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's a part of the country could drop off tomorrow in an earthquake,
Yeah, it's out there on the cutting edge, the people move, the sidewalks shake.
And there's another part of the country with a land that gently creaks and thuds,
Where the heavy snows make faucets leak in bathrooms with free-standing tubs.
They're in houses that are haunted, the with kids who lie awake and think about
All the generations past who used to use that dripping sink.
And sometimes one place wants to slip into the other just to see
What it's like to trade its demons for the restless ghost of Mrs. Ogilvey,
She used to pick the mint from her front yard to dress the Sunday pork,
Sometimes southern California wants to be western New York.
It wants to have a family business in sheet metal or power tools,
It wants to have a diner where the coffee tastes like diesel fuel,
And it wants to find the glory of a town they say has hit the skids,
And it wants to have a snow day that will turn its parents into kids,
And it's embarrassed, but it's lusting after a SUNY student with mousy brown hair who is
Taking out the compost, making coffee in long underwear.
And southern California says to save a place, I'll meet you there,
And it tried to pack up its Miata, all it could fit was a prayer,
Sometimes the stakes are bogus, sometimes the fast lane hits a fork,
Sometimes southern California wants to be western New York.
Tempe, Arizona thinks the Everglades are greener and wetter,
And Washington, D.C. thinks that Atlanta integrated better,
But I think that southern California has more pain that we can say,
'Cause it wants to travel back in time, but it just can't leave L.A.
But now I hear they've got a theme park planned, designed to make you gasp and say,
Oh, I bet that crumbling mill town was a booming mill town in its day,
And the old investors scoff at this, but the young ones hope they'll take a chance,
And they promise it will make more dough than Mickey Mouse in northern France,
And the planners planned an opening day, a town historian will host,
And the waitresses look like waitresses who want to leave for the west coast.
And they'll have puttering on rainy weekends, autumn days that make you feel sad,
They'll have hundred year old plumbing and the family you never had,
And a Hudson River clean-up concert and a bundle-bearing stork,
And I hear they've got a menu planned, it's trés western New York.
Yeah, it's out there on the cutting edge, the people move, the sidewalks shake.
And there's another part of the country with a land that gently creaks and thuds,
Where the heavy snows make faucets leak in bathrooms with free-standing tubs.
They're in houses that are haunted, the with kids who lie awake and think about
All the generations past who used to use that dripping sink.
And sometimes one place wants to slip into the other just to see
What it's like to trade its demons for the restless ghost of Mrs. Ogilvey,
She used to pick the mint from her front yard to dress the Sunday pork,
Sometimes southern California wants to be western New York.
It wants to have a family business in sheet metal or power tools,
It wants to have a diner where the coffee tastes like diesel fuel,
And it wants to find the glory of a town they say has hit the skids,
And it wants to have a snow day that will turn its parents into kids,
And it's embarrassed, but it's lusting after a SUNY student with mousy brown hair who is
Taking out the compost, making coffee in long underwear.
And southern California says to save a place, I'll meet you there,
And it tried to pack up its Miata, all it could fit was a prayer,
Sometimes the stakes are bogus, sometimes the fast lane hits a fork,
Sometimes southern California wants to be western New York.
Tempe, Arizona thinks the Everglades are greener and wetter,
And Washington, D.C. thinks that Atlanta integrated better,
But I think that southern California has more pain that we can say,
'Cause it wants to travel back in time, but it just can't leave L.A.
But now I hear they've got a theme park planned, designed to make you gasp and say,
Oh, I bet that crumbling mill town was a booming mill town in its day,
And the old investors scoff at this, but the young ones hope they'll take a chance,
And they promise it will make more dough than Mickey Mouse in northern France,
And the planners planned an opening day, a town historian will host,
And the waitresses look like waitresses who want to leave for the west coast.
And they'll have puttering on rainy weekends, autumn days that make you feel sad,
They'll have hundred year old plumbing and the family you never had,
And a Hudson River clean-up concert and a bundle-bearing stork,
And I hear they've got a menu planned, it's trés western New York.
