In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
Seventeen a nature's queen, know what I mean?
Twenty-one, a long one
You can see the numbers run
Now you look so peaceful, lyin' there asleep
With the wings of God above you
Before the spirits meet
Rock bottom, rock bottom, rock bottom
Rock bottom, rock bottom, rock bottom
Shadow earth is closin' in above the lamps in your street
Lucifer goes walkin' down for you to meet
Minutes pass so slowly by the hands on your clock
Heaven's door, just no way in
You can knock
Rock bottom, rock bottom, rock bottom
Rock bottom, rock bottom, rock bottom
With all darkness closin' in
Will the light reveal your soul?
Just one sweet kiss on your clay cold lips
Long, long sleep you'll never know
Where do we go, where do we go
Where do we go from here?
Seventeen a nature's queen, know what I mean?
Twenty-one, a long one
You can see the numbers run
Now you look so peaceful, lyin' there asleep
With the wings of God above you
Before the spirits meet
Rock bottom, rock bottom, rock bottom
Rock bottom, rock bottom, rock bottom
Twenty-one, a long one
You can see the numbers run
Now you look so peaceful, lyin' there asleep
With the wings of God above you
Before the spirits meet
Rock bottom, rock bottom, rock bottom
Rock bottom, rock bottom, rock bottom
Shadow earth is closin' in above the lamps in your street
Lucifer goes walkin' down for you to meet
Minutes pass so slowly by the hands on your clock
Heaven's door, just no way in
You can knock
Rock bottom, rock bottom, rock bottom
Rock bottom, rock bottom, rock bottom
With all darkness closin' in
Will the light reveal your soul?
Just one sweet kiss on your clay cold lips
Long, long sleep you'll never know
Where do we go, where do we go
Where do we go from here?
Seventeen a nature's queen, know what I mean?
Twenty-one, a long one
You can see the numbers run
Now you look so peaceful, lyin' there asleep
With the wings of God above you
Before the spirits meet
Rock bottom, rock bottom, rock bottom
Rock bottom, rock bottom, rock bottom
Lyrics submitted by Golgotha, edited by KillKiss, daddyouranos, MattCais
Rock Bottom Lyrics as written by Phillip John Mogg Michael Schenker
Lyrics © DELLA BLUE MUSIC LLC, Peermusic Publishing, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
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This is just what I am getting from these lyrics:
Theres a beautiful 17 year old girl, (nature's queen) and she is married to a 21 year old man (21 the lonely one). Now I'm not too sure about the numbers part, but when they sing, "Now you look so peaceful, lyin' there asleep" that sounds like she has died and is laying in her casket at a funeral, which would explain why her husband is lonely. And "With the wings of god above you before the spirits meet" might show that she is going to heaven. The next part about the shadows closing in is all about how her husband is dealing with his wife's death. Lucifer is the name of the devil, so maybe the husband wants to kill himself, but he doesn't want to go to hell, because he won't get to see his wife. The part about the days passing slowly is showing how time trudges on when you lose someone that you love. And when they're talking about heaven's door, it means that he is trying to take his own life to be with her (when you knock = suicide). The next little bit looks like the man is dying, and it is undecided where his soul is going (will the light reveal your soul?). Then he kisses her while he is dying, and she will never know because she is dead (one sweet kiss on your clay cold lips, in your sleep you'll never know). At the very end when they sing "where do we go, where do we go, where do we go from here?" It is talking about where our souls will go when our time is up in this world.
This is an amazing song with great lyrics, and some parts sound like they're talking about Romeo and Juliet, so that could be it too. Although Romeo is supposed to be 15, and Juliet 13, and in the song, the lovers are 21 and 17. But when the song is talking about the "one sweet kiss on your clay cold lips" it sounds quite like Romeo and Juliet, because Romeo kissed Juliet one last time before dying.
