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.
The call to arms was never true
Time to imbibe here's to you
I'll tell you stories bruised and blue
Of drum machines and land slides
Just one more round before we're through
More psychedelic yuppie flu
Its such a silly thing to do
And now we're stuck on rewind
Let's follow the cops back home
Follow the cops back home
Lets follow the cops back home
And rob their houses
The call to arms was never true
Lets take a ride and push it through
Suspended animation glue
Blame it on apartheid
Lets spend the night in jimmy choose
I'll give you coats and cheap shampoo
I'll give you nothing else to do
And now we're stuck on rewind
Let's follow the cops back home
Follow the cops back home
Lets follow the cops back home
And rob their houses
The call to arms was never true
I'm medicated how are you?
Lets take a dive swim right through
Sophisticated points of view
Let's follow the cops back home
Follow the cops back home
Lets follow the cops back home
And rob their houses
Let's follow the cops back home
Follow the cops back home
Lets follow the cops back home
And rob their houses
Time to imbibe here's to you
I'll tell you stories bruised and blue
Of drum machines and land slides
Just one more round before we're through
More psychedelic yuppie flu
Its such a silly thing to do
And now we're stuck on rewind
Let's follow the cops back home
Follow the cops back home
Lets follow the cops back home
And rob their houses
The call to arms was never true
Lets take a ride and push it through
Suspended animation glue
Blame it on apartheid
Lets spend the night in jimmy choose
I'll give you coats and cheap shampoo
I'll give you nothing else to do
And now we're stuck on rewind
Let's follow the cops back home
Follow the cops back home
Lets follow the cops back home
And rob their houses
The call to arms was never true
I'm medicated how are you?
Lets take a dive swim right through
Sophisticated points of view
Let's follow the cops back home
Follow the cops back home
Lets follow the cops back home
And rob their houses
Let's follow the cops back home
Follow the cops back home
Lets follow the cops back home
And rob their houses
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There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
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This song is written as the perspective of the boys in the street, as a whole, and what path they are going to choose as they get older and grow into men. (This is why the music video takes place in an orphanage.) The seen, and unseen collective suffering is imbedded in the boys’ mind, consciously or subconsciously, and is haunting them. Which path will the boys choose? Issac Hayes is the voice of reason, maybe God, the angel on his shoulder, or the voice of his forefathers from beyond the grave who can see the big picture and are pleading with the boys not to continue the violence and pattern of killing their brothers, but to rise above. The most beautiful song and has so many levels. Racism towards African Americans in America would not exist if everyone sat down and listened to this song and understood the history behind the words. The power, fear, pleading in RZA and Ghostface voices are genuine and powerful. Issac Hayes’ strong voice makes the perfect strong father figure, who is possibly from beyond the grave.
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Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
Plastic Bag
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“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
I love that song. The lyrics are so powerful that they have the power to take you right to that bar where those two men are sitting.
Just listening to the first lines brought the images of Vietnam to mind. Or basically, of every war ever fought, that was justified on apartheid.
In the first verse, those two men meet in a bar and one tells the other about his time in the army. There was this 'call to arms' that was all lies. And now he's drinking trying to get over the stories that left him mentally (or even physically) bruised.
And he keeps talking - just another round until he's finished.
This man is depressed.
When you look at stories about worldview, this man is the perfect example for the subgenre: Worldview Disillusionment: "When a sympathetic protagonist, with developed will, positive motives, and wholehearted idealistic beliefs, experiences a loss or trial that forces them to realize the darker truth, they lose their faith entirely" (© Story Grid).
And he did.
Everything he believed in has turned out to be false. He's probably wasted a good part of his life ('Its such a silly thing to do') being ill with the 'psychedelic yuppie flu' - the illness leaders in his country might still have to order things that do not make sense.
And all he's left with are the memories of what he did and he lives in the past without being able to look into the future and see something positive again ('And now we're stuck on rewind'). The only thing he can think of is lashing out against authority figures, like the police and invade their homes as he once invaded another country.
The reference to 'Let's spend the night in Jimmy Choo's,' could refer to all the Vietnamese shops that you encounter everywhere in the world and who basically offer lots of different things. By saying 'I'll give you nothing else to do' he refers back to the time when he was in the army and how senseless it was. After all the world's still as it is.
And now he can only get through the day by taking meds, maybe PTSD.
And with everything he has experienced, he was supposed to reach a better understanding of the world 'Sophisticated points of view', but that's what made him disillusioned.
And now he's lost looking for something to do in this stupid world where he doesn't fit in because he knows the darker truth: 'War lacks meaning when leaders are corrupt and dishonor soldiers’ sacrifices on the battlefield.'