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.
Ragged robbins for the curtain call
Wrapped in ribbons on the trailer door
Carved initials in a concrete footstall
On the imitation marble floor
We’re the boxtop admissions and their throwaways,
Strewn across tobacco roads
With their wormwood shots and their snake oil plots
Drunk sheepshank con men and their sycophants
And I often wonder if Ive already died
Out at elbows by the encore
But there’s a citadel inside
Where I’ll go and shape my heart like yours,
As you shape yours like mine
Where we’re the spiraling arms of all galaxies
And we’re the microscopic sand
Suffering from delusions of ungrandeur on middling display
Beside the Cardiff giant with the alabaster eyes
I often wonder if I've already died,
Or if the 'I' is an unintelligible lie
Off we flew like swarms of hornets
'Woken up' from winter’s rest
To colonize with plastic pulp
Our neighbor’s perfect paper nest
While all year round potter wasp
Has buzzed her unhinged song:
You can hear its creaking in our floorboards:
Megalomania’s only mania if you’re wrong
Wrapped in ribbons on the trailer door
Carved initials in a concrete footstall
On the imitation marble floor
We’re the boxtop admissions and their throwaways,
Strewn across tobacco roads
With their wormwood shots and their snake oil plots
Drunk sheepshank con men and their sycophants
And I often wonder if Ive already died
Out at elbows by the encore
But there’s a citadel inside
Where I’ll go and shape my heart like yours,
As you shape yours like mine
Where we’re the spiraling arms of all galaxies
And we’re the microscopic sand
Suffering from delusions of ungrandeur on middling display
Beside the Cardiff giant with the alabaster eyes
I often wonder if I've already died,
Or if the 'I' is an unintelligible lie
Off we flew like swarms of hornets
'Woken up' from winter’s rest
To colonize with plastic pulp
Our neighbor’s perfect paper nest
While all year round potter wasp
Has buzzed her unhinged song:
You can hear its creaking in our floorboards:
Megalomania’s only mania if you’re wrong
Lyrics submitted by TheRevoltingColour
Cardiff Giant Lyrics as written by Brandon Beaver Aaron Weiss
Lyrics © TERRORBIRD PUBLISHING LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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What an amazing song.
"I often wonder if I've already died, Or if the 'I' is an unintelligible lie"
What an excellent summary of mewithoutYou's lyrical styling. Pure poetry.
"Megalomania's only mania if you're wrong". God I love mewithoutYou.
This album is filled with Hegelian and Derridean philosophy, and this song borrows from both. This idea of an inner fortress is perhaps taken from Simon Glendinning’s brief work on Derridean philosophy. He says that Derrida resists the idea that a person is "the sole resident, as it were, of an inner fortress … withdrawal does not disclose the singularity of his being-there as an individual resident of a secure and impenetrable inner fortress, but, rather, as a singular point of confluence, a point of remarkable hospitality to the other, a generous gathering place” (A Very Short Introduction: Derrida, 20). This is huge in the rest of the album (and I mean HUGE), and in this song it is contextually relevant because of the images of deceit and tomfoolery surrounding them: con men, sycophants, imitation marble, and, of course, the Cardiff Giant, a huge 19th century hoax. Because these are convincing or intimidating images for such otherwise meager circus animals, they suffer from delusions of ungrandeur. Community is the cure.
A little bit about Hegelian phenomenology/community: in short, Hegel posits that self-consciousness cannot exist in isolation but needs an opposing object with which to contextually compare and contrast. However, though the comprehension of self might be grasped in relation to an external object, Hegel further specifies that self-consciousness demands not simply an external object, but another self-consciousness (Peacock and Tiger). Social isolation or impediment has a direct affect on the depth at which one may know himself. Singer (A Very Short Introduction: Hegel) paraphrases psychiatrist R. D. Lang in saying, “If the worth of one person is systematically denied recognition by all those on whom he or she depends … that person’s sense of identity can be utterly destroyed” (78).
Regarding the second chorus, the only thing I can get out of it is that if you die, you're alone, and then the 'I' is a lie because, as stated above, 'I' cannot be aware of itself in isolation.
I'm doing my senior thesis (undergrad) on Weiss' philosophy, mainly in Ten Stories. It's a freaking trip.
And as for the last line, it's hard to interpret. If the "we" in "off we flew" refers to Peacock and Tiger, then things get tricky because the following activity is negative. They infested a perfect paper nest with plastic pulp. Yet I can't figure out if Potter Wasp is a false protagonist just based on the last line. I've also a theistic interpretation that explores self-consciousness in light of God, specifically a megalomaniacal magnifying glass God, but it has some holes in it.
Amazing. I believe though that mewithoutYou adopted those concepts not from Derrida and Hegel, but from Sufi Islam and probably some Eastern philosophies. But they're all the same down to their core.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardiff_Giant
Tiger and peacock are the two animals who got caught after the trainwreck; they didn't accept Elephant's offered salvation. Now they are back in the circus, and the experience is hellish for them.
They've done it again! I wonder if I've already died, too!
I feel a strong kinship with Aaron Weiss, though I've never met him
Applying the philosophy of Weiss's album, individuality essentially loses its meaning outside the whole. Individuality is emphasized in American culture, but it most other cultures focus on the family or community group, in which individuals play a major, yet secondary part. Perhaps God desires His creations to be willing to be considered "it," by finding part of their definition in the relationship with Him and with the community of His children.
In regards to the song, the Tiger speaks of he and the Peacock shaping their hearts after one another, but in the entrapment of the circus, their selves are made to be phonies like the Giant. Perhaps in freedom, they can truly shape each other, as iron sharpens iron, to be freer.
Maybe Fox and Bear are the antithesis. Bear learns to give himself for Fox, just as Elephant does in the beginning. On that note, a common Christ symbol in Catholicism is the pelican, the mothers of which appear to rip flesh from their own body to save their hatchlings.
Here Tiger and Fox cannot save each other, nor can they live truly. They begin to question the validity of life, because they can't see life fulfilled outside.
Hope that adds to the thought provocation.
What an amazing song.
"I often wonder if I've already died, Or if the 'I' is an unintelligible lie"
What an excellent summary of mewithoutYou's lyrical styling. Pure poetry.