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.
The clouds prepare for battle
In the dark and brooding silence
Bruised and sullen storm clouds
Have the light of day obscured
Looming low and ominous
In twilight premature
Thunderheads are rumbling
In a distant overture
All at once,
The clouds are parted
Light streams down
In bright unbroken beams
Follow men's eyes
As they look to the skies
The shifting shafts of shining
Weave the fabric of their dreams
In the dark and brooding silence
Bruised and sullen storm clouds
Have the light of day obscured
Looming low and ominous
In twilight premature
Thunderheads are rumbling
In a distant overture
All at once,
The clouds are parted
Light streams down
In bright unbroken beams
Follow men's eyes
As they look to the skies
The shifting shafts of shining
Weave the fabric of their dreams
Lyrics submitted by maxthedork, edited by chp2112
Jacob's Ladder Lyrics as written by Alex Lifeson Geddy Lee
Lyrics © Anthem Entertainment
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Light Up The Sky
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The Night We Met
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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"
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
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.
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.
I wrote a short paper on this song awhile back for one of my Theological classes. As a long-time Rush fan (since 1977 or '78 in my mid-teens), and having read my share of Neil's writings, band interviews, etc... thru the last three decades, I know that my interpretation is likely NOT anything like Neil would admit to.
That being said, let me say that in this song, which is one of my faves off this most excellent album, I hear a telling of the Second Coming of Christ.
What follows is NOT the paper I wrote (alas, it is on a long-dead computer...), but simply some of the ideas as they stood in my mind, in my remembrance...
ANGELS in Christian scriptures are often symbolized by CLOUDS.
"the dark and BROODING silence" (the lyrics above are WRONG) - the end times, when Jesus returns, are not necessarily a joyous time for the heart of God, because it not only involves meeting His loved ones - those who have accepted the grace of God - it ALSO involves the destruction of the wicked, which is, in Scripture, called His "strange work," and "strange act," a "consumption determined upon the whole earth." Isaiah 28:21-22
Consider: "For the day is near, the day of the LORD is near— a day of clouds, a time of doom for the nations." EZEKIEL 30:3; "In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven..." DANIEL 7:13; "a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. Like dawn spreading across the mountains a large and mighty army comes, such as never was of old nor ever will be in ages to come." JOEL 2:2; "That day will be a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness" ZEPHANIAH 1:15; "At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory." MATTHEW 24:30...
Also there are scriptures which speak of "silence in Heaven" for a certain time period, which may theologically be speaking of the time when the Lord returns...
3.) THE LIGHT OF DAY - Jesus... Obscured by the angels (CLOUDS) that are all around Him, until He should be revealed in all His glory...
"This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels." 2 THESSALONIANS 1:7
4.) TWILIGHT PREMATURE again speaks of the darkness that accompanies the Lord's return, both figuratively, and literally (the angels/CLOUDS being such a great host as to block out the light of the natural sun)
5.) THE REVEALING - "all at once, the clouds/ANGELS are parted, light streams down in bright unbroken beams" - it will indeed be a glorious event, awesome to behold (see 2 THESS. 1:7, quoted above)
6.) Follow men's eyes... I belong to a church that has a certain emphasis on eschatology (end time events), and having studied it quite a bit myself, all the verses that speaks of Him "coming with clouds" (you can search these things using biblegateway.com...), I often find myself looking up on cloudy days, and thinking, "Is it today, Lord?"
Yes, this is the fabric of my dreams...
Don't go off on me, as I said, I know this is NOT Neil's view on the meaning of the song. Simply one man's interpretation... As the header asks, "WHAT DOES THIS SONG MEAN TO YOU?"