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.
I'm bored out my mind
Too sick to even care
I'll take a little walk
Nobody's going to know
I'm in senior year
It gives you a little free time
I'll just use it all at once!
Took the fence and the lane
The bus then the train
Bought an 'Independent' to make me look like I got brains
I made a story up in my head if anybody would ask
I'm going to a seminar!
I'm a genius
A prodigy
A demon at Maths and Science
I'm up for a prize
If you gotta grow up sometime
You've to do it on your own
I don't think I could stand to be stuck
That's the way that things were going
The bible's my tool
There's no mention of school!
My Damascan Road's my transistor radio
I tune in at night when my mum and my dad start to fight
I put on my headphones
And I tune out
I am devout
The girls are singing about my life
But they're not here, they've got the wild life
If you want to find out, find out
You got to look them in the eye
That's why my only choice
Is find the face behind the voice?.
She asked the man if the service was open
Not today, just the choir from the radio
Couldn't I sit in? I've come all this way
Will you bugger off, I've got work to do.
The city was losing its appeal
God was asleep
He was back in her village, in the fields
Oh, if I could make sense of it all!
I wish that I could sing
I'd stay in a melody
I would float along in my everlasting song
What would I do to believe?
Too sick to even care
I'll take a little walk
Nobody's going to know
I'm in senior year
It gives you a little free time
I'll just use it all at once!
Took the fence and the lane
The bus then the train
Bought an 'Independent' to make me look like I got brains
I made a story up in my head if anybody would ask
I'm going to a seminar!
I'm a genius
A prodigy
A demon at Maths and Science
I'm up for a prize
If you gotta grow up sometime
You've to do it on your own
I don't think I could stand to be stuck
That's the way that things were going
The bible's my tool
There's no mention of school!
My Damascan Road's my transistor radio
I tune in at night when my mum and my dad start to fight
I put on my headphones
And I tune out
I am devout
The girls are singing about my life
But they're not here, they've got the wild life
If you want to find out, find out
You got to look them in the eye
That's why my only choice
Is find the face behind the voice?.
She asked the man if the service was open
Not today, just the choir from the radio
Couldn't I sit in? I've come all this way
Will you bugger off, I've got work to do.
The city was losing its appeal
God was asleep
He was back in her village, in the fields
Oh, if I could make sense of it all!
I wish that I could sing
I'd stay in a melody
I would float along in my everlasting song
What would I do to believe?
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I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
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Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
I thought this song was about the kind of malaise and restlessness you get from having a load of problems pile up, like in Act of the Apostle I where the girl's mother is sick and she's losing focus. In this song, the singer's a "genius" and a "prodigy", but he doesn't seem to care about those things. He's lost his sense of sureness and security about life: like in the lines "The city was losing its appeal" and "Oh, if I could make sense of it all!" and he's trying to rediscover what made him tick by getting into outside things like an 'Independent' and the bible. But at the same time, the singer realizes that the only way to regain that security and sense of "I've-got-everything-figured-out" is to look inside himself. The "God" he's searching for is in his past; "back in her village, in the fields." Btw, I think that the singer in the first part of the song and the girl in the second part are the same person, in that they have the same feelings and problems.
... Wow, that's really long and rambling. But hell, I'm the first commenter. ...Sometimes I feel like I relate to this song so completely. :) Belle and Sebastian, simply put, are amazing.