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.
I am the son
And the heir
Of a shyness that is criminally vulgar
I am the son and heir
Of nothing in particular
You shut your mouth
How can you say
I go about things the wrong way?
I am human and I need to be loved
Just like everybody else does
I am the son
And the heir
Of a shyness that is criminally vulgar
I am the son and heir
Of nothing in particular
You shut your mouth
How can you say
I go about things the wrong way?
I am human and I need to be loved
Just like everybody else does
There's a club if you'd like to go
You could meet somebody who really loves you
So you go and you stand on your own
And you leave on your own
And you go home and you cry
And you want to die
When you say it's gonna happen now
When exactly do you mean?
See I've already waited too long
And all my hope is gone
You shut your mouth
How can you say
I go about things the wrong way?
I am human and I need to be loved
Just like everybody else does
And the heir
Of a shyness that is criminally vulgar
I am the son and heir
Of nothing in particular
You shut your mouth
How can you say
I go about things the wrong way?
I am human and I need to be loved
Just like everybody else does
I am the son
And the heir
Of a shyness that is criminally vulgar
I am the son and heir
Of nothing in particular
You shut your mouth
How can you say
I go about things the wrong way?
I am human and I need to be loved
Just like everybody else does
There's a club if you'd like to go
You could meet somebody who really loves you
So you go and you stand on your own
And you leave on your own
And you go home and you cry
And you want to die
When you say it's gonna happen now
When exactly do you mean?
See I've already waited too long
And all my hope is gone
You shut your mouth
How can you say
I go about things the wrong way?
I am human and I need to be loved
Just like everybody else does
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Light Up The Sky
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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"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"
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
Here's what I think:
"I am the son and the heir of a shyness that is criminally vulgar"
I'm a product of my own shyness. What you see now, my behaviour now, is the consequence of years and years of shyness and being scared to deal with people.
"I am the son and the heir of nothing in particular"
But it's nothing important, really. Just like me.
"You shut your mouth how can you say I go about things the wrong way I am human and I need to be loved just like everybody else does"
This is towards the people who are always giving me advice about how to get women and tell me what I'm doing doesn't work, that I need to do such and such. But then, I want people who love me for who I am, not who I appear to be. Who are they to tell me my methods are wrong?
"There's a club if you'd like to go you could meet somebody who really loves you so you go, and you stand on your own and you leave on your own and you go home, and you cry and you want to die"
This is really self explanatory (and highly biographical for me...) I go to a club, which is supposedly the dating scene or whatever, but then nobody really gives a shit about me and I'm too self-conscious to start dancing because I've tried it before and only made a fool out myself. So I stand there alone. Then I go home. Cry. Want to die.
"When you say it's gonna happen "now" well, when exactly do you mean? see I've already waited too long and all my hope is gone"
People are always telling me that "oh you'll find someone one of these days" Yeah, but when? I'm tired of looking and always come up with empty disappointment. Nobody's interested in me and the girls I get interested in don't really care about me. So I think I won't get anyone, cause when I really really want it to happen, it never does.
(Here's when I start listening to "Please please please, let me get what I want")
@RockyHoward - I hope you don't still feel this way. This sounds exactly like what my husband use to say happened to him (get that? He's my husband and he waited for 3.5 decades!) Anyhow, this is his favorite song and I think you both interpret the lyrics the same way. It makes me sad to think about him that way (in his old life) and sad to think that anyone else might be going through this. This might sounds cliche and empty but "hang in there... "
I am the son and the heir<br /> <br /> I like your meaning but want to add my thoughts on this sentence:<br /> <br /> I am the son refers to nature. I am the heir refers to nurture. Basically they recognize what mother nature has given them and what they were taught (inherited). They are saying both nature and nurture has made them into this person who they are.<br /> <br /> I am the son and heir of nothing in particular means they don't stick out because of anything nature or how they were raised sticks out.<br /> <br /> I am human and I need to be loved is dismissing everything nature and nurture did and gets to the very basic of what every human needs: Love.
OMG now this makes so much sense now! And it's exactly how I've been feeling like for a long time! (and still feel sometimes...) :'(
@rockyhoward Why do you assume it's about 'getting women'? Knowing Morrissey it's probably about getting men. <br /> <br /> Here's a tip - it's probably the way you think about women that turns them off you. 'Getting women' and 'methods'... women aren't objects for you to 'obtain' by some tried and true pulling method. How about conceptualising them as whole human beings with their own dreams and hopes and insecurities and getting to know them first without an ulterior motive to get in their pants..that might get you somewhere.
@rockyhoward I hope that this still isn't the case with you! Although I understand completely the way you feel, I felt the same and I hated going out because of it. I think this is a human condition no matter who you are attracted to!
@rockyhoward I would add that the person Morrissey is talking to in this song is an authority/parental figure. I'd say either his mother or father. A parent can often critique that you are "going about things in the wrong way." The parent is suggesting that he goes to the club and such, and he never really connects with anybody. He is getting nagging unhelpful advice; his mother or father are vague and just say "it" (I'd say connection, love) will happen now... but it just isn't happening for him.
@rockyhoward <br /> It's extremely prejudice of you to assume the singer is the teller and the object of the singer is the opposite gender. Most (if not all) the songs were genderless and inherently ambiguous for ANY listener to relate to. I also feel justified in thinking the author would also validate/agree with my answer to you