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.
Routine was the theme
He'd wake up, wash and pour himself into uniform
Something he hadn't imagined being
As the merging traffic passed
He found himself staring down
At his own hands
Not remembering the change
Not recalling the plan
Was it?...
He was okay
But wondering
About wandering
Was it age?
By consequence?
Or was he moved sleight of hand?
Mondays were made to fall
Lost on a road he knew by heart
It was like a book he read in his sleep, endlessly
Sometimes he hid in his radio
Watching others pull into their homes
While he was drifting
On a line
Of his own
Off the line
Off the side
By the by
As dirt turned to sand
As if moved by sleight of hand
When he reached the shore of his clip-on world
He resurfaced to the norm
Organized his few things, his coat and keys
Any new realizations would have to wait
Till he had more time
More time
A time to dream
To himself
He waves goodbye
To himself
I'll see you on the other side
Another man moved by sleight of hand
He'd wake up, wash and pour himself into uniform
Something he hadn't imagined being
As the merging traffic passed
He found himself staring down
At his own hands
Not remembering the change
Not recalling the plan
Was it?...
He was okay
But wondering
About wandering
Was it age?
By consequence?
Or was he moved sleight of hand?
Mondays were made to fall
Lost on a road he knew by heart
It was like a book he read in his sleep, endlessly
Sometimes he hid in his radio
Watching others pull into their homes
While he was drifting
On a line
Of his own
Off the line
Off the side
By the by
As dirt turned to sand
As if moved by sleight of hand
When he reached the shore of his clip-on world
He resurfaced to the norm
Organized his few things, his coat and keys
Any new realizations would have to wait
Till he had more time
More time
A time to dream
To himself
He waves goodbye
To himself
I'll see you on the other side
Another man moved by sleight of hand
Lyrics submitted by Trent, edited by Mellow_Harsher
Sleight of Hand Lyrics as written by Jeff Ament Eddie Vedder
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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by Nasus on 06-01-2004 @ 04:14:57 AM
'Clip-on world' is a great phrase to sum up the idea of the entire song. Fake, pre-packaged..just handed to him. And 'dirt turned to sand'..what a way to describe growing up..just being broken into smaller and smaller pieces..great stuff here, writer's block my ass
................................................................................................... I completely agree, This song is definitely not suffering from Eddie's "Writer's Block"
I also completely agree with the theme of the song being about mid-life crisis....
The intro for the song just has a quality about it, like driving down an urban highway at night time,..I know that is definitely a difficult quality to express with a guitar....
Life's become routine, everything is predictable and has lost it's pizzaz...
Perhaps it's about someone going through a midlife crisis and finding solace in isolation? or in sitting life out? and the regrets they have from the crisis is that they sat it all out... they didn't live,.. but here's where the meaning of the song gets kinda murky...
the line"any new realizations would, have to wait" obviously suggests he has made some kind of change or came to a realization, but the previous verse is very shrouded in obscurity, it's very vague as to what it is exactly he has realized...
"On a line of his own. Off the line of the side. Bye the by. As dirt turned to sand. As if moved by sleight of hand." ^ Honestly, I am probably missing something very simple here, but what the hell does this verse mean? it obviously holds the "realization" but it doesn't reveal what it is to us...
The song really takes off after it hits the "More time" verse where the band kind of rocks out but slowly, more like pushing kinda... and Eddie closes the song out amazingly with the "I'll see you on the other side" line..
And the other side line suggests obviously that the person has changed or has begun to change, but to what we don't know....
This truly is a killer track, even if Binaural didn't sell many copies, I think this album is still better put together than alot of the half assed crap out there now...
Ok, nearly 7 years on I'm going to reply to your post ! <br /> with this: the line"any new realizations would, have to wait" obviously suggests he has made some kind of change or came to a realization, but the previous verse is very shrouded in obscurity, it's very vague as to what it is exactly he has realized...<br /> <br /> I interpreted it as that the subject in the song keeps putting things off and that even though he has 'realizations' now and again, perhaps dreaming of things he wished he could do or wanted to do, he keeps saying that he accomplish this 'realizations' at a later date. Think this goes along with the song in that at the end he just thinks fuck it, lets make the things i wanted to do and be happen now!<br /> <br />
@N0 C0DE 79 To me the realization is that he is trapped in his life, hence "As dirt turned to sand". Dirt is firm, you can walk over it, but sand can get you caught in it. As if moved by sleight of hand.<br /> <br /> I dont think the person changes, more like.. tries to forget about it, 'til the next time he thinks about his situation, and sees himself again.<br /> <br /> Its hard for me to listen to this song and enjoy it, it's really sad, but brilliant.