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.
(It starts with one)
One thing, I don't know why
It doesn't even matter how hard you try
Keep that in mind; I designed this rhyme
To explain, in due time
All I know; time is a valuable thing
Watch it fly by as the pendulum swings
Watch it count down to the end of the day
The clock ticks life away, it's so unreal
Didn't look out below
Watched the time go right out the window
Trying to hold on, but didn't even know
I wasted it all just to watch you go
I kept everything inside
And even though I tried, it all fell apart
What it meant to me will eventually be
A memory of a time when
I tried so hard and got so far
But in the end, it doesn't even matter
I had to fall to lose it all
But in the end, it doesn't even matter
One thing, I don't know why
It doesn't even matter how hard you try
Keep that in mind; I designed this rhyme
To remind myself how I tried so hard
In spite of the way you were mocking me
Acting like I was part of your property
Remembering all the times you fought with me
I'm surprised it got so (far)
Things aren't the way they were before
You wouldn't even recognize me anymore
Not that you knew me back then
But it all comes back to me in the end
You kept everything inside
And even though I tried, it all fell apart
What it meant to me will eventually be
A memory of a time when
I tried so hard and got so far
But in the end, it doesn't even matter
I had to fall to lose it all
But in the end, it doesn't even matter
I've put my trust in you, pushed as far as I can go
For all this, there's only one thing you should know
I've put my trust in you, pushed as far as I can go
For all this, there's only one thing you should know
I tried so hard and got so far
But in the end, it doesn't even matter
I had to fall to lose it all
But in the end, it doesn't even matter
One thing, I don't know why
It doesn't even matter how hard you try
Keep that in mind; I designed this rhyme
To explain, in due time
All I know; time is a valuable thing
Watch it fly by as the pendulum swings
Watch it count down to the end of the day
The clock ticks life away, it's so unreal
Didn't look out below
Watched the time go right out the window
Trying to hold on, but didn't even know
I wasted it all just to watch you go
I kept everything inside
And even though I tried, it all fell apart
What it meant to me will eventually be
A memory of a time when
I tried so hard and got so far
But in the end, it doesn't even matter
I had to fall to lose it all
But in the end, it doesn't even matter
One thing, I don't know why
It doesn't even matter how hard you try
Keep that in mind; I designed this rhyme
To remind myself how I tried so hard
In spite of the way you were mocking me
Acting like I was part of your property
Remembering all the times you fought with me
I'm surprised it got so (far)
Things aren't the way they were before
You wouldn't even recognize me anymore
Not that you knew me back then
But it all comes back to me in the end
You kept everything inside
And even though I tried, it all fell apart
What it meant to me will eventually be
A memory of a time when
I tried so hard and got so far
But in the end, it doesn't even matter
I had to fall to lose it all
But in the end, it doesn't even matter
I've put my trust in you, pushed as far as I can go
For all this, there's only one thing you should know
I've put my trust in you, pushed as far as I can go
For all this, there's only one thing you should know
I tried so hard and got so far
But in the end, it doesn't even matter
I had to fall to lose it all
But in the end, it doesn't even matter
Lyrics submitted by Matt, edited by RidwanRais, sokorny
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"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
Mountain Song
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Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
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There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
This song taps into a universal concern: hyper-awareness of time and the inculcated need to do something 'constructive' with it. Most of us spend most of our lives in a dilemma just trying to decide what course of action to take from the debilitating infinity of possibilities supposedly within our grasp. Remember that time didn't exist for most people even 100 years ago, at least not in terms of the seconds ticking by with the 'pendulum swinging'. Time is a modern invention, and along with the atomisation of human 'society' and the dehumanising effects of technology, accounts for the anxiety of the post-war generations. If you do the maths, the population has expanded massively while opportunities have only increased slightly, despite the big lie that there are opportunities for all if you just try hard enough. This song is about the realisation of this lie, and the unquenchable anger that is directed towards the self in this individualistic age. This is the greatest achievement of the neo-liberal capitalist democracy - we are supposedly free and unbounded so when we fail we beat ourselves up instead of having social revolutions. For me, this song is the greatest emotional evocation of this dire mental situation, and is best served up with a dose of early Manic Street Preachers for the intellectual and political side of things.
Profound, sir.
Just a small comment, Time as we know it is older then a 100 years ago,<br /> The first sundial was made in 3500 BC The first mechanical clock in 1092 AD, the first modern clock in 1368, and the first watch in 1510.<br /> It was around the 1540's (when Big Ben was made) that people truly begin to become slaves to time. I still agree with your point I was just sayo g.
