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.
The assembler of souls absorbs all within his reach
His seemingly perpetual glance of doom
would even make the smallest of serenities breach
As he rides the wind being the ghost of doom
Running darkness all around
A knife in her hand
Falling, rising, screaming the name of her beloved
So weak, and so weary
Something blackening her thoughts
A cloud, a force, a weight
Finding her true love lying in red
Is this reality or just a vision in her head
To be the knife as well as the wound
Is all that concerns her
Overwhelmed by a burden, like hordes of fear
The obscurity of the vale of tears
Grasping for safety, which lies all so near
Incresent malice of the vale of tears
Wandering oblivious in the foggy twilight
Shades of an obelisk shines so bright
Incredulous thoughts, bewildering her mind
Is there really a god to find
Halting through the darkest of forests
The obese and extraneous at her tail
This haunting, lingering to the extreme
She is about to quail
Then a formless mass of black, went skyward
Stars began to fade behind a veil of dark blue velvet
She stopped, she listened, nothing
Silence, an eternity passed
The silhouettes of something unseen, a presence
His seemingly perpetual glance of doom
would even make the smallest of serenities breach
As he rides the wind being the ghost of doom
Running darkness all around
A knife in her hand
Falling, rising, screaming the name of her beloved
So weak, and so weary
Something blackening her thoughts
A cloud, a force, a weight
Finding her true love lying in red
Is this reality or just a vision in her head
To be the knife as well as the wound
Is all that concerns her
Overwhelmed by a burden, like hordes of fear
The obscurity of the vale of tears
Grasping for safety, which lies all so near
Incresent malice of the vale of tears
Wandering oblivious in the foggy twilight
Shades of an obelisk shines so bright
Incredulous thoughts, bewildering her mind
Is there really a god to find
Halting through the darkest of forests
The obese and extraneous at her tail
This haunting, lingering to the extreme
She is about to quail
Then a formless mass of black, went skyward
Stars began to fade behind a veil of dark blue velvet
She stopped, she listened, nothing
Silence, an eternity passed
The silhouettes of something unseen, a presence
Lyrics submitted by static111
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Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
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