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.
Books on Emerson books on Thoreau
But all I read was maps of the road
And I was three thousand miles away from you
All the while I was twenty-two
What do you do to know who you are?
The best way for me to drop out on tour
You went to upstate NY (New York) to go to school
To secure the roll with your parents
I got a new perspective on you
All the good and bad that we went through
I know you better than you know you
Cause I got a new perspective on you
I never needed much, I never liked to loom
But a gesture can get me from across the room
The first night we talked until while the sun caught up
Transparent people melting all around us
You left in a plane, I left in a van
Played nightclub house-parties and auditoriums
Saw Germany England Italy with my band
I know you better than your new friends
I got a new perspective on you
All the good and bad that we went through
I know you better than you know you
Cause I got a new perspective on you
Ford Econdlane September '93
Driving ten hours until my eyes are blurry
Three packs of Winstons and a bag of seeds
Tapes of "x" and a thermos of coffee
Six weeks on and ten days off
Then I go back on the road for another show
This is all that I've ever done
Girl I got nothing to fall back on
"But I got a new perspective on you All the good and bad that we went through
I know you better than you know you 'Cause I got a new perspective on you"
But all I read was maps of the road
And I was three thousand miles away from you
All the while I was twenty-two
What do you do to know who you are?
The best way for me to drop out on tour
You went to upstate NY (New York) to go to school
To secure the roll with your parents
I got a new perspective on you
All the good and bad that we went through
I know you better than you know you
Cause I got a new perspective on you
I never needed much, I never liked to loom
But a gesture can get me from across the room
The first night we talked until while the sun caught up
Transparent people melting all around us
You left in a plane, I left in a van
Played nightclub house-parties and auditoriums
Saw Germany England Italy with my band
I know you better than your new friends
I got a new perspective on you
All the good and bad that we went through
I know you better than you know you
Cause I got a new perspective on you
Ford Econdlane September '93
Driving ten hours until my eyes are blurry
Three packs of Winstons and a bag of seeds
Tapes of "x" and a thermos of coffee
Six weeks on and ten days off
Then I go back on the road for another show
This is all that I've ever done
Girl I got nothing to fall back on
"But I got a new perspective on you All the good and bad that we went through
I know you better than you know you 'Cause I got a new perspective on you"
Lyrics submitted by MizunoPunk
Black Derby Jacket Lyrics as written by Timothy Armstrong
Lyrics © Wixen Music Publishing, BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Light Up The Sky
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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"
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.
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.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
LOVE this song. matt has gotta be my favorite singer in rancid.
I think this song is about a girl that um..LI think Lars, would have met, while on tour, and how they got split up because he had to keep working and she had to go back home...it's talking about how he didn't need much from her, he just needed her etc...and that he now ha sa new view about this girl, that perhaps he feels deeper about her...I dunno
This song has (sort of) the same meaning as Ruby Soho. It's a guy dating a girl (from high school?) and she goes off to college and he goes on tour.
The road is what keeps them apart.
This is the "sequel" to Ruby Soho. Matt elaborates on him and Kathy breaking up, She left California to go to school in NY, when Thye started touring with rancid.
I heard after hearing this song, Kathy got in tough with Matt again. Dunno what the relationship status is though if they are together again or not, It would kick ass if they did, this song is amazing. Definately in my top 5 favorite rancid songs.
I went to the 8/23 rancid show in Boston they played this and they dedicated it to the Dropkick Murphys and The Unseen, cause they are both from Massachusetts. Maybe they deicated that song cause they haven't seen them in a while and there good friends beats me.
"...the first night we talked until while the sun caught up transparent people melting all around us"
So heartbreakingly good. I hope everyone has the chance to someday be talking to someone, boy or girl, whatever, and feel such a strong connection that when they catch up with their friends or get caught back up with a crowd of folks that everyone else sort of fades out. It's the irrational feeling of being the only people there, because the only one that matters is who stands next to you.