Thank you
@Liminal2 <br /> You sure think you're smart, don't you. At least you knew what it was you were saying. However, bringing in unrelated topics like the effects of technology was amateurish. Trying to craft this musical masterpiece into a dissertation of society's perception of the concept of time is absurd. It utterly ignores the blatant interpersonal descriptions concerning the soured relationship the second verse deals with. The song is not a repetition of the first verse, the first verse merely sets the stage for the story Mike is telling, as it should. Clearly many were fooled into trusting your formidable vocabulary, but I am afraid that spouting educated interpretations with no basis in reality will only win over the undiscerning.
@Shadowtalons17, yes you're right there is a whole interpersonal relationship angle in the second verse - I read it as a son rejecting a father's controlling influence. The father acts like the son is 'part of his property' and an extension of his own ego. But the great thing about this song is that the personal level (father putting pressure on son to conform and achieve) is intertwined with the wider societal pressure I talked about in my first comment (pressure to achieve with the clock ticking away your youth, and the internalisation of failure). So the bridge lyrics 'I put my trust in you' could mean trusting the father's egocentric plans for him, or it could mean 'you' the societal system which he rebels against by joining a metal band. It's like when Rage Against the Machine say 'fuck you I won't do what you tell me' - is 'you' a person, or an entire system of control and conformism? Complex ideas need complex words and sentence structures, and I think it's rather patronizing to say that everyone who voted my original comment up was just blinded by vocabulary. Perhaps they found it refreshing to read a comment on here that doesn't just say 'it's about a relationship'?
@Liminal2 it is not fcking love song ffs wtf
@Liminal2 <br /> Read the uni bomber manifesto, (hint: Its not about bombing people). What you say is correct, what shadowtalons17 says disregards our current world. In all of world history never has there been a time like the last 150 years (since the industrial revolution). Time is a valuable thing, these days, for survival
@Liminal2
@Liminal2 I have just joined with this site to decipher the meaning of this song especially as it plays in the background of my dreams and what you have said is everything I agree with
@Liminal2 A very erudite and thoughtful critique,nice job....and thanks for using the term MATHS-the Correct way to use it,you must be here in the UK....Well done.
@Liminal2 Friendly reminded that communism doesn't work and never will
Easy to Interpret: The guy is talking about how much time he has wasted on some girl he was probably with.
And he mentions that he remembers all the times she fought with him and treated him as if he were her property.
He even mentions that he put his trust in her and pushed too far into the relationship and in the end it didn't even matter because she walked off from his life.
He then mentions that she wouldn't recognize him anymore after all the years they haven't seen each other.
He even says: Not that you knew me back then, but it all comes back to me in the end.
Meaning: that the girl he was with barely knew him, even if they were together. and he's starting to remember it all.
The point of this song: Don't waste your time on someone you think you love, who doesn't even care about you, you're wasting too much time. And in the end, you will regret it.
That's pretty much what I got from it.
I can relate to this song 'cause I went through this years ago.
Me too Jet. When I went through what you obviously did, it meant only that to me. Heartbreak ridden. Thankfully, I left her (after trying every angle I could think of), life got much better. Still love the song, but it's nice to listen to it w/o getting a lump in my throat. That's not to say there can't be other interpretations I imagine; that's the nice thing about most music....if it moves you, it moves you.
@JetStorm17277 You nailed it
@JetStorm17277 got it on the spot. I can relate to your explanation so mucn
can every1 stop saying they like the song or why they like it and talk about the lyrics meaning please
I like this band
@billythepub, I'm not gonna go off on some stupid ass rant, but I am going to tell u that people are entitled to their opinions, so don't tell them not to express it if they like the song. peace out, god bless.
@billythepub @if ur 555 im 6(sic)6 No one's denying that, it just seems bizarre for them to go onto a website called "songmeanings" just to tell everyone how much they love a song without discussing its meaning. <br /> <br /> They're entitled to their opinions and other people are entitled to find those opinions unnecessary and irrelevant to the point of the website they're being posted on.
@billythepub yeah what is the meaning of this song anyway?