And what "Rock Bottom" has with it?<br />
This is very creative and very close. But, I think you've over analyzed it and introduced things like marriage and suicide of the man which really aren't in there. I think it is simpler. It's about one person, the girl. See gchadder3's interpretation below. I still liked your interpretation though.
awesome song people should really listen to bands like this
I have a completely different interpretation of this song than the others I'm seeing. I think the "17, nature's queen" and "21, the lone one" are the same person, that being a girl who was once very popular and a few years ago and finds she's now alone and in a hard world, and she can't deal with it. So, she commits suicide. Then, someone else, a man, comes along and sees her dead body and pretty face, and thinks it's a terrible shame--he might have wanted to know her--and he wonders if her act has condemned her in what might be her afterlife.
@gchadder3 This is the correct interpretation.
"Where do we go from here... " This is about life after death and if 'sin' is real... is sin something we should worry about.
@astropix there is no sin, everything is driven by nature, so it can't be sin, or nature itself is sin. there is also no life after death, when your brain dies, your soul dies. Because your soul is in your head and comprises of all the input of your lifetime. Ask the Thai people, they are the only ones, who know. You only live on in your children.
In six years, only two people before me have commented? My goodness - it appears more people are caught up in the atrocious noise we call music today than I thought.
This song is way, way ahead of its time. I remember the first time I heard it, I mistakened it for "New Wave of British Heavy Metal". I had the early 1980's in mind. I was shocked to learn "Rock Bottom" was released a full decade earlier - in 1973.
Only two bands at that time were making music even reminiscent to the sound of NWOBHM - Scheneker's UFO, and Sammy Hagar's band - Montrose. Thanks to Michael Scheneker, UFO blew people away by what a human being could do with a guitar, and even today, people are still jamming out to this guitar solo.
UFO existed before and after Michael Schenker, and it was never "Scheneker's UFO". Neither was it "Sammy Hagar's band - Montrose". It was Ronny Montrose's band, hence the name "Montrose".
Listen to the song around 0:45, it sounds like the lead singer is saying: I gotta fuck you XD
On the clay cold lips part he sounds like Ozzy-a little
What I get from these lyrics?
In my opinion the song speaks of an overdose and for youth gone astray. A young princess with a most noble soul is going to die. She can't reach the heaven she wished with the drugs - heaven does not open this way - but God's wings are still above her. Her lips are cold though. Her lover is desperate. "Where do we go from here?"
It's night and it's cold, and she may not pass the night if she isn't already dead. Will the daylight "reveal her soul?" The young boy promises that he will stay beside her. "I won't sleep". He has so much things he wants to tell her which she won't be able to listen. "You'll never know".
This is the "rock bottom" of a youth who tried to "get high" and wished for a blessing.
This is my interpretation. I believe that UFO have managed to express in that song the sensitivity of their era and to include the wounds of a whole generation. The chorus of "Rock Bottom" is not a song. It is a cry of agony and a prayer.
Omg. This is just a groupie song about being on the road. One night a 17, next a 21, see the numbers roll. A kiss on your cold clay lips refers to the moment a woman has an orgasm and her lips get cold because the blood is concentrated somewhere else. Easy as this. UFO is known for this kind of touring behavior and lyrics. I love the song.
I think, this song is about of beautiful, innocent life at 17 and then at 21 counting and aging and meeting the diabolic things of life and then Stairway to heaven.
@hans peter Sorry, I have to get this straight. This song was done after another song and poem: "The Unquiet Grave, and from a horror movie, where a dead girl and her lover meat and kisses her cold lips and sits by her side for one year, until she tells him to go and enjoy life and after his death, they will meet in heaven.(But be careful of Lucifer)
@hans peter Sorry, I have to get this straight. This song was done after another song and poem: "The Unquiet Grave, and from a horror movie, where a dead girl and her lover meat and kisses her cold lips and sits by her side for one year, until she tells him to go and enjoy life and after his death, they will meet in heaven.(But be careful of Lucifer)