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 man holding a megaphone
He must have been the voice of God
The bystanders claimed they saw angels
Flying up and down the block
Well, they must have been attached to wires
I've seen one laying in the lawn with a broken arm
So I called 911
Well, that's one less founded opinion
One more cause for a dispute
So the street filled like a basin
Up with cameras and their crews
And they washed away the rumors
Leaving just the concrete truth
It was a spectacle
No, I, I mean a miracle
So I fell like a girl from a balance beam
A gymnasium of eyes, all are holding on to me
I lifted one foot to cross the other and I felt myself slipping
It was a small mistake
Sometimes that's all it takes
Now I'm staring at my wrist
Hoping that the timing is right
When the planets will align
There will be no planets to align
Just the carcass of the sun
With little painted marbles
Spinning senseless through an endless black sky
And so it never started
And it will never stop
Just like I am and you are
It was in a foreign hotel bathtub
I baptized myself in change
And one by one, I drowned all of the people I had been
And I emerged to find the parallels were fewer
I was cleansed
I looked in the mirror and someone new was there
But I was as helpless as a chess piece
When I was lifted up by someone's hand
And delivered from the corner
My enemies had got me in
But in all of my salvation I still felt imprisoned inside
That holding cell that is myself
So I wait for the day when I'll hear the key
As it turns in the lock and the guard will say to me
"Oh, my patient prisoner, you have waited for this day and finally
You are free, you are free, you are freezing"
Now I'm staring at the sun
Waiting for it to explode
Because a day is gonna come
Don't know when, but it will come
And we'll finally know the way out of here
And I'll throw away this wrinkled map
And my chart of stars and compass, cracked
And I'll climb that tree all wet with sap
To avoid the hungry beasts below
I'll cut out my lover's tongue and sing
Of a graveyard grey and a garden green
And we won't have to worry no more
No, we won't have to wonder again
About how this song or story ends
About how this song and story will end
He must have been the voice of God
The bystanders claimed they saw angels
Flying up and down the block
Well, they must have been attached to wires
I've seen one laying in the lawn with a broken arm
So I called 911
Well, that's one less founded opinion
One more cause for a dispute
So the street filled like a basin
Up with cameras and their crews
And they washed away the rumors
Leaving just the concrete truth
It was a spectacle
No, I, I mean a miracle
So I fell like a girl from a balance beam
A gymnasium of eyes, all are holding on to me
I lifted one foot to cross the other and I felt myself slipping
It was a small mistake
Sometimes that's all it takes
Now I'm staring at my wrist
Hoping that the timing is right
When the planets will align
There will be no planets to align
Just the carcass of the sun
With little painted marbles
Spinning senseless through an endless black sky
And so it never started
And it will never stop
Just like I am and you are
It was in a foreign hotel bathtub
I baptized myself in change
And one by one, I drowned all of the people I had been
And I emerged to find the parallels were fewer
I was cleansed
I looked in the mirror and someone new was there
But I was as helpless as a chess piece
When I was lifted up by someone's hand
And delivered from the corner
My enemies had got me in
But in all of my salvation I still felt imprisoned inside
That holding cell that is myself
So I wait for the day when I'll hear the key
As it turns in the lock and the guard will say to me
"Oh, my patient prisoner, you have waited for this day and finally
You are free, you are free, you are freezing"
Now I'm staring at the sun
Waiting for it to explode
Because a day is gonna come
Don't know when, but it will come
And we'll finally know the way out of here
And I'll throw away this wrinkled map
And my chart of stars and compass, cracked
And I'll climb that tree all wet with sap
To avoid the hungry beasts below
I'll cut out my lover's tongue and sing
Of a graveyard grey and a garden green
And we won't have to worry no more
No, we won't have to wonder again
About how this song or story ends
About how this song and story will end
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I don't really interpret this song as hopeful. I think it's more of a cynical song about religion. "there was a man holding a megaphone, it must have been the voice of god" and all of the references to angels, and then one has a broken arm. I think it's about how no one really knows if their is a god, and if there will be salvation for us. How we're all just lemmings waiting for death to find out, and how faith really is just that, faith in the fact that there might be something outside of the physical being. When he says "i mean, a a miracle" thats a crack on people who call such things miracles rather than just being chance. HE's waiting for his chance to find out the truth. He wants to change, so he did, he didnt wait for divine intervention. I also think he may have attempted suicide at one point, and i know he's thought about it. no lies just love states that he thoughta bout it.....all in my opinion...