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.
[Aesop Rock]
Yo change the fuckin channel
I burn a Coma candle
When the flame fades, consider my flatline a soldier's sample
We them cats talkin noise behind that New York trash heap
Where the stench of commuter briefcase replaces a bad sleep
And it's, worker zig-zagers versus piggy batch flashers
Training Generation Fallout
Waterfall bricklayer pincushion crawl out
There's smoke in my iris
But I painted a sunny day on the insides of my eyelids
So I'm ready now (What you ready for?)
I'm ready for life in this city
And my wings have grown almost enough to lift me
I'm a dinosaur with Jones Beach in my hourglass
Passing the time with serial killer coloringbooks and bags of marbles
Don't tell me you ain't the droid that held the match to the charcoals
Don't tell me Lucifer and God don't carpool
(This is our school)
I'm not trying to graduate to life at the curse on the lounge barstool
Head in a jar on the desk, feet dangling in a shark pool
(Man please) Man please
My name stands for my being
And my being stands for the woman who stood
And braved the storm could raise this evening
(Brother, sun, sister, moon, mother beautiful)
Yeah middle sibling suitable but far from son of excellence
Back in a long time agi, I was to way the wishes wish
But Mister Smits, I slept through my appointment
Saw the liquid dreams of a thousand babies solidify
And picked the rose and wielded
The second I introduced myself as Nervous
Well it appears the scars of learning have spoken
Some are burning, some have rosen
Some deserve tall tales, some have wrote them
Some are just a brutal reprocussion of devotion
Mine are all of the above cuz everything leads to erosion
Now where I live there's a homeless man
He sits upon a crate
He makes a rusty trumpet sound like the music that angels make
Now if you ever come and visit me, I suggest you watch the show
Tell him Aesop Rock sent ya just to hear his horn blow like this
*Horn samples*
[Aesop Rock]
And I ain't getting any younger
My knuckles wear their bruises well
I've yet to lose that hunger
But only time can tell
Prodigal Son with a prodigal wish to sew that prodigal stitch
And crucify bigot voodoo doll on two popsicle sticks
See your name is Ambiguity
My name is something hands can't hold
But hearts part ocean scapes just to watch the starlet unfold
It's like sketching a circle in the dirt with a pointed stick
Knowing the wind'll kill it some day, still it calls my burning wits for now
And if I plow the fields that don't guarantee plentiful harvest
But starving artists die, I set my alarm for five o'clock
Idols block survival crops the cycle stops for nothing
The Bible's carp revivalist winos flock by the hundreds
To the opening, scarlet carpets greeting their duel
Leading the stubborn mule to cruel rugburn
But y'all numb from gut fuel
I administer eclispe, there ain't no motor like a martyr-made motor
Cuz a martyr-made motor don't quit
I am an epiphany, I am wet foot mammal
Channel surfing my way to the top
Tugboat in a bottle
With no holes poked in the nozzle
I fed em bedlam diluted in limelight
Till that rookie boogie graduated hostile
And the vehicle is grandeur and it veered over the medium
The second my halo ran outta helium
Demoted to thorn crown, damn talk about numbskull
I was born bound to a stencil called symmetry
But my energy's a rental
So I take this now to save
My cute seniorita beholding a flame to a lost wick
Thank you James Anthony for the band-aids on my ego
Y'all are family for life
I'll take that bullet to preserve you
I wanna be something spectacular
On the day the sun runs outta batteries
Attach my fashion to the casualties of anarchy
Save my nickels up to buy that homeless man a brand new horn
Then sit up on his crate as I witness the beauty born like this
(I ain't gettin any younger)
*Horn samples to end*
Yo change the fuckin channel
I burn a Coma candle
When the flame fades, consider my flatline a soldier's sample
We them cats talkin noise behind that New York trash heap
Where the stench of commuter briefcase replaces a bad sleep
And it's, worker zig-zagers versus piggy batch flashers
Training Generation Fallout
Waterfall bricklayer pincushion crawl out
There's smoke in my iris
But I painted a sunny day on the insides of my eyelids
So I'm ready now (What you ready for?)