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
Light Up The Sky
Van Halen
Van Halen
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
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"
Son Şansın - Şarkı Sözleri
Hayalperest
Hayalperest
This song seemingly tackles the methods of deception those who manipulate others use to get victims to follow their demands, as well as diverting attention away from important issues. They'll also use it as a means to convince people to hate or kill others by pretending acts of terrorism were committed by the enemy when the acts themselves were done by the masters of control to promote discrimination and hate. It also reinforces the idea that these manipulative forces operate in various locations, infiltrating everyday life without detection, and propagate any and everywhere.
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.
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
American Town
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran shares a short story of reconnecting with an old flame on “American Town.” The track is about a holiday Ed Sheeran spends with his countrywoman who resides in America. The two are back together after a long period apart, and get around to enjoying a bunch of fun activities while rekindling the flames of their romance.
First of all, why would WESTERN NY have a Hudson River clean-up? Somebody please buy the woman an atlas!
Sorry, stuff like that bugs me. :P
But anyway, I think the "grass is always greener" thing is a part of it, but I also think this song is about glamor and surface beauty vs. history (all those references to ghosts and haunted houses!) and a sort of authenticity.
The song opens with SoCal in danger of falling into the ocean; for all the Hollywood mythology, all the perceived fabulousness, it's all so transient and unstable. And phony: in the last verse SoCal tries to compensate by setting up an ersatz "theme park" of WNY! Whereas Western NY is solid, weighted down by "heavy snows" and a deep sense of history...even if that history is so romanticized because it's better than the present, as with all those rust-belt towns that have "hit the skids."
This song is pointing out the value of all that history and the sense of community, even though our culture doesn't always recognize it: "Sometimes the stakes are bogus, sometimes the fast lane hits a fork..." Sometimes what we think we want isn't as satisfying as we expected it to be.
Well, seeing as how I live in WNY, no, SoCal, please, NEVER ever wish you were WNY. SUNY blows, trust me on that one too. wow, this is just weird. I find it kind of ironic in the fact that I wish I was in SoCal every day of my life...
The grass is always greener on the other side....
Everybody wants to be someone else, but they miss the big picture that they should be happy with what they have.
Because it's theme park planners not being very careful about geography? It's cute, not accurate.
I think that the song is ironic. The California Myth a la the Beach Boys, Annete Funicello and Frankie Avalon, The OC - Dar Williams turns that around. What if western New York were the ideal? She gives all these snapshots of New York, like diner coffee, and a weekly meal of pork on sunday, always served with mint, creaking houses full of age. There are very few references to things specific to the stereotypical SC, only the Miata. None of the usual fun-on-the-beach, Hollywood glamour, finding oneself in California that fills so many other pop songs. She turns the cliche around to a part of the country that no one idealizes, sad old western New York, forgotten, but still steeped in New England. The inverse cliche mocks itself, though, when typical WNY waitresses are characterized as looking liek they "want to leave for the west coast," even if (by gravity defiant's measure) they are already in California.
the last song I wrote is a little on the vague side. It’s called “Southern California wants to be Western New York,” and it’s clever, I think; top-heavy, too filled with little clever-isms and too little lasting value. So I’m afraid I may have to jettison it. I think an audience member has to do too much footwork to keep up with it. To do all that to keep up with a song that, inevitably, is just clever, I think is too much. You’re always concerned about whether you’re compromising yourself, whether you’re honest, whether you’re evolving, if you’re afraid to evolve. So I have the confidence that I don’t really like thinking in clichés, that I prefer to write songs from a place where I have some perspective, some valuable reflection.”
Thanks for the quote, pnkseashel.
Her impression of this song sounds a bit like mine, which is that, while some of its lines are brilliantly acute: in the end, there's simply too much irony and too many references and too many words period to fit into 4:11. She's showing off on this one, and like the more over-the-top work of Michael Moore or Cindy Sheehan, it ultimately shoots itself in the foot.
No matter. She's got a healthy body of work that does not suffer from this problem, and it's to be celebrated.
One funny thing that I just noticed is that the reason the Disney France failed is because they ignored the culture of France - or rather stereotyped and misinterpreted it and set it to the side after pretending to acknowledge it. This new theme park for SoCal where they sell it another culture without really getting to know what it wants and what motivates it is very similar to Disney marching into France and selling them the American culture. Maybe this song was just a parody of Disney France the whole time.