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.
Verse One:
I saw the rod-eye cross and murder circle above my turret
Slither spiraling banister down a hide
My ruby glass glazed specs staple to trade the market thieves
Where vendors cop the stolen citrus out they pyramids
Merry without a slapstick mavericks plugged directly to 3rd rail surges
Piss on electric mayhem through city commuter circuits
Oooh child, raises oddity, son of a circus side show freak
Pertinent to the slide show, the wino's leak but I won't speak
Infected projection hung thicken the air
Punching is burning plastics upon whiffing the nasal cringes
Pucker another 60-second lapse while 60 stars collapse the suckers
And I'm reborn every time the wine metamorphs back to water, my god
Sweet Christ crucify me with rail road spikes
Use my skull to bash them all in, gather sit and grin, weave
All fair the most serene communication's pageant
Where sitting with a stranger and living awards the badges
I spell Marry with my name stitched on my heritage
Incinerate arrogant simpletons to feed my cherished wind
Buried in leagues a please, thank you, pardon, excuse me
Your welcome, may I? ohh, I'd like to nod but no you may not
Let's take a deep breath, naw let's take a breath
Naw let's take, naw let's aaah shit, well I guess that about says it
Maybe I'll craft the sycamore canoe and paddle upstream
Where the luck seems to reflect precious lovely interventions
Chorus:
I have died a thousand deaths, and I apologize for you and yours
For kicking your fantasies overboard
I mean I'm only one servant, ayo one hell of a diversion
And if the masses have agreed to split the sea then let it bleed
I have died a thousand deaths, and I apologize for them and theirs
For breaking down their ropes, ladders and stairs
I mean I'm only one servant, ayo one hell of a diversion
And if the masses have agreed to split the sea then let it bleed
Verse Two:
You ever died a thousand deaths? I have
And in the morrow stood a thousand steps from where my nourish laughed
And made a boat at, nomad, I roam in a social coma
Jones and behome alone days sink how my poems I
Dig in the dirt I bring up the earth like pulley systems
Thereby painting the perfect metaphor for hung juries
Strung along a song of spawning thorns of fury
Numb the anti-add-alarm before he recognized this worries me
Carpet by my spearheading fink-eye beretta
Walk my line, now what? Now strut that little poison combine
Y'all call natural, in honesty promise me twenty thousand salami links
And dive and finding my thriving ivy leaves climbing up the pit fall
Lack of most lords aboard, heroes unsung heroes unbrung rewards
Yo if I flutter in a trouble clutch then I dance fancy forward
Like park children double dutching ropes in burning city summers
My wing span can and will employ full expansion
Unfolding while lamping at home with my hands spanning for gold
Told them the roof was on fire, when that structure burned to ashes
All y'all saw was Aesop Rock holding an empty book of matches
Maybe I'll sit until the spilling motors clear
Maybe I'll sit and stroke my billie goat beard
And rethink the time angels appear, maybe I won't
Bundled in my humble little plummet
Numb enough to die those thousand deaths under the sun it makes me sick
Chorus:
I have died a thousand deaths, and I apologize for you and yours
For kicking your fantasies overboard
I mean I'm only one servant, ayo one hell of a diversion
And if the masses have agreed to split the sea then let it bleed
I have died a thousand deaths, and I apologize for them and theirs
For breaking down their ropes, ladders and stairs
I mean I'm only one servant, ayo one hell of a diversion
And if the masses have agreed to split the sea then let it bleed
I have died a thousand deaths, and I apologize for you and yours
For kicking your fantasies overboard
I mean I'm only one servant, ayo one hell of a diversion
And if the masses have agreed to split the sea then let it bleed
I have died a thousand deaths, and I apologize for them and theirs
For breaking down their ropes, ladders and stairs
I mean I'm only one servant, ayo one hell of a diversion
And if the masses have agreed to split the sea then let it bleed
I saw the rod-eye cross and murder circle above my turret
Slither spiraling banister down a hide
My ruby glass glazed specs staple to trade the market thieves
Where vendors cop the stolen citrus out they pyramids
Merry without a slapstick mavericks plugged directly to 3rd rail surges
Piss on electric mayhem through city commuter circuits
Oooh child, raises oddity, son of a circus side show freak
Pertinent to the slide show, the wino's leak but I won't speak
Infected projection hung thicken the air
Punching is burning plastics upon whiffing the nasal cringes
