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.
There are bridges over rivers
There are moments of collapse
There are drivers with their feet on the glass
You can kick but you can't get out
There is history in the rooms of the house
After dinner
Do the dishes
Mother hums
The coffeemaker hisses on the stove
The steam a crescendo
The radio emergency bulletins and
Everywhere wind
You took the train down to Terra Haute, Indiana
Visit family, your childhood home
Give your mother her grandkid and father a kiss
Put your luggage in your bedroom in the kitchen sit
With your husband still up in Hudsonville
Until the weekend when his shift ends at the furniture mill
Running water for the dishes and the coffee on the stove
Heard a warning from the corner on the radio
And the glass starts to rattle in the window frames
So you went underground
Took the staircase down
To the cellar full of hunting equipment
Held your baby in your arms
Read the labels on mason jars
Try not to think about your husband in Michigan
Stay calm
Keep the radio loud
Take care
Wind howls
Father piles blankets in the corner by the furnace
Mother lights candles
It's a miracle the baby doesn't cry
Back home doing yard work outside
Husband being stubborn under dark skies
Saw the fence by the neighbor's shed split
Saw the kitchen windows start to bend in
So you went down to the back steps then to the basement
There were bookshelf plans on the workbench
And a flashlight shining bright all night try not to think about your son and your wife
And the lightning that scattered the night sky
And the wind bursts that tore up the power lines
At the workbench in the basement
Where you sat and tried to wait out the night
You called for three straight days
Still with your family back home
Up in Hudsonville the worst of the storms touched ground
And the phone lines were down
Turn the radio up
There's a woman who got thrown from her car into a barbed wire fence
She was 6-months pregnant
Both her and the baby lived
You tried but the line or...
I remember those nights
I couldn't get through to you when quiet storms came rattled the window panes
Couldn't keep a thing the same way when the storm blew in and the furniture rearranged
I can see lightning there and a funnel cloud
And her mother said "I swear I saw lightning in your eyes
When that call got through to the other side."
Stay calm
Keep the radio loud
Stay down
There are bridges over rivers
Sirens in the distant
Wind howls
Keep down
Then
After dinner do the dishes
Mother hums
Wires snap
Metal gets twisted
There's the rattle of the window glass
Bending in
Take the children down
Terra Haute
Coffee
Thanksgiving
Stay calm
Keep down
At the workbench
Stay
And the coffeemaker hisses
Stay calm
Keep down
Turn the radio
There are
There are moments of collapse
There are moments of collapse
There are drivers with their feet on the glass
You can kick but you can't get out
There is history in the rooms of the house
After dinner
Do the dishes
Mother hums
The coffeemaker hisses on the stove
The steam a crescendo
The radio emergency bulletins and
Everywhere wind
You took the train down to Terra Haute, Indiana
Visit family, your childhood home
Give your mother her grandkid and father a kiss
Put your luggage in your bedroom in the kitchen sit
With your husband still up in Hudsonville
Until the weekend when his shift ends at the furniture mill
Running water for the dishes and the coffee on the stove
Heard a warning from the corner on the radio
And the glass starts to rattle in the window frames
So you went underground
Took the staircase down
To the cellar full of hunting equipment
Held your baby in your arms
Read the labels on mason jars
Try not to think about your husband in Michigan
Stay calm
Keep the radio loud
Take care
Wind howls
Father piles blankets in the corner by the furnace
Mother lights candles
It's a miracle the baby doesn't cry
Back home doing yard work outside
Husband being stubborn under dark skies
Saw the fence by the neighbor's shed split
Saw the kitchen windows start to bend in
So you went down to the back steps then to the basement
There were bookshelf plans on the workbench
And a flashlight shining bright all night try not to think about your son and your wife
And the lightning that scattered the night sky
And the wind bursts that tore up the power lines
At the workbench in the basement
Where you sat and tried to wait out the night
You called for three straight days
Still with your family back home
Up in Hudsonville the worst of the storms touched ground
And the phone lines were down
Turn the radio up
There's a woman who got thrown from her car into a barbed wire fence
She was 6-months pregnant
Both her and the baby lived
You tried but the line or...
I remember those nights
I couldn't get through to you when quiet storms came rattled the window panes
Couldn't keep a thing the same way when the storm blew in and the furniture rearranged
I can see lightning there and a funnel cloud
And her mother said "I swear I saw lightning in your eyes
When that call got through to the other side."
Stay calm
Keep the radio loud
Stay down
There are bridges over rivers
Sirens in the distant
Wind howls
Keep down
Then
After dinner do the dishes
Mother hums
Wires snap
Metal gets twisted
There's the rattle of the window glass
Bending in
Take the children down
Terra Haute
Coffee
Thanksgiving
Stay calm
Keep down
At the workbench
Stay
And the coffeemaker hisses
Stay calm
Keep down
Turn the radio
There are
There are moments of collapse
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There are bridges over rivers There are moments of collapse There are drivers with their feet on the glass You can kick but you can't get out There is history in the rooms of the house
Total reference to the bridge on 35.
The coffee maker hisses on the stove
This is one of many references to coffee on the stove.
So you went down to the back steps then to the basement There were bookshelf plans on the workbench And a flashlight shining bright all night Try not to think about your son and your wife And the lightning that scattered the night sky And the wind bursts that tore up the power lines At the workbench in the basement Where you sat and tried to wait out the night
The workbench is references in Extraordinary Dinner Party as well which kind of leads me to believe that this is all occurring to the family of the narrator of that song's parents in 1965. Maybe meaning he was the child referenced? That actually makes a lot of sense.
There are moments of collapse
Like the bridge on 35.