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.
Large fingers pushin' paint...
You're God and you got big hands...
The colors blend...
The challenges you give man...
Seek my part...devote myself...
My small self...like a book amongst the many on a shelf...
Sometimes I know sometimes I rise
Sometimes I fall sometimes I don't
Sometimes I cringe sometimes I live
Sometimes I walk sometimes I kneel
Sometimes I speak of nothing at all...
Sometimes I reach to myself, hear God...
You're God and you got big hands...
The colors blend...
The challenges you give man...
Seek my part...devote myself...
My small self...like a book amongst the many on a shelf...
Sometimes I know sometimes I rise
Sometimes I fall sometimes I don't
Sometimes I cringe sometimes I live
Sometimes I walk sometimes I kneel
Sometimes I speak of nothing at all...
Sometimes I reach to myself, hear God...
Lyrics submitted by Trent, edited by PaxRock
Sometimes Lyrics as written by Marit Elisabeth Larsen Marion Elise Ravn
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, O/B/O DistroKid, Songtrust Ave, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
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The first song heard on No Code when you listen to the album.... Any fans who were expecting another Go, Once, or last exit were immediatly kicked in the ass with this song.... Sometimes seems to be about questioning occurances in your life that are beyond your control.....I love this song....
Well they immediately got their fix with Hail, Hail as track 2, but still a huge left turn.
Well, think of how, metaphorically, that connects to the meaning of the song. The meaning seems to be that although you can't control the big picture a lot of the time, you can change how you react to it and all the small things that you do. And all those little things change it all. Here, the big picture is that all of the fans were expecting something like Go, Once, or Last Exit. Pearl Jam, by the time they're making this album, can't control that. That's what's going on. Instead, they can control how they react (i.e. making a song like Sometimes which isn't what they expect), and in the end that changes everyone else's expectations. The little currents are the start to every whirlpool, so to speak.
I, too, love this song. I loved the way it opened No Code. It seems to slide into existence instead of exploding like so much of their earlier stuff had. Yet, it has an intensity that easily matches everything else they've done. And it set the mood of that album perfectly. It was a real change for them and is remarkable.
i think this one is about the fear of a higher power and not being in control of what you do in life...this song creeps me the fuck out...the storm clouds and running water effects are cool
Well I don't necessarily think this song is about being afraid of a higher power. I think it's more about questioning your existance and asking the famous question of "Why are we here?" Everyone is supposably here for a reason, and Vedder is trying to seek and do his part, just like everyone else. He's just another "book on the shelf" wondering what his part is. Anyways like Nasus said, its a cool song but its pretty creepy.
I, too, love this song. I loved the way it opened No Code. It seems to slide into existence instead of exploding like so much of their earlier stuff had. Yet, it has an intensity that easily matches everything else they've done. And it set the mood of that album perfectly. It was a real change for them and is remarkable.
I always thought it
s Like a pokemons... instead Like a books amongst... Damn im stupid. This is also one of the first songs that I learned to play it on my acoustic guitar.Don't worry... I also heard: "Like a Pokemon / So many on a shelf" <br /> <br /> hides head in shame
This song ties with "Oceans" and "State of Love and Trust" as my favorite PJ song. To date, the band's only played the three songs in one set once (on 10/28/96) in London at Wembley Arena. How I'd love to hear that show before I die, or at least have the group throw them back into a set again, but it's about as likely as lightining striking twice. "Oceans" and "Sometimes" are great openers, much preferred over "Release" or "Of the Girl", though "Long Road" is fine by me.
Amazing version on the Mansfield 7/11/03 official boot. "Sometimes" is not the opener, it's the third song in the opening acoustic set. Rivals the album in in value.
Another version I have in San Francisco 7/16/06, when Ed forgets the lyrics after the opening verse, and just tells the crowd "I forgot the f-cking song" (to mad applause), and later apologizes for forgetting the opener for the first time in the band's history.
What is this song about? I don't think it means much about anything, perhaps about how life encompasses triumphs and mistakes, and how Vedder is just another man (who even forgets the words... sometimes).
No, it doesn't mean much about anything, but it sure means a lot to me.
So, I ask Vedder, seeing that you're hobnobbing with rock stars, not to mention basketball divas, are we really supposed to buy that bit about you being "a book amongst the many on a shelf"?
"You know, you people have given me so much shit for that line. Like, 'yeah, fucking right, you're that guy.' But you know what?" Vedder looks me straight in the eye. "I am that guy." Then he motions around the room. "We are that guy."
i agree with the difference 'sometimes' has with the previous 3 albums opening track. i like the conceptual feel to the entire no code album, especially if you ever listened to it on vynil. the entire exterior to the album is just epic.
a quick, in class, personal interpretation: if you have ever been a late teen who smokes alot of pot, this song/the album is quite relative. its like, no matter what the big guy upstairs says and does (ie god, the president/the prime minister in my case), its the little things that we have control over that truely determine our lives.
i once read a book entitled ' sex drugs & cocoa puffs '....and the author was saying how he loved a girl who almost loved him....in the end...she says something along the lines of how she bases her life off the Queen song 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. she tells him that 'nothing really matters'....
i feel this song left off where the last line of Bohemian Rhapsody left off.