Pucker another 60-second lapse while 60 stars collapse the suckers
And I'm reborn every time the wine metamorphs back to water, my god
Sweet Christ crucify me with rail road spikes
Use my skull to bash them all in, gather sit and grin, weave
All fair the most serene communication's pageant
Where sitting with a stranger and living awards the badges
I spell Marry with my name stitched on my heritage
Incinerate arrogant simpletons to feed my cherished wind
Buried in leagues a please, thank you, pardon, excuse me
Your welcome, may I? ohh, I'd like to nod but no you may not
Let's take a deep breath, naw let's take a breath
Naw let's take, naw let's aaah shit, well I guess that about says it
Maybe I'll craft the sycamore canoe and paddle upstream
Where the luck seems to reflect precious lovely interventions
Chorus:
I have died a thousand deaths, and I apologize for you and yours
For kicking your fantasies overboard
I mean I'm only one servant, ayo one hell of a diversion
And if the masses have agreed to split the sea then let it bleed
I have died a thousand deaths, and I apologize for them and theirs
For breaking down their ropes, ladders and stairs
I mean I'm only one servant, ayo one hell of a diversion
And if the masses have agreed to split the sea then let it bleed
Verse Two:
You ever died a thousand deaths? I have
And in the morrow stood a thousand steps from where my nourish laughed
And made a boat at, nomad, I roam in a social coma
Jones and behome alone days sink how my poems I
Dig in the dirt I bring up the earth like pulley systems
Thereby painting the perfect metaphor for hung juries
Strung along a song of spawning thorns of fury
Numb the anti-add-alarm before he recognized this worries me
Carpet by my spearheading fink-eye beretta
Walk my line, now what? Now strut that little poison combine
Y'all call natural, in honesty promise me twenty thousand salami links
And dive and finding my thriving ivy leaves climbing up the pit fall
Lack of most lords aboard, heroes unsung heroes unbrung rewards
Yo if I flutter in a trouble clutch then I dance fancy forward
Like park children double dutching ropes in burning city summers
My wing span can and will employ full expansion
Unfolding while lamping at home with my hands spanning for gold
Told them the roof was on fire, when that structure burned to ashes
All y'all saw was Aesop Rock holding an empty book of matches
Maybe I'll sit until the spilling motors clear
Maybe I'll sit and stroke my billie goat beard
And rethink the time angels appear, maybe I won't
Bundled in my humble little plummet
Numb enough to die those thousand deaths under the sun it makes me sick
Chorus:
I have died a thousand deaths, and I apologize for you and yours
For kicking your fantasies overboard
I mean I'm only one servant, ayo one hell of a diversion
And if the masses have agreed to split the sea then let it bleed
I have died a thousand deaths, and I apologize for them and theirs
For breaking down their ropes, ladders and stairs
I mean I'm only one servant, ayo one hell of a diversion
And if the masses have agreed to split the sea then let it bleed
I have died a thousand deaths, and I apologize for you and yours
For kicking your fantasies overboard
I mean I'm only one servant, ayo one hell of a diversion
And if the masses have agreed to split the sea then let it bleed
I have died a thousand deaths, and I apologize for them and theirs
For breaking down their ropes, ladders and stairs
I mean I'm only one servant, ayo one hell of a diversion
And if the masses have agreed to split the sea then let it bleed
Lyrics submitted by Ice
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Light Up The Sky
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him.
There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
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"
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.
Just A Little Lovin'
Dusty Springfield
Dusty Springfield
I don't think it's necessarily about sex. It's about wanting to start the day with some love and affection. Maybe a warm cuddle. I'm not alone in interpreting it that way! For example:
"'Just a Little Lovin’ is a timeless country song originally recorded by Eddy Arnold in 1954. The song, written by Eddie Miller and Jimmy Campbell, explores the delicate nuances of love and showcases Arnold’s emotive vocals. It delves into the universal theme of love and how even the smallest gesture of affection can have a profound impact on our lives." https://oldtimemusic.com/the-meaning-behind-the-song-just-a-little-lovin-by-eddy-arnold/
i think that "I spell Marry with my name stitched on my heritage" should be - "I spell merit with my name stitched on my heritage"