I'm ready for life in this city
And my wings have grown almost enough to lift me
I'm a dinosaur with Jones Beach in my hourglass
Passing the time with serial killer coloringbooks and bags of marbles
Don't tell me you ain't the droid that held the match to the charcoals
Don't tell me Lucifer and God don't carpool
(This is our school)
I'm not trying to graduate to life at the curse on the lounge barstool
Head in a jar on the desk, feet dangling in a shark pool
(Man please) Man please
My name stands for my being
And my being stands for the woman who stood
And braved the storm could raise this evening
(Brother, sun, sister, moon, mother beautiful)
Yeah middle sibling suitable but far from son of excellence
Back in a long time agi, I was to way the wishes wish
But Mister Smits, I slept through my appointment
Saw the liquid dreams of a thousand babies solidify
And picked the rose and wielded
The second I introduced myself as Nervous
Well it appears the scars of learning have spoken
Some are burning, some have rosen
Some deserve tall tales, some have wrote them
Some are just a brutal reprocussion of devotion
Mine are all of the above cuz everything leads to erosion
Now where I live there's a homeless man
He sits upon a crate
He makes a rusty trumpet sound like the music that angels make
Now if you ever come and visit me, I suggest you watch the show
Tell him Aesop Rock sent ya just to hear his horn blow like this
*Horn samples*
[Aesop Rock]
And I ain't getting any younger
My knuckles wear their bruises well
I've yet to lose that hunger
But only time can tell
Prodigal Son with a prodigal wish to sew that prodigal stitch
And crucify bigot voodoo doll on two popsicle sticks
See your name is Ambiguity
My name is something hands can't hold
But hearts part ocean scapes just to watch the starlet unfold
It's like sketching a circle in the dirt with a pointed stick
Knowing the wind'll kill it some day, still it calls my burning wits for now
And if I plow the fields that don't guarantee plentiful harvest
But starving artists die, I set my alarm for five o'clock
Idols block survival crops the cycle stops for nothing
The Bible's carp revivalist winos flock by the hundreds
To the opening, scarlet carpets greeting their duel
Leading the stubborn mule to cruel rugburn
But y'all numb from gut fuel
I administer eclispe, there ain't no motor like a martyr-made motor
Cuz a martyr-made motor don't quit
I am an epiphany, I am wet foot mammal
Channel surfing my way to the top
Tugboat in a bottle
With no holes poked in the nozzle
I fed em bedlam diluted in limelight
Till that rookie boogie graduated hostile
And the vehicle is grandeur and it veered over the medium
The second my halo ran outta helium
Demoted to thorn crown, damn talk about numbskull
I was born bound to a stencil called symmetry
But my energy's a rental
So I take this now to save
My cute seniorita beholding a flame to a lost wick
Thank you James Anthony for the band-aids on my ego
Y'all are family for life
I'll take that bullet to preserve you
I wanna be something spectacular
On the day the sun runs outta batteries
Attach my fashion to the casualties of anarchy
Save my nickels up to buy that homeless man a brand new horn
Then sit up on his crate as I witness the beauty born like this
(I ain't gettin any younger)
*Horn samples to end*
Lyrics submitted by Ice
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I believe this is about Aesop's struggle to make it as a artist, to keep his head above water and make money to live. He is the Martyr (ain't no motor like a martyr made motor cause a martyr made motor don't quit) prepared to suffer or already suffering for his cause (to become an artist/struggling to live and pay the bills)
The first few lines is just describing his surroundings New York in his own complex way.
"There's smoke in my iris but I painted a sunny day on the insides of my eyelids" This is him struggling smoke and mist blocking the way but hes is not becoming depressed instead he is fighting through it (pretty much the Make Lemonade thing as Kr0n said)
"I'm a dinosaur with Jones Beach in my hourglass" Jones beach is a reference to a place in New York im not sure what dinosaur means but hourglass must symbolises time or the future as in he is planing to go to jones beach
"I'm not trying to graduate to life with a personalised barstool head in a jar on the desk, feet dangling in a shark pool" He dos not want to become another washed-up drunk, he wants to become something so he writes (head in a jar on the desk) and he is in deep trying to survive (dangling in shark pool can have many meanings)
"I ain't getting any younger my knuckles wear their bruises well i've yet to lose that hunger but only time can tell prodigal Son with a prodigal wish to sew that prodigal stitch and crucify bigot voodoo doll on two popsicle sticks" This fits in with the struggling artist theme hes getting old still fighting, and has been in many fights to make it, he still has a passion to make it and prove bigots wrong
The Homeless Man is a metaphor for him, he is a bum but has talent and wants to be recognized and probably really exists as the song is basically a recount of him walking down the street one day and his thoughts in an overly complex way with some wordplay thrown in. Also some of the lyrics require more knowledge of him on a personal scale or on that day