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.
Hey mister a review
A word for salad
Is written by my friend
In penman
He uses long words
Like semiotics and semolina
But I countered
With Enigma
And metropolis
The lads go rampant
On insignificant symbolism
And compound this with
Rude soulless obliqueness
Everything's coming to a grinding halt
I use such long words
It's all clever stuff
All this charming childish
Fiddling about
Aims for the anti-image
But it naturally creates
The perfectly malleable image
Tantalizing enigma
Of The Cure
They try to take
Everything
But The Cure really
They're just trying to sell us something
Their product is more artificial than most
This is perhaps part of their
Masterplan
But it seems more like their naivity
Everything's coming to a grinding halt
Everything's coming to a grinding halt
Everything's coming to a grinding halt
Note how really songs are made of
Murk and marshes
Tawdry images
Inane realisations
Dull dull dull epigrams
Sometimes they sound like an
Avant-garde John Otway
Or an ugly spirit
Toy drumming
Sprightly bass
Limited guitar riff
Check the sheet out of my favorite book
People don't forget the penman
It's just that in 1979
People shouldn't be allowed
To get away with things like this
I say
A word for salad
Is written by my friend
In penman
He uses long words
Like semiotics and semolina
But I countered
With Enigma
And metropolis
The lads go rampant
On insignificant symbolism
And compound this with
Rude soulless obliqueness
Everything's coming to a grinding halt
I use such long words
It's all clever stuff
All this charming childish
Fiddling about
Aims for the anti-image
But it naturally creates
The perfectly malleable image
Tantalizing enigma
Of The Cure
They try to take
Everything
But The Cure really
They're just trying to sell us something
Their product is more artificial than most
This is perhaps part of their
Masterplan
But it seems more like their naivity
Everything's coming to a grinding halt
Everything's coming to a grinding halt
Everything's coming to a grinding halt
Note how really songs are made of
Murk and marshes
Tawdry images
Inane realisations
Dull dull dull epigrams
Sometimes they sound like an
Avant-garde John Otway
Or an ugly spirit
Toy drumming
Sprightly bass
Limited guitar riff
Check the sheet out of my favorite book
People don't forget the penman
It's just that in 1979
People shouldn't be allowed
To get away with things like this
I say
Lyrics submitted by saturnine
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For those of you who didn't know it, when the cure released their first album a journalist (Paul Morley) wrote a review that was pretty negative. Most of this song is lines from it... I love the way he say "It's just that in 1979 People shouldn't be allowed to get away with things like this, I say"
@curedoll Considering a lot of the things that people got away with in 1979, "Three Imaginary Boys" seems rather innocuous...
I laughed when I heard this song...it's so way cool :) The Cure are awesome. Of course Paul Morley is entitled to his own opinion, but really, his writing style is rather verbose. lol Here's a link to the original article that Morley wrote: A Cure For Cancer?
OH!!! sorry...apparantly links don't work here...
Here's the web page: picturesofyou.us/79/79nme.htm
picturesofyou.us/79/79-rr-grinding-nme.htm
Contains a link to another, earlier review, written by Paul Morley's friend, Ian Penman.
"Ian Penman" is a lyric of the song, not "In penman", as the lyrics on here say.
Paul Morley is a big tosser.
sorry, that was not insightful.
But it was true.
Ahaha!!! This had me rolling on the floor! They're so clever!!!