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 ladies in my dream are so obliging.
They come on down to do the things I need.
Whether skies are calm or cut apart by lightning,
They're always there to minister to me.
And at break of dawn
They're sweetly shining,
And at quiet of midnight, cold and dim,
They say "don't harm him."
And when I wake
Just as their eyes are crying,
I see that bed
And I just want to climb back in.
But let's gather up your friends
And drive up to that country inn.
We can stay there, feeling water
Warmly wash across our skin,
Giving back all of our tears
So that we can cry them again.
You want to tell your dad you can't believe he's dying,
But let's just walk on down the hall and shut our mouths.
The AM radio is broken down and crying
As on this hour drive we're silent to ourselves.
Let's go back up to your house,
And take our clothes off,
And just push and pull ourselves
Until we're deep inside of sleep.
And with your body next to me,
Its sleepy sighing
Sounds like waves upon a sea
Too far to reach.
But I'll gather up my men
And try to sail on it again,
And we'll walk and quietly talk
All through the country of your skin,
Made up of pieces of the places
That you've dreamed
And that you've been.
We will sleep outside in tents
Upon this unfamiliar land,
And in the morning
We'll awake,
As a foreign dawning breaks,
My men and I
We will awake
Let's try again.
They come on down to do the things I need.
Whether skies are calm or cut apart by lightning,
They're always there to minister to me.
And at break of dawn
They're sweetly shining,
And at quiet of midnight, cold and dim,
They say "don't harm him."
And when I wake
Just as their eyes are crying,
I see that bed
And I just want to climb back in.
But let's gather up your friends
And drive up to that country inn.
We can stay there, feeling water
Warmly wash across our skin,
Giving back all of our tears
So that we can cry them again.
You want to tell your dad you can't believe he's dying,
But let's just walk on down the hall and shut our mouths.
The AM radio is broken down and crying
As on this hour drive we're silent to ourselves.
Let's go back up to your house,
And take our clothes off,
And just push and pull ourselves
Until we're deep inside of sleep.
And with your body next to me,
Its sleepy sighing
Sounds like waves upon a sea
Too far to reach.
But I'll gather up my men
And try to sail on it again,
And we'll walk and quietly talk
All through the country of your skin,
Made up of pieces of the places
That you've dreamed
And that you've been.
We will sleep outside in tents
Upon this unfamiliar land,
And in the morning
We'll awake,
As a foreign dawning breaks,
My men and I
We will awake
Let's try again.
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Try "Rapture," by Pedro the Lion
Not this whole song is about sex; it seems to be just his day in chronological order, begining with, and ending with, sleep.
as much as i enjoy the alluring deglorification of sex in this song, i don't think it is necessarily centered around sexual relations. the song is about the sobering contrast between dream and reality and the truth that there are many things in life that we are not prepared to deal with, such as a father's death or comprehending a new lover.
the song can be segmented into three portions. the first couple of verses describe the all-obliging women of the singer's dreams. they do what he needs them to do whenever he needs them to, no matter the fury of the skies. to me, because the women say 'don't harm him' before he awakes shows that they represent general fantasy more than what ladies otherwise would represent in a man's dreams.
the second portion of the song immediately jumps into the harshness of reality, a dying father. the silence of the characters is their inability to deal with actuality. they are so baffled as to what to do, they rely on sex to provide, which it does as a bridge to sleep. "waves upon a sea too far to reach," has two meanings to me: the unobtainable perfection of the dream-state and the gap of unknown that he perceives between himself and his lover.
in the third segment, the singer finally realizes that he needs to face reality and does so by resolving to explore the unfamiliar land that is his new lover. after waking up from a night of sweet dreaming, he insists on trying again.
I'm surprised this band has gone so unrecognized. I haven't spent time to think too much about the meaning, but I know that most of it seems to be talking about a sexual encounter and as such, it's pretty alluring to me. I have a slight obsession with songs sang poetically and pretty about sex. Someone help me make a mix.
Yeah, but the sleep involves sex, whether if it is his fantasies or waking up with a girl in his bed. It's more about the life style of looking for sex and knowing the tears it may bring, I think.
It's both. It's a man comforting his grieving lady, and getting poetic about sex. It's also in chronological order, it looks like. I hadn't noticed that before.
You're all right, but the last verse clearly is a man trying to get a girl to fuck him. He uses like, explorer and sailor, metaphors. SHE is the undiscovered country.
I interpret this last bit somewhat differently to you guys.
I feel it's about a jaded relationship - a possible precursor to BSB? - and he is using the explorative imagery as though he is trying to get through to her. He totally de-romanticises sex as he sings "push and pull ourselves until we're deep inside sleep".
"Your sleepy sighing sounds like waves upon a sea too far to reach"
I could be wrong, but this sounds to me like a weary and embittered man who has spent far too long trying to reach that sea, only ever getting so far. But he finally resolves to keep on trying.
I think the song is contrasting how glorious and happy sex is in the narrator's dreams with the complex, difficult realities of life that bleed into actual sex.
it's simply about a man who relies on women for a feeling of normalcy, and uses them for sex. Gorgeous imagery, especially "and just push and pull ourselves untill we're deep inside a sleep." That line is the most alluring of all the lines on the album.
He is clearly using these women, however, for inspite everything he loves about them and the sex he has with them, he always feels the urge to leave after he's used them.
And when I wake just as their eyes are crying, I see that bed and I just want to climb back in.
is the perfect example of this. The only thing stopping him from climbing back into the bed is himself and this need to flee. The last lines offer hope to the man's situation, because this time he decides to stay and "try again," either sexually or on some emotional level, but the very fact he decides to stay at all shows growth in his character throughout the song.
I think it's a song about the limits that we can know someone, and the barriers we erect to prevent from being known fully. In the first verse he dreams of a paradise where one-dimensional women are there just to satisfy his needs. This is contrasted with the real woman he loves, who has her own life, her own needs and sorrows. She has a dying father, but she struggles to reach out to him; the couple take consolation in sexual intimacy, but as she sleeps he realises that he only knows her superficially and will probably never know her truly (her dreams are a sea too far to reach). But he's not deterred, in the morning he'll make love to her again, he'll continue to explore her.