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.
He met this girl from reno
Whose life was a competition.
She looked just like a china doll
With porcelain skin she knew he'd let her win.
So he fell for her,
As if he fell from his mother into the arms of a lover.
And he swore not to leave her side,
For better or for worse (whichever comes first).
Sadly the latter arose.
She met this boy from omaha
Whose life was handed to him...
But still, he wanted everything.
His dreams were his ruin,
And she couldn't wake him up.
But the bough broke and he fell.
Like the time he fell from his mother
Into the arms of a doctor.
So he cried like that first day of his life.
He knew he had broken this beautiful porcelain
And how could their world be the same?
And so it never was the same.
She whispers his name,
"I'll stay if you want, but I could never be who you
Imagined me to be I'll stay I don't know what else to do...
But I can't change for you I won't change for you"
Whose life was a competition.
She looked just like a china doll
With porcelain skin she knew he'd let her win.
So he fell for her,
As if he fell from his mother into the arms of a lover.
And he swore not to leave her side,
For better or for worse (whichever comes first).
Sadly the latter arose.
She met this boy from omaha
Whose life was handed to him...
But still, he wanted everything.
His dreams were his ruin,
And she couldn't wake him up.
But the bough broke and he fell.
Like the time he fell from his mother
Into the arms of a doctor.
So he cried like that first day of his life.
He knew he had broken this beautiful porcelain
And how could their world be the same?
And so it never was the same.
She whispers his name,
"I'll stay if you want, but I could never be who you
Imagined me to be I'll stay I don't know what else to do...
But I can't change for you I won't change for you"
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Light Up The Sky
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Lord Huron
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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"
Mental Istid
Ebba Grön
Ebba Grön
This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
this song goes in circles and catches its tail. there's like 5 different sub-ideas running through the lyrics, the idea of her being porcelain, of the difference between the two of them, a comparison between the biblical definition of marriage (a man leaves his mother to cling to his wife) and then the end of the marriage like being born, into a world that's cold and cruel. first he talks of his real mother then compares the marriage to the safety of being in the womb.
and then caps it off with the reason it didn't work "i can't change for you" and furthermore " i won't change for you" how sometimes no matter how much you want to change, you can't, and the reasons is simply because you won't, because maybe you don't know how, or maybe a completely different reason.
always people WANT to do things but they WON'T.
I love the last line in this song....
So it never was the same She wispers his name, "I'll stay, if you want, but I could never be who you imagine me to be, I'll stay, I don't know what else to do, but I can't change for you. I won't change for you"
:)
This song is heartbreakingly beautiful through the combination of his lyrics and the tune and melody. It's gorgeous.
God, the weight and sorrow that hits you when he mumbles, ". . . so it never was the same . . ."
God.
a very lovely little song
favorite song from the good life...its just great.
oh wow...i can't even tell you how much i needed to hear the last few lines of this song...It describes my 'relationship' with this guy so well...It's scary...Good tune, for sure.
I'm so glad people have commented on this song. It's my favorite song from The Good Life as well and it's so bleepin' sad, it's unbelievable. Honestly, I can't listen to it that often because it just crushes me. So beautiful and tragic. The whole CD of Novena on a Nocturn is truly described by the "overwhelming sad" he sings about in the opening track. Anyhow, I think this is just an amazing song about the beginning and end of his relationship with his former wife.
oh wow...i can't even tell you how much i needed to hear the last few lines of this song...It describes my 'relationship' with this guy so well...It's scary...Good tune, for sure.
amazing song.. favorite good life song by far.. one of those songs where you put the CD in just to hear that song.. yeah.