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.
Are you listening?
We write a thousand pages
They're torn and on the floor
Headlights hammer the windows
We're locked behind these doors
And we are never leaving
This place is part of us
And all these scenes repeating
Are cold to the touch
My hands seem to deceive me
When I'm nervous or when I'm healthy
The scenery's all drawn.
They hang here from the walls dear
Painting pictures, bleeding colors
Blanket the windows
Sometimes it gets so hard to breathe
Your eyes see right through me
These fights with your arms left beside
One thing and one more says goodnight
You've got the map come get to me
These knuckles break before they bleed
Tear out these veins that own my heart
This skin that wears your lasting marks
I've built these walls come get to me, come get to me
Is this your lesson, a slight discretion
The lines that keep you, the lines that sweep you
Lock the doors from inside
Your face is so contagious, it wears announcements
It leaves me breathless, I won't forget this, I won't forget
Let the walls have their say
This time the walls will have their say
No conversation, without remorse
And this television drowns the only source
Wake from these dreams of you in my arms
To the staircase where you hold my heart
This place, these walls mean everything to me
We write a thousand pages
They're torn and on the floor
Headlights hammer the windows
We're locked behind these doors
And we are never leaving
This place is part of us
And all these scenes repeating
Are cold to the touch
My hands seem to deceive me
When I'm nervous or when I'm healthy
The scenery's all drawn.
They hang here from the walls dear
Painting pictures, bleeding colors
Blanket the windows
Sometimes it gets so hard to breathe
Your eyes see right through me
These fights with your arms left beside
One thing and one more says goodnight
You've got the map come get to me
These knuckles break before they bleed
Tear out these veins that own my heart
This skin that wears your lasting marks
I've built these walls come get to me, come get to me
Is this your lesson, a slight discretion
The lines that keep you, the lines that sweep you
Lock the doors from inside
Your face is so contagious, it wears announcements
It leaves me breathless, I won't forget this, I won't forget
Let the walls have their say
This time the walls will have their say
No conversation, without remorse
And this television drowns the only source
Wake from these dreams of you in my arms
To the staircase where you hold my heart
This place, these walls mean everything to me
Lyrics submitted by all_is_vanity, edited by jayzuscrust
Walls Lyrics as written by Sam Eyes Yasmin Green
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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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"
Dreamwalker
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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.
No Surprises
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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.
Punchline
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Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
I love the beginning of this song.
"Your face is so contagious, it wears announcements, it leaves me breathless, I won't forget this." <3this line
On this one there aren't even the screaming part in the beginning
Are you listening? We write a thousand pages They're torn and on the floor Headlights hammer the windows We're locked behind these doors And we are are never leaving This place is part of us And all these scenes repeating Are cold to the touch
I think this song is more vain, more personal. The beginning maps out a crime scene where the criminals take defense inside a building as their opponents wait outside. The only form of communication between the two is via written letters. It's notable that writting letters is physically non-violent. The crime scene is revealed as a metaphor in the second "stanza". The actual situation is one of the narrator and a significant other. The narrator takes harsh verbal abuse and the "walls" are a type of emotional defense that he has taken up. The point that stands is that the narrator didn't just build these walls to keep himself from the verbal abuse; the walls are like boudries that keep his relationship with this other person non-violent, such as the criminals are not physically violent in writing the letters. But it is also very important to know that these words are detramental and have much influence over the narrator. This is shown by the wripping of the pages and the breaking nuckles. So, the narrator is so effected by this influence that he hurts himself in fits of anger. As he "locks the doors from the inside" he locks himself in a place where he physically hurts himself..... To sum up that part: a guys "girlfriend" (or friend or whoever) yells at him (or hurts him in some non-violent way) and instead of reacting to his friend he gets angry and takes it out on himself. (It's kinda like when you get so mad that you punch walls or some other inanimate object.) The last paragraph basically identifies the fact that there is hope and the narrator does feel very connected to this person that causes him pain. He dreams of the day when things will be better, but at the same time he respects his situation: "this place, these walls, mean everything to me."
This song is so amazing. The first time I heard it, I fell in love with it. The band is full of really nice guys who deserve nothing but the best. I couldn't make it to one of their shows and they wrote me a note saying that they missed having me there. They are awesome!
this was the first emery song i heard and it turned me into a fan. i had read earlier that day that the used didn't want to make another screamo record. i was so sad. than i d/l this song and wala. i got what i wanted.
who ever put in the lyrics forgot the best part of the song. The screaming in the beginning and those lyrics are amazing. This band is awesome
^^ yeah i was looking for the beginning as well
hmmm.. i thought the whole point of the site is figuring out what the song means. hint the name.
yeah but its ok if you just wanna post comments. I mean, it does say: Add you comments and not add your meaning.
Such a twat.
This song kicks soooo much ass...I love the whole cd....When they play this song live its so crazy in the pit..ahh I love it....the whole band is so nice too, we talked to them after the show at soundwaves last tuesday on 4-20 and they're soooo kick ass