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.
Some will strut and some will fret
See this an hour on the stage
Others will not but they'll sweat
In their hopelessness and their rage
We're all the same the men of anger
And women of the page
They published your diary
And that's how I got to know you
The key to the room of your own and a mind without end
And here's a young girl
On a kind of a telephone line through time
And the voice at the other end comes like a long lost friend
So I know I'm all right
Life will come and life will go
Still I feel it's all right
Cause I just got a letter to my soul
And when my whole life is on the tip of my tongue
Empty pages for the no longer young
The apathy of time laughs in my face
You say "each life has its place"
The hatches were battened
The thunderclouds rolled and the critics stormed
The battle surrounded the white flag of your youth
If you need to know that you weathered the storm
Of cruel mortality
A hundred years later I'm sitting here living proof
So you know you're all right
(All right)
Life will come and life will go
(Life will come and go)
Still you'll feel it's all right
(All right)
Someone'll get a letter to your soul
(Someone gets your soul)
When your whole life is on the tip of your tongue
Empty pages for the no longer young
The apathy of time laughed in your face
Did you hear me say "each life has its place"
The place where you hold me
Dark in a pocket of truth
The moon had swallowed the sun and the light of the earth
And so it was for you
When the river eclipsed your life
And sent your soul like a message in a bottle to me
And it was my rebirth
So we know we're all right
(All right)
Though life will come and life will go
(Though life will come and life will go)
Still you'll feel it's all right
(All right)
Someone'll will get a letter to your soul
(Someone gets your soul)
Then you know you're all right
(When my whole life is on the tip of my tongue)
Then you feel you're all right
(Empty pages for the no longer young)
And your hear dry you eyes
(You said)
And you know it's all right
(Each life has it's place)
And your hear dry your eyes
(You said)
And you know it's all right
(Each life has it's place)
And it's all right
(It'll be all right)
See this an hour on the stage
Others will not but they'll sweat
In their hopelessness and their rage
We're all the same the men of anger
And women of the page
They published your diary
And that's how I got to know you
The key to the room of your own and a mind without end
And here's a young girl
On a kind of a telephone line through time
And the voice at the other end comes like a long lost friend
So I know I'm all right
Life will come and life will go
Still I feel it's all right
Cause I just got a letter to my soul
And when my whole life is on the tip of my tongue
Empty pages for the no longer young
The apathy of time laughs in my face
You say "each life has its place"
The hatches were battened
The thunderclouds rolled and the critics stormed
The battle surrounded the white flag of your youth
If you need to know that you weathered the storm
Of cruel mortality
A hundred years later I'm sitting here living proof
So you know you're all right
(All right)
Life will come and life will go
(Life will come and go)
Still you'll feel it's all right
(All right)
Someone'll get a letter to your soul
(Someone gets your soul)
When your whole life is on the tip of your tongue
Empty pages for the no longer young
The apathy of time laughed in your face
Did you hear me say "each life has its place"
The place where you hold me
Dark in a pocket of truth
The moon had swallowed the sun and the light of the earth
And so it was for you
When the river eclipsed your life
And sent your soul like a message in a bottle to me
And it was my rebirth
So we know we're all right
(All right)
Though life will come and life will go
(Though life will come and life will go)
Still you'll feel it's all right
(All right)
Someone'll will get a letter to your soul
(Someone gets your soul)
Then you know you're all right
(When my whole life is on the tip of my tongue)
Then you feel you're all right
(Empty pages for the no longer young)
And your hear dry you eyes
(You said)
And you know it's all right
(Each life has it's place)
And your hear dry your eyes
(You said)
And you know it's all right
(Each life has it's place)
And it's all right
(It'll be all right)
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"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"
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This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
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Head > Heels
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Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
well, this song is about how Virginia Woolf inspired Emily Saliers (the songwriter)...and, ironically, now Emily has inspired us (well, I, for one, am inspired...this song has touched me more deeply than anything else I've listened to in the last couple of years)...this song is both deeply emotional and deeply philosophical
a lot of the song speaks directly about Virginia's life, for instance:
the men of anger (Virginia was sexually abused by her step-brother) and the women of the page (...and, of course, she was a writer)
key to the room of your own (more or less a direct quote from Virginia)
the moon swallowed the sun (Virginia witnessed and wrote about the solar eclipse of, I think it was, 1926?)
the river eclipsed your life (Virginia was mentally ill, and ultimately drowned herself by putting heavy rocks in her pockets and jumping in a river)
anyway, I think the main theme is that, if you can inspire people, or even just one person, even after you've died, you have essentially achieved immortality (as Emily puts it, "weathered the storm of cruel mortality")
and on a more simple level, I think this song is a thank you to Virginia for her inspiration