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.
Borneo
I was so bored with my old life
I was so bored with decent odds
My new roommate left her debit card
Some sort of test for me. It's too hard
Try to run an errand. Nervous sweat
I rush back home and if I win I'll give her half
I bet
Online casino in the caymans
Legal disclaimer writ for layman's
I moved back into new canaan
Babysit my sister's kids; its rainin'
They fuss a bit while I put them to bed
And grumpy, sitting on the couch, I get it in my head
Take metro north. A silver candlestick
To aquaduct on lirr. Pick
I was so bored with my new life
I felt like I knew all the odds
I bet 'gainst myself I wouldn't wager
My boyfriend's mother's mansion (nothing major)
I stole the deed one night when she was drunk
I drove onto the reservation with it in my trunk
Sensors beep the threshold when I crossed it
Thirty thousand marker soon I lost it
Baltimore inner harbor (sports) zone
Being courted. He's talking on his cell phone
"let me tell you why I think I love her
She knows you always take the bye week dome home team to cover."
Go up to pimlico and I choose
It's no fun if it's fine when you lose
I was so tired with all the angles
I was so bored with losin' easy
So I gambled on going further a-field
So I flew to sydney and then to bali and then to jakarta
And called on my step-father's ex-business partner
Major timmy sastrosatomo
And he set me up as a silver smith/batik dabber
In a house once owned by the princes of mataran.
And he told me all his troubles
We bribed a cfo at semen cibinong
To get them to buy a 40% stake
And we got a 5 million dollar order from nieman marcus,
Which we filled about 10%
But I did sell them my children's book
Which I said was a south sumatran
Folk tale--which went like this:
I played cards for seven days straight,
Was up $47 dollars late
Evening as the sun went down I saw
The ace of diamonds up his sleeve--black velvet on his paw.
I fold, say goodbye politely.
They bark, you don't get off that lightly
I dreamed of a casino way up in the hills of borneo
Where I lost with the giant flying squirrels and orangutans and great
Morman butterflies all day long.
'Til the bulldozers turned us into whole fruit fruit bar sticks and
China markers
I was so bored with my old life
I was so bored with decent odds
My new roommate left her debit card
Some sort of test for me. It's too hard
Try to run an errand. Nervous sweat
I rush back home and if I win I'll give her half
I bet
Online casino in the caymans
Legal disclaimer writ for layman's
I moved back into new canaan
Babysit my sister's kids; its rainin'
They fuss a bit while I put them to bed
And grumpy, sitting on the couch, I get it in my head
Take metro north. A silver candlestick
To aquaduct on lirr. Pick
I was so bored with my new life
I felt like I knew all the odds
I bet 'gainst myself I wouldn't wager
My boyfriend's mother's mansion (nothing major)
I stole the deed one night when she was drunk
I drove onto the reservation with it in my trunk
Sensors beep the threshold when I crossed it
Thirty thousand marker soon I lost it
Baltimore inner harbor (sports) zone
Being courted. He's talking on his cell phone
"let me tell you why I think I love her
She knows you always take the bye week dome home team to cover."
Go up to pimlico and I choose
It's no fun if it's fine when you lose
I was so tired with all the angles
I was so bored with losin' easy
So I gambled on going further a-field
So I flew to sydney and then to bali and then to jakarta
And called on my step-father's ex-business partner
Major timmy sastrosatomo
And he set me up as a silver smith/batik dabber
In a house once owned by the princes of mataran.
And he told me all his troubles
We bribed a cfo at semen cibinong
To get them to buy a 40% stake
And we got a 5 million dollar order from nieman marcus,
Which we filled about 10%
But I did sell them my children's book
Which I said was a south sumatran
Folk tale--which went like this:
I played cards for seven days straight,
Was up $47 dollars late
Evening as the sun went down I saw
The ace of diamonds up his sleeve--black velvet on his paw.
I fold, say goodbye politely.
They bark, you don't get off that lightly
I dreamed of a casino way up in the hills of borneo
Where I lost with the giant flying squirrels and orangutans and great
Morman butterflies all day long.
'Til the bulldozers turned us into whole fruit fruit bar sticks and
China markers
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
Light Up The Sky
Van Halen
Van Halen
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
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"
Mental Istid
Ebba Grön
Ebba Grön
This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
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.
So imaginative. Where do they get all this shit? And what's a china marker?
Stroaters, you basically stole EXACTLY what I was going to say.
Really, where the hell do they get these ideas from?! And china marker? Eh?
I love em.