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.
Sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet, bulbs grow in my latest garden
Warm, warm, warm, warm, warm sun-fingers wave
In my latest garden
Flowers dance, their faces brave
Come talk freely in the garden of my lady
Her hominy smile, her hominy snatch
Only a crow would peck and a chicken would scratch
Her lips turned up to kiss
I see ya, Phoebe, baby, in your bonnet
With the sunset written on it
In the shadow of a tree curled around her knee in color
And just behind ya was the sea of negativity
Tinklin' like mercury in the wind
Her feet kept by the ground, her toes bare brown
Her carriage, she'd abandoned like a hand-me-down
She walked back into nature, a queen uncrowned
She had just recognized herself to be an heir to the throne
Her garden gate swings lightly without weight
Open to most anyone that needs a little freedom
For God's sake
Oh, come as many as you can
In dark or light you're free to grow as flowers
Share her throne and use her toothbrush and spend some interesting hours
Warm, warm, warm, warm, warm sun-fingers wave
In my latest garden
Flowers dance, their faces brave
Come talk freely in the garden of my lady
Her hominy smile, her hominy snatch
Only a crow would peck and a chicken would scratch
Her lips turned up to kiss
I see ya, Phoebe, baby, in your bonnet
With the sunset written on it
In the shadow of a tree curled around her knee in color
And just behind ya was the sea of negativity
Tinklin' like mercury in the wind
Her feet kept by the ground, her toes bare brown
Her carriage, she'd abandoned like a hand-me-down
She walked back into nature, a queen uncrowned
She had just recognized herself to be an heir to the throne
Her garden gate swings lightly without weight
Open to most anyone that needs a little freedom
For God's sake
Oh, come as many as you can
In dark or light you're free to grow as flowers
Share her throne and use her toothbrush and spend some interesting hours
Lyrics submitted by DonCaballero
Sweet Sweet Bulbs Lyrics as written by Don Van Vliet
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
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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"
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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This song seemingly tackles the methods of deception those who manipulate others use to get victims to follow their demands, as well as diverting attention away from important issues. They'll also use it as a means to convince people to hate or kill others by pretending acts of terrorism were committed by the enemy when the acts themselves were done by the masters of control to promote discrimination and hate. It also reinforces the idea that these manipulative forces operate in various locations, infiltrating everyday life without detection, and propagate any and everywhere.
In general, it highlights the danger of hidden agendas, manipulation, and distraction, serving as a critique of those who exploit chaos and confusion to control and gain power, depicting a cautionary tale against falling into their traps. It encourages us to question the narratives presented to us and remain vigilant against manipulation in various parts of society.
I posted by accident before I was done writing.. somehow twice. Here's a few things I wanted to add.
A phoebe is a bird common to California and the wider US. “… only a crow would peck/ and a chicken would scratch/ her lips turned up to kiss/ I see ya Phoebe baby in your bonnet/ with the sunset written on it/ in the shadow of a tree.” Phoebe is contrasted with the pecking crow and the scratching chicken, perhaps with her “ lips turned up to kiss.” The sunset colored Says phoebe might have been particularly familiar for van Vliet: they are prevalent in the arid southwestern U.S., where van Vliet spent much of his life, and also are found seasonally in California. Also a phoebe baby bonnet is a popular type of bonnet that babies wear.
“I see ya Phoebe baby in your bonnet/ with the sunset written on it” is a striking and affective line A powerful way to introduce the darkness and drama which obsesses this part of the song. The first three verses are free from any hint of darkness or trouble. But the six consecutive lines that follow introduce and focus solely on looming darkness and negativity, an almost predatory, serpentine force, which endangers the sweet and innocent Phoebe baby. There are easy parallels to draw here to the garden of Eden: so far the song describes only a garden paradise, until the sudden introduction of “in the shadow of a tree/ curled around her knee in color/ just behind ya was a sea of negativity.”
Mercury is really toxic. It's also used for fuel in fluorescent light bulbs. Fluorescent lightbulbs are an antithesis to sweet, sweet bulbs, and everything else that is garden-like and decent about life.
“Lips turned up to kiss” also makes sense as the garden’s lips, turned up to kiss. This means that Phoebe is introduced more dramatically, in a place of uncertainty and endangered, totally passive. Not yet a “queen uncrowned.”
Phoebe’s bonnet is suggestive of a baby bonnet. The sunset written on it symbolizes mortality, foreshadowing, creating conflict, drama. Every image prior has only suggested fertility, germination and growth. Phoebe under the shadow of the tree is reminiscent of Eve, beneath the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Like Eve, she's presented with, or confronted by, evil (in the shadow of the tree “wrapped” serpent-like around her knee) and she must make a choice. Unlike Eve, though, who’s fate was exile from the garden, Phoebe's is a return, triumphant, back to the garden. Nature’s queen uncrowned. The “gate swings lightly without weight;/ open to most any one that needs a little freedom,/ for God’s sake, come/ as many as you can.” Eve's hand-me-down to humanity was more or less shame and sin for all eternity. Phoebe's a beacon and a queen of freedom. Phoebe Baby is more ore less anti-Eve.