached for your hands on my stomach?
I want to love you like the monster loves the flower
Tenderly
I want to know you like the clock knows the hour
I want to see you with both my eyes forward
In the fields of rye and up in the rafters
Hungrily
And oh to know the nape of your neck;
It would be the length of my whole self
To swoon if for to stretch beneath a fleshy ground
Peacefully
Into a blood red sea
In the wax of a whale
Meet me down there, deep down
Where I am dark and pale
This longing I inherit, how it makes me shameful
This armor how I wear it till I can no longer
And all the while in your blue so sallow
As bitter as the snake that craftily crallows
On the cracked tongue of the quake in the shadows
Silently
I am a ribcage, I'm a sailor, I'm an arrow
I am a monster with the wings of a blind sparrow
And I want to touch you like the seed touches the soil
I want to hold you like the milk holds the spoil
Sing to me
Cling to me
And what of this cacophonous-these broken strings?
And what of this, the blood red kiss, the beast in the sea?
I'll hush it now and I will sing it songs to put it to sleep
And leave it there without a care that it might know a dream.
Lyrics submitted by goodbyemisery
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