The nice thing about lyrics is their ability to mean something different to everyone. Most people have said they relate to this song in terms of boyfriend/girlfriend relationships. Why not? The lyrics can certainly be seen that way. He is singing to someone... that is obvious. Likewise the interpretation that he is singing about life and death, and how the things we do in life don't matter in the end is also a very valid interpretation. The song being about Chester's addiction to coke is also a possibility. The point of this website, I I expect, is to raise awareness about the different aspects of this song. Not to diss it, or to compare it with Nsyncs bubblegum "hip pop". The point is to tell people what you hear of yourself in this song... it has the ability to affect someone deeply at the very roots of their emotional stability. With respect to the interpretations of others (you can agree with me or not) I see the song like this: The singer is angry. Hurt and pain radiates from his voice, and it is emphasized by the heavy drumbeats and guitar strains. It doesn't matter, he says. In the end it doesn't even matter. Haven't we all felt that way? At least once in our lives haven't we felt that someone is "mocking" us, "acting like I was part of your property" and people who you fought with (your parents? Boyfriend, girlfriend? Teachers? Friends?)"I've put my trust in you..." we all trust someone, even if it's only ourselves. We always get let down, by ourselves or by others (perhaps you expected a better grade than you got... or perhaps your parents got divorced, or your significant other left you) at some point because it's a part of being human. "Time is a valuable thing, watch it fly by as the pendulum swings..." As humans, we are fleeting creatures. We have less than a century to accomplish something worthwhile. That accomplishment could be in a medicinal cure, leading a country-- or even loving someone, raising a child to be better off than you were. We only have so long to do these things, and always we see the prospect of death looming ahead. And it's when we fail that songs like this come into play... I could've done better, I tried so hard to make it work, to do things right... now I failed, I'm out of time, it doesn't even matter... The first half of the song is in reference to the permanent time frame which we have in life to accomplish something. The seconf half refers to the specific event itself... which will mean different things to everyone. Agree with me or not, this is my opinion.
I thought this was a site where one writes their interpretation of the lyrics of a song, not where you simply say thst you are so cool because you listened to the band before everyone else. Or that you don't like the band......if this is the case go visit a site with a band you do like and make a posative intellectual comment.
yeah i don't think people got it it say's song meanings and "this song rocks" isn't the meaning of the song.
yeah i know right how can people hate this song
OMG! THANK YOU! I'm here scrolling down looking for a "meaning" and people are like... "OMG, this band rocks!" Ugh! continues to scroll down
@missheidijo lmao u literally wasted a comment by complaining about people not sharing their interpretation . Least u coulda done is OFFER AN INTERPRETATION IN YOUR POST AS WELL.
what I thought this song meant is that no matter what you do in your life or who you attempt to impress, when it comes down to it, it was all for nothing...so all that effort and time was wasted on something that never really mattered
i don't think they are saying everything you try and do is worthless,he's more singing about a certain incident/few incidents that went wrong and now he's heartbroken
"I Tried so hard and got so far but in the end it doesn't even matter" -me after I get my test grades back
@RejectedBaller same here bro
Hi, I'm David, aka Liminal2. I wrote the top voted comment back in 2011 when I was having a really tough time. Like you, I am heartbroken losing Chester just two months after Chris Cornell. Keep your heads down and your eyes on the road my friends, these are difficult times. If you feel you can't take it any more, before you do anything drastic please message me on here and I will reply. We must help each other through these dark times. Peace, love and unity :)
@Liminal2 Thank you for sharing all those years ago. One of the best comments of any song. Comments that I had read recently, due to me listening to Linkin Park lately.<br /> <br /> The End has always been one of those songs I listen to when I feel that what I am doing is for nothing.<br /> The song One More Light off the new album, is like In the End Part 2 (lyrically)<br /> <br /> Take care David and Thank you!
I've decided that this song will be my anthem this summer while I'm rebuilding from falling short in my wrestling season. Damn right I fell apart, and I lost everything I worked for, leaving all my blood sweat and tears to waste. Linkin Park is probably one of, if not the best, at being real with their music. I love how they don't worry about being rich, they don't worry about being famous. They worry about spreading the message of just fighting through the rough times, and earning every second of success.
This song is about a guy who was in a relationship with a girl who wasn't really interested in him. by the time she's gone he realizes that all his hard work trying to rebuild what they had was all for nothing, that he has nothing to show for it, and that in the end none of it mattered. At least that's my interpretation.
Of course this could be applied to anything that a person has worked so hard to accomplish but in the end when he fails doesn't matter.
@wbninjakiwi42 agreed. (Y)