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.
High up above the crowd
The great Valerio is walking
The rope seems hung from cloud to cloud
And time stands still while he is walking
His eye is steady on the target
His foot is sure upon the rope
Alone and peaceful as a mountain
And certain as the mountain slope
We falter at the sight
We stumble in the mire
Fools who think they see the light
Prepare to balance on the wire
But we learn to watch together,
And feed on what we see above
'Til our hearts turn like the seasons
And we are acrobats of love
How we wonder, how we wonder
Watching far below
We would all be that great hero
The great Valerio
Come all you upstart jugglers
Are you really ready yet?
Who will help the tightrope walker
When he tumbles to the net
So come with me to see Valerio
As he dances through the air
I'm your friend until you use me
And then be sure I won't be there
How we wonder, how we wonder
Watching far below
We would all be that great hero
The great Valerio
The great Valerio is walking
The rope seems hung from cloud to cloud
And time stands still while he is walking
His eye is steady on the target
His foot is sure upon the rope
Alone and peaceful as a mountain
And certain as the mountain slope
We falter at the sight
We stumble in the mire
Fools who think they see the light
Prepare to balance on the wire
But we learn to watch together,
And feed on what we see above
'Til our hearts turn like the seasons
And we are acrobats of love
How we wonder, how we wonder
Watching far below
We would all be that great hero
The great Valerio
Come all you upstart jugglers
Are you really ready yet?
Who will help the tightrope walker
When he tumbles to the net
So come with me to see Valerio
As he dances through the air
I'm your friend until you use me
And then be sure I won't be there
How we wonder, how we wonder
Watching far below
We would all be that great hero
The great Valerio
Lyrics submitted by planetearth
The Great Valerio Lyrics as written by Richard John (gb1) Thompson
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Like so many Thompson songs, this one has multiple levels of interpretation.
Historically, it would be about the famous 19th century tightrope walker, Blondin, who repeatedly walked across a rope from the states to Canada . . . Thompson confirmed this in a pdf book with the same title you can find a link to on his Wikipedia page
After that, it's a lot more open to guessing, but here's my (current) verse by verse:
1 - A picture of the ideal enlightened psyche, the "great hero" inside, who cannot make a poor decision and is able to look directly at the suffering and emptiness of life without losing any composure, already in the ideal heaven/nirvana he is travelling towards. What we all wish our lives could be. Superman. See Nietzche, thus spake Zarathustra: "Man is a tightrope between superman and the abyss". And, yes, the path to enlightenment is perilous for all but the master to tread, Valerio being the master.
2- Us, afraid to tread the path or else "fools", who believe they know the way to perfection but run the very real risk of falling from the state of perfect grace they extol, whether they actually see the light or not. The rest of us seek a semblance of grace by following an ideal to the best of our ability, without actually balancing on a cross or a wire or a master's path . . . usually through human love, as our "hearts turn like the seasons". Yet, it is beautiful even to seek, and those who "learn to watch" become "acrobats of love".
Chorus- As above. Valerio as (nearly?) unreachable human ideal.
3- Beware, fools! Do not proclaim your answer so quickly, or trust in your own infallibility, for Valerio you are not. None can save you when you fail, except perhaps the "net" which may or may not be divine grace. Yet those perfect beings (Jesus, Buddha, etc.) are there for a reason, beautiful to contemplate . . . an invitation to all humanity.
The last two lines are the tricky part - "I'm your friend until you use me and then be sure I won't be there" My guess is the speaker switches to God/Valerio, who wants humanity to rely on themselves and will not intervene to save us from our own mistakes just because we say a few prayers. A warning to pious fools.
This song was before Richard's conversion to Sufism.